Film study: Brendon White brings a much needed spark to the Buckeye defense
The Buckeyes may have finally found the answer at safety.
When Jordan Fuller was ejected early in the second quarter for targeting, you could almost feel the collective blood pressure of Ohio Stadium shoot up. At that point in the game, the Buckeyes hadn’t been great on defense by any means, but they had a nine-point lead, and Jordan Fuller, like he had all season, was keeping the defense together with his play at safety.
Now the defense’s top leader was gone for the rest of the game, and one of Ohio State’s weakest positions would have to go to the bench to find a replacement. As Buckeye fans know, Ohio State found more than a one-time replacement in Brendon White. They may have found a future star, and the answer at safety that had vexed Greg Schiano and the defensive staff all season long.
White’s impact on the defense showed up almost immediately. He was a bit quiet on his first drive, as he got into the flow of the game and mostly hovered around the defensive backfield, but on his second drive at safety, White caught up to the speed of the game, and started wreaking havoc.
This was the first of many times that Brendon White showed something that no other Buckeye defender has shown much at all this year. Out of his high safety spot, he read the play, tracked Adrian Martinez’s scramble, got downhill, and most importantly, took the correct pursuit angle to bring Martinez down in the backfield. This is not in any way an easy play to make, especially for a young safety, but White’s discipline, awareness and fantastic athleticism helped him make this first-down saving tackle.
Just a couple plays later he makes a similar tackle in the red zone, as he reads the run, gets downhill, and puts himself in a position to succeed. He actually misses the read slightly, setting the edge a bit too hard on the fake by Devine Ozigbo, but his quickness allow him to burst into the hole when Ozigbo does, and he wraps up and keeps Ozigbo out of the endzone with a tackle that he makes look pretty easy, despite a super high degree of difficulty. It’s great to see a young player make up for an over pursuit like this, because generally, that quick adjustment is the sign of a good player.
While Nebraska did end up finding the end zone a few plays later on that drive, it was still super encouraging to see White making the plays that Jordan Fuller has made all year, and in some cases (like the late adjustment on the running back), plays that I’m not entirely sure Fuller can make. Fuller is a steady tackler, a smart player, and a great leader, but White seems to be on a whole different level physically. That’ll make them excellent complementary players if Ohio State does go with a Fuller/White safety pairing for the remainder of the season.
Speaking of that ability to adjust and adapt his pursuit, White didn’t just do that on the on red zone run. He did it all game long. He did it on runs that got to the second level, tracking the ball the whole way and preventing any kind of big play, he did it in coverage, sticking close to his receiver, reading their route and either covering them completely or allowing a catch and immediate tackle.
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