Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Sonny Styles, CJ Hicks And The Battle To Be Ohio State's Linebackers

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Sonny Styles, CJ Hicks And The Battle To Be Ohio State's Linebackers · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, April seventh, I'm your host,
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  tom Or the Acron game in one hundred and forty six days. The
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  game gets missued in two hundred and thirty seven days. It is hard to
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  believe, but one week from right now, the Ohio State spring game is
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  going to be over and we're going to be heading into the full blown off
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  season, a more spring ball just long summer before the start of fall camp
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  in August. So while we're heading into that final week of spring ball for
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  the buck Eyes, I'm gonna let you hear from one of the coaches we
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  got to talk to you this week. And this is someone who obviously a
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  fan favorite of Ohio State fans as a player, James Lorinidis, also now
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  turning into quite a fan favorite as a coach as well a favorite of the
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  media because he's got a lot of interesting things to say and sort of a
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  very unique perspective on the business of Ohio State football from the from being a
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  player with then a grad assistant, and now a full time assistant coach.
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  So let's start with some of the stuff that we've gotten to see a little
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  bit of this spring it feels like the defense has been a little more aggressive.
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  We saw a lot of blitzing during the student appreciation practice last Saturday.
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  Is that something that we can look for more this fall from guys like c
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  J. Hicks and Sunny Styles. You're also gonna hear a quick follow up
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  quick here as well. We had a lot of you know, pressures in
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  last year as well. We didn't really need to maybe use them as much
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  as the year before, but we wrapped them in practice, and I think
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  it's something that you know, when you're going to be aggressive on defense.
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  You know a lot of times in spring you're always trying new stuff out and
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  fine tuning the stuff that you did the year before and all that. So
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  we have some very talented athletes that can me and blitz. You know,
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  that's one of CJ strong suits. Sonny's gotten on the goal line. Sonny's
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  gotten much better at blitzing this spring. And so I think you just got
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  to try to utilize what your guys do well better have it. Just like
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  the timing and timing. I mean, I think a lot of it is
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  just confidence, you know, Like for Sonny, it's just like just telling
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  them like don't don't think, you know, when you're gone. You just
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  got to make something happened. You can't really think too much about it when
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  you have that kind of athleticism him, CJ. R Vel, You just
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  got to go, you know. I think sometimes you try to be so
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  perfect with what the move is. When you just when you just go with
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  speed and let your natural authorities and take over, then you're deadly. We
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  always get a lot of questions about those two guys we talked about earlier,
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  Sunny Styles, CJ. Hicks. Let's talk about both of them real quickly
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  right now. Sunny Styles, how has that switched from safety to linebacker gone
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  so far for him? I mean, I think I think Sonny's made a
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  really smooth transition to linebacker. You know, the early the early, the
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  early days you had to work on Luke Fickley used to say this to us
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  all the time. He say, be slow until it's time to be fast
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  in the box. And what that means is you have to have calm feet,
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  you know. And he's so used to breaking and going from safety you
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  had to slow him down. He's so explosive and so he's really gotten his
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  footwork under control. It's a never ending process. But he for a guy
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  that plays and look, I think playing at safety, seeing the game from
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  that perspective, now moving up, he has a good idea of the whole
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  scheme and how everything kind of works together. So it's been a really smooth
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  transition for Sonny. And what about c J. Hicks. He came out
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  of high school as a five star linebacker prospect and has not played a ton
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  on defense the first two years. I think there's sort of this feeling that
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  he's behind, and I don't definitely don't think he's behind. This is a
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  time when Tommy Iikenberg steel Chambers now both off to the NFL, and now
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  is kind of the time when you'd expect maybe he's going to take that next
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  step and take on a bigger role this fall. So how was CJ Hicks
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  grown since the end of last season? I think so. I think CJ.
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  Hicks has done a phenomenal job. You know, you got to keep
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  you got to keep pressing him and making sure that he's really tapping into everything
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  that he can offer. You know, I think CJ sees the opportunity and
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  he's you know, certainly making a case to to get on the field this
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  fall, you know, so I think it's been a really good spring for
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  CJ. There's just always, you know, whenever you have a good you
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  got to follow it up by another good day, you know, in kind
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  of stacked days. And I think that's what a pro does, you know
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  what I mean, likes there's always do you want to be a pro,
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  you got to keep stacking them. That's the expectation. And I think,
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  you know, he's had some really good days and then he's had some days
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  where you're like you're trying to push him a little bit. But I think
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  CJ where he is now compared to where he was last fall, is he's
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  a lot better football player. It feels like a lot of the conversation around
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  the linebackers is centered around Cody Simon and CJ Hicks and sunny styles and maybe
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  to a lesser extent, gave Powers as well, but there's even other talented
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  players in that linebacker room as well, and with the potential for a sixteen
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  game season or maybe even more than that this fall, it sounds like Lauren
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  Iis feels like they may have to play a bunch of them and need a
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  bunch of them to be ready to play this fall. Yeah, well,
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  I mean I think coach Day has talked about it a lot. Right,
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  It's gonna be a long season, and so I think we need to have
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  I've always been on the opinion if you have two guys, you have two
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  guys and you ride with them. Right. If you have six, you
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  have six, and that's a blessing. So I'd say right now we're probably
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  at five that I would feel confident rotating out there on the field. And
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  look, I'm old school, right, so I come from the era I
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  used to yell at Luke Fickle what he would take me out? Oh,
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  I get so mad, I get so maybe forty two whatever against Youngstown State,
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  and I'd be so upset coming out of the game. But seeing how
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  violent this game is, from this perspective, now you have to say,
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  hey, okay, not only within games, can we keep guys fresh,
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  right, but can we do that so that when you get to the last
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  few games of the season at that are the big ones, right, the
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  ones that you're judged off of when you get to the game. Are we
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  healthier? And I think that's it's kind of a both and right, So
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  I feel confident with five guys, and that's gonna be week to week,
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  you know what I mean? Like these guys know, I think honestly,
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  who starts should be week to week. If you displayed during the week of
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  practice that you're locked in and somebody else has a bad mental week, well
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  I can't reward you as starting if you have six mental layers during the week,
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  you know what I mean, just because you started last week. So
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  I think it's got to be that iron Sharpen's iron constant competition through the whole
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  fall. It's easy to forget this now after he was a multiple time All
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  American at Ohio State and an eight year pro in the NFL. But James
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  Lerntis was just a very unheralded three star recruit coming out of Minnesota in high
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  school. And he knows what it's like to look over your shoulder wondering whether
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  you're going to get to keep your job at a place like Ohio State,
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  And honestly, he thinks that's actually a positive. I always felt when I
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  was here that they were trying to out recruit me, which is the reality,
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  right, which is why it prepares you so well for the National Football
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  League. That's why Ohio State prepares you so well for the league because now
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  it's like they're trying to outdraft you, and so I use that as fuel.
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  But I also saw it firsthand, you know, like there was a
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  season where it was John Kerr, Marcus Freeman, certain guys rotating week to
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  week, and so I saw like, shoot, if it could happen to
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  them, it could happen to me. So I just tried to be a
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  certain way in practice. Like I tell the guys all the time, you
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  have to control the things that take no talent. You have to eliminate all
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  loafs, Like if you loaf on the field, you're a trader, Like
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  you should just go play for their team. Like that can't we can't be
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  coaching effort. And then you can't have mental airs because if you have a
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  mental air, then you can't trust you. So those are the two things
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  that I always as a player was like, all right, you're not going
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  to catch me loafing, and you're definitely not going to catch me not knowing
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  what I'm supposed to do. I might get beat. That's inevitable, it's
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  football. Everyone's on scholarship, right, But those two things you can control
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  every single day Laura and Iis went from grad assistant to full time linebackers coach
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  this offseason, and one of the biggest changes there is that he can now
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  go on the road in recruiting. He's a much bigger part of the Buckey's
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  recruiting efforts now than he was a year ago. Now he can't talk about
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  any specific recruits before any of those guys signs, but he's more broadly speaking
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  looking at the recruiting end of his job. How was he enjoying that expanded
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  role. I am. I am enjoying it. I think it's fun to
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  build relationships and get to know so many different types of kids. You know,
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  Ohio State presents opportunity, right in so many different ways. You're not
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  gonna get developed better anywhere else in the country. We have the largest fan
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  base, the largest alumni. Man, it's just opportunity everywhere, right,
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  So you try to just explore, like explain your passion for the school that
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  did so much for you, you know, especially being an out of state
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  kid, not being from Ohio and then realizing how much Ohio State changed my
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  life. And so now you communicate that to other young kids who kind of
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  see it and you try to tell them the vision, like where you can
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  get to. And I think the fun thing for me is that most of
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  the kids I'm recruiting are way more athletic than I ever was. So it's
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  like, I tell them if I can. The only way I survived in
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  the NFL eight years was the fact that I had football intelligence, Like I
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  knew where I was going, you know what I mean, I knew where
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  I was fitting. And so if I can impart that information on kids who
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  are extremely athletic, well now you're now you got something special, you know
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  what I mean. Some of those recruits may have more athleticism than Laura Nitis
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  did as a player, but you can match the mentality and intensity the heap
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  be brought to the game as a player. So how do you coach players
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  who might have a different mixture of those traits than he maybe did. Well
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  you figure that out when you get to know him. And there are certainly
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  some kids that you start to recruit to where you see, like you know
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  what, Ohio State might be too big. It might be too big for
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  them, you know what I mean. And so it's not for everybody.
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  You have to want to come in and compete against the best and realize that
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  you have to win every single game and be the best in the world of
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  what you do. That's the expectations at Ohio State, and that's certainly not
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  for everyone, and that's okay, But you have to through the process kind
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  of find out who has that mentality, who really craves football, you know,
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  like who craves football versus a lot of the other fluff that kind of
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  comes with it. Who craves ball, because if they crave football, then
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  the other stuff will take care of itself, right, and we'll just keep
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  and better and better and better if they want to be the best. Talked
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  earlier about some of the younger guys who might be taking in a bigger role
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  this year, rvel Reese is certainly one of them. He's just entering his
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  second year and he had kind of a weird first season with the Buckeye's got
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  moved around a little bit to the defensive line and back to the linebackers,
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  and also missed time with an injury. So where is r vel Reese right
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  now? In his progression? Rvel's, I mean, is shown a lot
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  of progress, you know, most most importantly, you know, mentally with
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  the playbook and everything. I think Rvel last year there was a couple of
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  things right because of injuries on the d line and camp. You know,
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  he moved to end for a little bit, and then we brought him off
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  the ball, and then he had an injury and he kind of missed some
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  time. He wasn't an early mid year, you know, so he comes
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  in right in the summer and so he misses some reps there. So to
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  see where he's at right now is extremely impressive. And for a guy of
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  that size and that much power and his ability to run, he's a he's
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  a special athlete. And so our Vel's had a good spring. He's got
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  to continue to dive into the playbook and got to continue to learn all the
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  little things. And as you go, right like week one, week two,
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  you start seeing new schemes, new schemes, things build and it becomes
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  kind of a lot. He's just got to continue to comb through it all
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  because athletically, you know, he's one of the most gifted guys that we
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  have in the room. It has been quite a while since James Laurennis was
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  a high school recruit, and so even though he's had that experience of being
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  recruited to Ohio State and playing at Ohio State. Are things just completely different
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  in recruiting now than they were when he was coming out of high school?
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  No, I think I think it still comes down for the most part,
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  like nil is certainly an aspect for some. For some it's gonna be the
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  most important thing. It's always a factor. But I think you still just
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  need to find out who are the kids that love football and they want to
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  be developed, and it's about the relationship to an extent, like a relationship
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  gets you to the final stretch. For some kids on I l might be
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  the thing that pushes them over the top. I mean, I don't know,
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  Like every kid is so different, right. I try to view it
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  as you're just building relationships and are you going to get a young man to
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  trust you to develop them and to not only the player that they want to
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  be, but the person that they want to be in the future. And
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  can you convince mom and dad that you're the right person to do that,
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  you know what I mean? So I think one of the things that is
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  helpful is my playing experience. I think you know when you've played and you've
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  done it, and the drills that you're doing, you know that they work.
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  You're not going to waste your time on stuff that doesn't work. And
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  then the fact that you know, I am blessed to be at my alma
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  mater, you know, so there's no there's no sense of trying to leave
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  here, you know what I mean. It's a question I get a ton
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  is where you see yourself in five years. I'm like where I'm sitting.
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  It's my alma mater. You know, my kids love it in Columbus.
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  Obviously I love Ohio State. So I think those are things that can kind
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  of be an advantage. And finally, one of the big changes to the
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  coaching staff after last season was Parker Fleming, the special teams coordinator, was
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  not retained at the end of last season and the buck Eyes did not bring
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  in another full time special teams coordinator. So that means that the special teams
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  jobs off and kick off coverage and kickoff return and punts and punt coverage and
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  punt returns, those are all getting divided up among the other assistant coaches.
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  So what has that been like for Laura Nitis to be working with the special
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  teams Now, Yeah, that's awesome. Maybe I love it because it gives
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  you an opportunity to coach the whole team, you know what I mean.
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  Like Special teams is a spot where the whole team, probably minus the quarterbacks,
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  right, is all in one team room, in one meeting room.
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  So you get to actually directly impact other positions and just your own. And
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  I think it also gives it gives a little bit of urgency to your own
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  room. Like when you're in there every single time, you better be making
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  an impact on punt If you're a linebacker, you better be making an impact
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  on kick return or kickoff, kickoff return, punt return, all those things.
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  You better be making an impact, right because your coach is in there
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  all the time. So it's been nice and there's a lot of stuff that
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  I think our coaches have done to kind of push that sense of team when
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  you're in Special teams, that we every position matters well. We will have
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  a very busy week this week, counting down the days to the Ohio State
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  Spring game that is Saturday noon, April thirteenth, televised on Fox. Tickets
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  available forecast so far looking pretty darn good. Looks like it should be a
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  very nice day to be out at the Horseshoe. We will be out there,
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  and if you're out there, do say hi to us. And if
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  you're not out there, we'll make sure you check us out at bucke uddle
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  dot com and YouTube dot com slash bucke Huddle, we will have plenty of
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  coverage of what should be a very interesting, very informative Ohio State spring game
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  coming up on Saturday. Make sure you're subscribing our YouTube channel, YouTube dot
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  com slash bucke Huddle. Make sure you're subscribed to Buckeye Huddle dot com as
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  well. We got lots of coverage of what's going on with the team,
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  what's going on with recruiting, and much much more, plus a very active
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  and fun board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse all at Buckeye Huddle dot com.
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  That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
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  a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.