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2022 tOSU Defense

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Ohio State football: Jim Knowles faces adjustment to Big Ten from Oklahoma State, Joey Galloway says

Following a tough season defensively for Ohio State, coach Ryan Day brought in Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State as the Buckeyes' new defensive coordinator and made it clear last month at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis that he expects far better play on that side of the ball — specifically, a top-10 unit. On Tuesday, Knowles said at Ohio State media availability that he wishes Day "would've said top five, because that's what we expect." Joey Galloway, a former star wide receiver for the Buckeyes, pushed back a bit on that sentiment during ESPN's "College Football Live" on Tuesday, saying Knowles will face an adjustment going from the Big 12 to the Big Ten.

"Jim Knowles was very good in the Big 12, but defense in the Big Ten is a lot different," Galloway said. "The schemes, the looks, the things you have to shut down in the Big 12 are different than in the Big Ten, because it’s more physical, it’s more run-oriented for most of the teams. I know coach Jim Knowles, a cagy veteran, is extremely excited that Ryan Day said top 10, because now he can use that to motivate this defense.

"That’s the way these old coaches work. They look for this kind of stuff you can put your bulletin board in your defensive meeting room. ‘Coach said he’s looking for top 10, but we’re better than that. We’re going to be top five.’ Ryan Day being an offensive coach, you take that to the practice field and you say, ‘We’re going to shut down Ryan Day’s offense. Obviously, we know how talented they are. He disrespected us by saying top 10. Let’s go out there and show him we can be top five.’”

Ohio State seemingly improved its defensive personnel this offseason, bringing in former Oklahoma State defensive back Tanner McAllister and former Arizona State linebacker DeaMonte Trayanum out of the NCAA Transfer Portal. In addition, the Buckeyes return a lot of talent up front and also signed a pair of five-star prospects on defense: linebacker C.J. Hicks and safety Sonny Styles, both in-state products.

Entire article: https://247sports.com/college/ohio-...eZZqGWu7NwzEcgjuSsQIutYPPYmiSG10hvtdHnVxobPX4
 
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"Silver Bullets" is one of the more kickass monikers in college football.

This, of course, wasn't sustainable. Jim Tressel's defenses were always somewhere between "very good" and "fire hose except instead of water it shoots razor blades at you", but college football never stops evolving. By the end of his tenure, relatively great defenses like those helmed by the likes of Mark Dantonio and Jim Heacock were still effective at helping to win a lot of games, but simply weren't enough to carry a moribund offense to more championships.

Urban Meyer immediately revamped the Buckeye offense to great effect, but then eventually the Silver Bullets faded into myth and legend somewhere in the bottom of the Anduin River (until Jeff "Bombadil" Hafley found it and then threw it away after a season). Like Tressel, Meyer had lost the plot over a critical segment of his team, which seems like it should've been foreshadowing for similar failures in other areas that we all could've picked up on but didn't.

Both coaches won national titles, but I think that there's a general feeling that had they been able to put together the two sides of the equation, Columbus could be the beneficiary of the same kind of dynasty they've got in Tuscaloosa.

MAYBE NOW OHIO STATE HAS THAT.

“We talk about having a Silver Bullet defense to mirror the traditions that have been around here, I tell the guys that means top five. That's what we're pressing for. But nothing really goes through my mind other than it's great to be at the Ohio State because the expectations are high. And that's what I've always wanted.”

Me too, Jim! But as it turns out, fielding a top five defense is really, really difficult.
 
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I think that a lot of Ohio State fans would be surprised to know that the Buckeyes finished third in the Big Ten last season in terms of sacks. Now that doesn’t sound too bad, but with just 36 sacks, that breaks down to 2.77 per game over their 13-game season, putting them at 34th nationally; which is aggressively fine.

Additionally, Pro Football Focus had OSU as the 23rd best-rated defense in the country last season when it came to pressure; again, that’s fine, but a very nebulous number and rating.

Both rankings are respectable-ish, but it just never felt as though the Buckeyes were a serious threat to cause chaos in an opposing backfield last year. Sure, they would blow up a play here or there, but gone was the feeling that OSU’s edge rushers could bend an offense to their will on any snap.

Again, their Big Ten and national rankings were fine, but they were a far cry from where the Buckeyes were just a few years ago when they led the country in sacks (54) and pressure rating in 2019. Of course, that was the season that Chase Young absolutely obliterated every offensive line that dared stand between him and a quarterback, but even acknoeldging that you won’t have a Chase Young every season (although at a place like Ohio State, you absolutely should), the fall off has been rather precipitous, and it has shown not only in Ohio State’s sack totals, but also in how the rest of their defense has performed.

The line sets the tone for how all of the defenders play behind it, and without the front four getting legitimate pressure on opposing quarterbacks, the weaknesses at the linebacking and secondary levels were exploited; and we all know how a sub-optimal defense essentially ended OSU’s national championship hopes last year (and basically in three of the last four seasons).

So, while improving on the underwhelming LB and DB performances of recent years should be jobs No. 1 and 2 for new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, defensive line coach Larry Johnson needs to figure out how to get the most out of an extremely talented group up front if the Buckeyes want to make the most of their unbelievably explosive offense this fall.
 
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Back in the 2001 Spring Game everyone was terrified that we weren't going to be good enough in 2002 because the Defense destroyed us. Clarrett was getting maybe 3 or4 ypc and the rest of the Offense maybe 1 or 2 and we passed pathetically against our own Defense 1's vs 1's. In the Fall it was a lot more of the same with a slightly better passing game with Gamble helping on the Offensive side on occasion. We all know how good that Defense was and how the season ended up.

Fast-forward to this Spring game and this past scrimmage. Offense is a phenomenal unit last season and into the spring with the Defense starting to flash a little. This past Saturday the Defense is a whole other animal with everyone on campus and practicing. We know how good the Offense is and is going to be but what if this Defense turns out to be the real juggernaut? What-if the hand wringing is much like that 2002 squad until Saturdays when they are playing inferior Offenses to what they see everyday. Dare we have the same outlook for the end of the season? History does have a habit of repeating itself doesn't it.
 
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Bestbuck36 said:
Back in the 2001 Spring Game everyone was terrified that we weren't going to be good enough in 2002 because the Defense destroyed us. Clarrett was getting maybe 3 or4 ypc and the rest of the Offense maybe 1 or 2 and we passed pathetically against our own Defense 1's vs 1's. In the Fall is was a lot more of the same with a slightly better passing game with Gamble helping on the Offensive side on occasion. We all know how good that Defense was and how the season ended up.

Fast-forward to this Spring game and this past scrimmage. Offense is a phenomenal unit last season and into the spring with the Defense starting to flash a little. This past Saturday the Defense is a whole other animal with everyone on campus and practicing. We know how good the Offense is and is going to be but what if this Defense turns out to be the real juggernaut? What-if the hand wringing is much like that 2002 squad until Saturdays when they are playing inferior Offenses to what they see everyday. Dare we have the same outlook for the end of the season? History does have a habit of repeating itself doesn't it.
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I see it the same way
I think this might very well be the best team in NCAA history

seriously

but…

My main area of concern is the offensive line. Oh I think they’ll be good enough for the offense to be phenomenal (again). My concern is that everything that we’re hearing about the defense might be fools gold. Essentially this is just the other side of the coin that you presented; on one hand, this offense might be historically great and the defense they see in practice is the only one that will challenge them all year, on the other hand, the new OL is not what we hope it is and therefore everything we believe about the defense is false hope.

19 days

tick… tick… tick…
 
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Exactly how deep will the rotation be once the Buckeyes take the field to start the season? Johnson said it will reach well over double-digits.

“If I'm lucky, I can play 12. If I'm lucky,” Johnson said Tuesday. “Normally we play anywhere between 10 to 11. But you know, we could get to 12 to play for us. … so we got a chance. And it depends how the game plays and what we're playing, what packs we're playing – all that stuff plays a role in what we're doing.”

“IN EVERY GROUP YOU GOT TO HAVE AN ALPHA DOG, RIGHT? IN EVERY GROUP. SO WE GOTTA HAVE THAT ONE GUY COMMITTED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT. SO I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT. I THINK WE HAVE THAT GUY.”– LARRY JOHNSON

OK, who is the alpha dog?
 
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Despite facing off against the best offense in the country every single day in practice, the rave reviews have already begun rolling in about his immediate impact on the Ohio State football program.

“I just think you feel a very early confident defensive bunch," offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said after the team's first preseason scrimmage. "Long way to go, I'm sure Coach (Knowles) would tell you that. But man, out there, it's a dadgum fistfight.”

Such comments are a long way from what fans of the scarlet and gray grew accustomed to seeing over the past two seasons, as the unit led by Wilson and head coach Ryan Day seemed to carry the entire program.

“I think that our defense is presenting a lot of good challenges,” senior fullback/tight end Mitch Rossi said after the scrimmage. “They're very multiple, they disguise things well, and I think that it's really good work for us. I think that we're used to kind of getting after them, and it's good for us to have that competition up, for sure.”

How, then, has Knowles seemingly transformed a unit that welcomed just one newcomer, former Oklahoma State transfer nickelback Tanner McCalister, into a group capable of slowing down an offense with a trio of Heisman candidates in mere weeks? The answer lies in the second half of Rossi's comment, as Knowles has taken a defense previously built around one, core schematic concept and added a variety of concepts that make it harder for offenses to identify and scheme against.

Jeff Hafley became a household name in Ohio by taking a similarly underperforming defense that happened to possess a trio of NFL-ready defensive backs and perhaps the nation's best player that season in Chase Young, and putting them into positions that allowed their superior talent to shine through. Hafley effectively dared opponents to beat his defense by creating an umbrella in the secondary while Young created havoc in opposing backfields with a straightforward, single-high safety scheme on virtually every snap, mimicking the Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom from nearly a decade ago.

But just as Pete Carroll was forced to abandon that philosophy due to the quickly changing demands of the modern game, Knowles was brought in to update the Buckeyes' approach. Though the play-calls may look vastly different, both systems look to provide the majority of the players with straightforward responsibilities that don't vary much from snap to snap, giving them the confidence to play fast and without hesitation.

Under the previous regime, it was often the linebackers who were forced to deal with complexity, as opposing teams attacked the area just beyond the line of scrimmage via RPOs that put them in conflict. Knowing the defense would ask a second-level player to defend the same area on virtually every snap, offenses simply made them wrong by forcing them to be in two places at once while a free safety stood 30 yards from the ball in center field.

With Knowles in charge, no such confusion remains for those linebackers. While they don't simply fill the same gap on every snap, they are allowed to play run-first, taking away open lanes for a ball carrier without fear of letting a short pass sail right past them.

The reason for this newfound freedom at the linebacker spots is the pressure placed on the safeties behind them. While they certainly might drop deep and patrol center field on certain occasions, they're just as likely to come up and fill an inside run gap in Knowles' system.
 
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Jim Knowles has installed 50% more of his defensive scheme over the past two weeks.

Ohio State’s new defensive coordinator made an eyebrow-raising comment while meeting with the media on Aug. 9 when he said only about 25% of his defense had been installed. Just 13 days later, however, Knowles said he has now been able to teach about 75% of his defensive concepts to his players.

More importantly, Knowles feels his new players know more than enough of his defense to be ready for the Buckeyes’ first game of the season in just 12 days against Notre Dame.

“I’m very comfortable with where we're at,” Knowles said Monday. “Because we're gonna have to pare it down now, we're going to have to get specific to our plan as we go. So I think we've come a long way in terms of installation. Like I said in the spring and again in fall camp, farther than I would have expected.

“The players are very open to learning and they want to be great. So that part of it has been exciting, and we've been able to get a lot in. But we're gonna have to start to pare it back and get specific to our opponent.”
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“We never really want to get to 100 (percent), right? We always want to leave a few things that nobody knows that we have. Including the coaches or anybody,” Knowles said with a laugh. “Just a few things like way back here that I keep to myself.”



 
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JIM KNOWLES WANTS TO LIMIT ROTATION ON BACK END OF THE BUCKEYE DEFENSE, BUT SAYS OHIO STATE HAS “MORE DEPTH HERE THAN I'VE HAD IN THE PAST”

The defensive rotations employed by the Ohio State coaching staff in last year’s season opener raised some eyebrows.

More specifically, it was the rapid nature with which the Buckeyes switched out a significant portion of their on-field personnel on a play-to-play basis that caused concern. By the end of Ohio State’s 45-31 road win over Minnesota, 18 defensive players logged at least 15 snaps, and that was during a game in which the Buckeyes could hardly clear the bench given the relatively close score throughout. Even more players would have likely seen regular action had veterans like Cam Brown, Sevyn Banks and Jerron Cage been available.

Given the preference of new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and the experience possessed by many of Ohio State’s top defensive players, you can expect that to change in 2022 – at least on the back end of the Buckeye defense.


https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...tation-on-the-back-end-of-the-buckeye-defense
 
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brodybuck21 said:
JIM KNOWLES WANTS TO LIMIT ROTATION ON BACK END OF THE BUCKEYE DEFENSE, BUT SAYS OHIO STATE HAS “MORE DEPTH HERE THAN I'VE HAD IN THE PAST”

The defensive rotations employed by the Ohio State coaching staff in last year’s season opener raised some eyebrows.

More specifically, it was the rapid nature with which the Buckeyes switched out a significant portion of their on-field personnel on a play-to-play basis that caused concern. By the end of Ohio State’s 45-31 road win over Minnesota, 18 defensive players logged at least 15 snaps, and that was during a game in which the Buckeyes could hardly clear the bench given the relatively close score throughout. Even more players would have likely seen regular action had veterans like Cam Brown, Sevyn Banks and Jerron Cage been available.

Given the preference of new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and the experience possessed by many of Ohio State’s top defensive players, you can expect that to change in 2022 – at least on the back end of the Buckeye defense.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...tation-on-the-back-end-of-the-buckeye-defense
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Secondary depth was a concern for Knowles just a couple weeks ago, as Brown, Jordan Hancock, Ryan Turner and Jantzen Dunn were all either limited or held out of practice entirely when the media was permitted to watch practice on Aug. 11. But Knowles said Monday that most of Ohio State’s cornerbacks have returned to action, and Day expects the Buckeyes to be at full strength in the secondary before the season opener on Sept. 3.
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That's definitely good to hear.
 
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We’ve been over this ground, but it’s almost game week and it’s time to focus on the opponent. The biggest concern is ND offense against the new look defense, so I watched the above video to see a whole game of that (scheme wise anyway)

The play that hurt oksu the most was when there was some sort of delayed route, typically a back or tight end slipping out of the backfield after initially dropping into protection. In every case it took awhile for the receiver to get open, in every case I had the impression that the Buckeyes would’ve had a sack or pressured an incompletion. I don’t think that’s just scarlet colored glasses, Knowles has said the biggest surprise in coming to Ohio State was in the superiority of the pass rush; he expected better, but not that much better.

ND’s 2nd touchdown was just a missed assignment. That possession was immediately followed by two 3-and-outs. Then ND adjusted to go with more of the delayed routes and scored 2 more touchdowns in the first half.

Then, without Knowles, oksu adjusted at halftime and ND didn’t score again until they got the ball with 2 minutes and change on the clock, no time outs, and down by 9. The cowboys played to make them burn clock and the Irish scored with 65 seconds left. They didn’t get the ball back.

TL/DR version: ND’s best weapon against OkSU will not work against Ohio State in my opinion.

As for OSU offense vs ND defense… lol
 
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