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6 Buckeyes Who Could Be Playing A Bigger Role On Defense This Fall · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, April nineteenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game in one hundred and thirty four days,
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  the game be It's Michigan in two hundred and twenty five days. On yesterday's
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  show, you got to hear from new Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.
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  Today you're going to flip to the defensive side of the ball. Let you
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  hear a little bit from Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Knowles obviously in
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  a little bit of a different position this spring than Kelly having been around.
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  Now this is his three third season with the Buckeyes. Kelly obviously he's only
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  been about around for about three months or so, so Noles has a little
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  bit of a different perspective, and Knowles got asked some very different questions than
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  what Chip Kelly did. Chip Kelly got a lot of big picture stuff,
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  Jim Knowles got a bunch of kind of nitty gritty stuff. Taking a little
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  bit of a look, focusing a lot actually on some of the younger buck
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  Eyes, some of the guys who are going to be providing depth and who
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  are going to be potentially starters in future season. So we're going to be
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  talking a bunch about some of the younger players and less experienced players on the
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  defensive side of the ball. Today. Let's start with a guy who just
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  transferred from Ole Miss last season. No, not Davis Nickmnosen, not quin
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  Shawn Judkins. It's Taiwan Malone, defensive tackle. He played a little sparingly
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  last year, but seems like he is on track to play more this year
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  after a very solid spring. He's developed, for sure, you know,
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  wasn't quite ready last year for a lot of reps, but he's shown marked
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  improvements. So, you know, a long season, we play a lot
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  of guys up front, we really need him to come to come along,
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  and he's showed flashes to that. Injuries, of course, are never good
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  news for a football team, but they can present an opportunity for some of
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  the younger guys on the team to get more playing time and show what they
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  can do at safety. This spring, injuries to Malie Hartford and Jahad Carter
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  and the kind of recovery from an injury from Lathan Ransom opened up opportunities for
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  guys like Jaden Bonsu and Jalen McLain and other young safety. So what did
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  Jim Nole see from those younger guys. Yeah, every situation like that gives
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  somebody an opportunity. We were our depth was really down at safety this spring.
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  So because you had Leithan, you had Jahad, you had Maleik and
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  then Lorenzo, so it opened up opportunities. And Bonsu is a guy who
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  really got a lot of reps and you saw him improve. And then McLean,
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  I think is a great plus. I mean, he is a guy
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  that has football intelligence. He's picked it up. You know, he's kind
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  of of of those incoming freshmen who still should be in high school. He's
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  a guy I think you're going to point to and you can see right now
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  he's going to be a player. Someone who is definitely not one of the
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  younger guys, but who has also not played a whole heck of a lot
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  over the course of his career is Mitchell Melton. This time two years ago,
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  Melton was viewed to someone who had really had a great spring, then
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  suffered a season enning knee injury in the spring game, missed the entire twenty
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  twenty two season, was kind of coming back from that last year, did
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  not play a whole heck of a lot. He is finally healthy now and
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  getting a chance to show what he can really do. You know, Mitch
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  is that combination player you know in in our four down you know, he's
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  a guy that can do a lot of things, drop fold in there and
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  make plays. You see some of that all the time. Really athletic,
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  you know, or kind of loaded at that end position. So he's going
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  to play there. But you know, like I said last year, we
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  we haven't needed it, but he's a guy you would point to along with
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  C. J. Hicks. You know, for the for the long season,
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  people get injured, you get a little light inside. It's always hard
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  on the defensive tackles. But if you're going to play with three ends,
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  you know that Mitch is a guy who definitely can do all that he has
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  that. There were several years when Ohios Date fans thought their team might not
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  have get off the field while they were on defense. That has definitely not
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  been the case since Jim Knowles arrived, buck Eyes have really buckled down and
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  been very impressive on defense over the last couple of years. That was true
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  again during the spring game on Saturday. The defense dominated long stretches of that
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  spring game, especially in the first half when the starters were playing more.
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  Yeah, I think it's become, you know, an expectation. Now.
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  You know our DB's, you know, our bi a best in America.
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  We led the country in pass defense, right I think it was ninety six
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  when I got here, and it was number one last year. So they've
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  taken that spirit. So it's a competitive spirit, it's an expectation now it
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  doesn't matter who we're going against it they view it as a standard. So
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  that was good to see in the first first half. Depth has been a
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  major topic of conversation pretty much every spot around the field all spring long,
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  and the buck Eyes have a ton of depth at the defensive tackle spot.
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  So how does that depth that dt change what the Buckeyes can do this year?
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  You're going to play to your strengths, you know, And uh,
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  that's that's my job, is to what do we have and what do we
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  do best? And when you have defensive tackles who and I've said it before
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  it helped our defense so much last year. When you have defensive tackles that
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  actually make tackles, which is what we have right now, it changes the
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  way you call a game. You know, it certainly helps you be in
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  better shape on explosive plays on the back end. You don't have to do
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  a whole lot to help those guys out because they're making tackles. So you
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  got to go. You got to go with that, you know, you
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  got to You got to let those guys play and and they're good, so
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  you can't get too far away from the scheme of having those defensive tackles make
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  plays because they're doing it and it works. There was a good one from
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  our buddy, Tony Gerderman of buckeyehuddle dot com. He asked, Jim Knowles,
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  you know how you've seen more quarterback run this spring, So how much
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  does that impact your preparation when you're facing a team that does that this fall?
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  How much does that change your prep during the week when you have to
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  face a team that's going to be doing some of the stuff that the Buckeyes
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  are planning to do this fall. Yeah, it's a ton you know it.
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  I think it changes everything you do on defense. You see it everywhere
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  from the NFL on down. If you have a quarterback who can make plays
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  with his feet, your scheme better be designed that you know to take that
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  away and to account for it. So it changes the way you look at
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  everything when you're game planning. One of the big stories all spring long was
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  the play of the Ohio State wide receivers. That's nothing new. The buck
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  guys have had standout wide receivers for years and years now, but there was
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  quite a bit of hype around Jeremiah Smith and some of the other Buckeye receivers.
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  It felt a little bit like the Ohio State corners might have taken some
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  of that talk a way little personally when it came to the spring game.
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  How it showed up on the field on Saturday, Yeah, you can when
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  you have corners that you can count on. Again, just like having defensive
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  tackles in the run game, when you have corners you can count on that
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  are going to compete all the time, no matter what the situation is,
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  and we've developed that. Again, it changes the way you call the entire
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  game. I mean, you you're able to leave those guys on an island,
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  You're able to switch out coverages and they know what they're doing and they
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  take great pride in it. So having those guys out there in the development,
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  it's a big deal. It really is. That'll hire say, cornerback
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  room is pretty darn talented Denzel Burke, David Jermaine Matthews. But the fourth
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  guy in that corner room, not even including the same the Nichols, the
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  fourth guy in that corner room in the outside corners, Alvin Simpson Hunt.
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  You seem to make a big move this spring after coming in late. He
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  missed last spring him and last summer that came in late last year. Seemed
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  to make a big move this spring. He did come in late. And
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  you know, he compete. He's one of those guys that just competes every
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  day, doesn't say much. You know, he's trying to live up to
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  the standard or the other guys. And you see him coming along, you
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  know, you see him step by step coming along and and you know to
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  put him in a you know, competitive atmosphere, see him step up.
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  That's a great sign. And finally one of the players we get asked about
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  the most linebacker, CJ. Hicks, He had a big spring as well.
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  This was you know, his big opportunity to maybe show okay, it
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  is his time, Tommy Eckenberg. Steel chambers are gone. It is time
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  to put CJ. Hicks on the field more so did he did c J.
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  Hicks show Jim Knowles what he needed to see this spring? I think
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  CJ has shown that he has talent, and I think it's my job to
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  put him in the best situations for him because because he can be a force.
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  You know, he's much better when he's blitzing or he's directed because he's
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  able to use his athletic ability. But he has certainly shown that he's going
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  to be able to help this defense. With springball now officially in the rearview
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  mirror, we are shifting to our off season schedule here on Buckey's Tomorrow morning,
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  we're going we go from seven days a week to five days a week
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  after springball. Don't worry, we'll be back to seven days a week soon
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  as soon as the season starts ramping up. That's usually around big ten media
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  days mid to late July, give or take maybe fall camp somewhere around there.
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  We tend to back up to a seven day a week show. But
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  here's the thing. Plans they're all great. There tends to be breaking news
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  if there's transfer portal news, if there's any kind of different news of involving
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  the Ohio State football or basketball programs. We'll probably be back with a breaking
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  news show over the weekend for you, so tentatively plan on seeing you on
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  Monday, but realistically I'll probably talk to you sometime over the weekend. Whenever
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  that happens, we will see you then. Thank you all for joining us.