denzel burke

Previously: Ohio State Offense

While Ohio State's offense has taken a statistical stepback, its defense has taken a huge step forward. By SP+, this is now the country's #1 defense, posing a massive test to the Michigan offense tomorrow. Get ready for a challenge:  

The Film: I charted the Penn State game when I was doing the Nittany Lions, but have also watched OSU's defense when I did Maryland and Purdue, in addition to a review of the Notre Dame tape. Just like on offense, lots of tape to run with here. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Two familiar faces from last season return as the starting EDGE defenders for Ohio State, JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer. JTT was a starter last year, Sawyer a backup behind Zach Harrison, but both players are familiar and as juniors, have been around the block. The former 5*s have taken steps forward, still not described as NFL-level pass rushers but strong all-around players. Sawyer grades out better in the pass rushing department on PFF and drops into coverage a smidge more than JTT, who is perhaps best used as a crusher of tight ends and defeater of screens thrown at him. These two players log the vast majority of snaps at the EDGE spot but if they come off the field Kenyatta Jackson and Caden Curry will come on. They had some moments late in the game against PSU, but I do not expect them to see action much while a game is up for grabs. 

Ohio State lost the middling Taron Vincent off last year's defensive tackle spot, but returned the other three pieces from that positional group. Tyleik Williams has taken a step forward to have an excellent season, while the NT Ty Hamilton is a sharp run defender but not as strong in pass rush. That's where Michael Hall Jr. comes into play, who has been dealing with injury recently, so how healthy he will be for this game is a bit unknown. Hall is their best pure pass rusher at the DT position, with high-end burst, but sometimes that can put him in compromising spots for the run defense dimension. These three names soak up nearly all the snaps on the defensive interior, with a steep drop-off in usage to the likes of Jaden McKenzie and Hero Kanu. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: defense!]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receivers, Offensive Line, Defensive Line, Linebacker 

We have made it to the end of The Enemy, Ranked 2023. Just like last year, I'm counting DB-shaped HSPs as DBs, but in reality that really only affects one team on this ranking, which is Indiana's "HUSKY". Most teams here have five positions listed with the nickel being included because this is 2023 and most CFB teams play with 5 DBs most all of the time. At the end of the piece I will briefly drop in special teams rankings and then will wrap this whole series up by reviewing what we learned about the opponents on Michigan's 2023 schedule. 

12. East Carolina

This is pretty grim. On the plus side of things, Teagan Wilk and Julius Wood are a pair of returning safeties, two-thirds of last year's safety rotation. On the down side, they weren't particularly special. More concerning: the top four corners from last season and nickel Gerard Stringer all are out the door. Yikes!! The wreckage that remains are the following names: Shavon Revel (ex-JUCO who played sparingly last year), Isaiah Brown-Murray (3*, RS last year), Jonathon Jones (good at FCS Campbell), and TyMir Brown (ex-3* UNC down-transfer who never played for North Carolina). Take your pick of those names, it's likely not going to be pretty! This is bad even for a Group of 5 program and in the context of this list, ECU is easily last. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: more DB rooms]

Previously: Ohio State Offense 

After getting mauled by the Michigan offense last season to the tune of 487 total yards and 297 rushing yards, the Ohio State defense has a lot to prove tomorrow. Ryan Day went out in the offseason and hired Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State to be the new defensive coordinator, amid a litany of staff shakeups to engineer a turnaround. So far the results have been good, as the Buckeyes have stitched together a stellar season thus far on defense, ranking 10th in SP+ defensive's metrics. However, none of that will matter until the Buckeyes do enough on defense in the Shoe to get a win over Michigan, and that's why this defensive unit merits a closer look. 

The Film: The caliber of offensive play in the B1G this season can best be described as "wretched"... by my estimation there are around five offenses that I would term above average for college football writ large: Michigan/Ohio State, Purdue, PSU, and Maryland. OSU can't play themselves and obviously haven't played Michigan. They also avoided Purdue in the crossover games, leaving us to choose between Penn State and Maryland. Neither are great comps. for Michigan stylistically but I think Penn State is a bit closer, so I went with them, although I also drew from the highlights of the Maryland game. In addition, I lifted some tape from the Northwestern game as well, as the Wildcats had rather surprising rushing success against OSU and it could be useful. 

Personnel: Click for big or here for PDF. 

Ohio State runs a base 4-2-5 and rolls with it consistently down-to-down. That means generally two defensive tackles and two EDGE guys. The DTs are a revolving door of players, with Taron Vincent being given the "solid" designation on our diagram in the context of this defense (note: rotation is pretty common at many positions on the defense). He has played 410 snaps while the next four DTs have all played between 165 and 244 snaps. Those players are, in order of snap count, Ty Hamilton, Michael Hall Jr., Tyleik Williams, and Jerron Cage. The reason for such heavy rotation is they're mostly just guys. Despite being the most used, Vincent has the lowest PFF grade... he treaded water in my grading against PSU. Cage was my highest graded in that game yet is the least used. Williams had a good showing as well in limited snaps, while I was pretty down on Hall. I don't think there's a major difference between any of these players from what I've seen. 

At EDGE Ohio State still has the blue chippers, and the seeds are starting to sprout. One-time Michigan recruiting white whale Zach Harrison has finally put together a star-level season. I don't think he's a superstar, but he came out well in my grading in both run defense and pass rush and I think his caliber of play is perhaps analogous to someone like Mike Morris on Michigan. Opposite him is most commonly former 5* JT Tuimoloau, who gets the unique "half-star" designation, starred in pas rush but at that level of play in run defense. His big game against PSU (which I charted) made him the Dangerman for this week, though I'm not convinced he's this defense's best player. Rather, I just have the flashiest tape of him. Knowles likes to rotate EDGE guys too, meaning the second stringers merit conversation. Javontae Jean-Baptiste is back and is a solid player, while another former 5* Jack Sawyer is the other player to mention. Sawyer and Tuimoloau are both are tasked with dropping into coverage from time to time when OSU drops eight. 

Fixing Ohio State's linebackers was objective #1 for Knowles and he's done a decent job of it. Tommy Eichenberg has turned into a stellar player this season and receives a star. I don't think he's Butkus Award candidate, but his run fits were pretty stout and when he's told to run really fast and hit, he excels. Steele Chambers, on the other hand, is someone I'm less impressed by. He did not grade out terribly well in my PSU numbers and the tape I saw from other contests, combined with the PFF grades, was enough to put the lone starter cyan on him. I think Chambers is much better than he was last season, but he had a long way to go... not at "good" level yet. Eichenberg and Chambers are two of only three Buckeyes who seldom leave the field, but if either do exit, look for Cody Simon to come on. 

The five DBs feature a pair of outside corners in Denzel Burke and Cameron Brown. Burke is a returning starter who suited up as a true freshman last season for OSU. I'm not sure he's made huge strides as a sophomore but injuries may have gotten in the way. Burke has missed a couple games this season but returned to log 55 snaps against Maryland, so he should be all set to go. Brown had more extended injury troubles, exiting against Michigan State and not returning until Indiana and not playing a starter's workload until last weekend. I think both Burke and Brown are fine, but they are definitely not a vintage OSU CB tandem (think Okudah/Arnette or Conley/Lattimore). JK Johnson played quite a bit in the absence of Brown and it did not go well, with Johnson being OSU's worst defensive player in my estimation against Penn State. True freshman Jyaire Brown has gotten some spot duty as well and his PFF grades are decent. Jordan Hancock has played here and there and has not been good either. In other words, OSU really prefers to have Burke/Brown on the field because the other options are either bad, inexperienced, or both. 

OSU rolls with three "safeties", all given fancy names by Jim Knowles. At "nickel safety" is Tanner McCalister, a transfer who Knowles brought with him from the other OSU. He's been alright, as he was in the Big 12. Not cyan level but not quite "good" either. The other two safeties are pretty good. Those would be "adjuster" (free safety) Ronnie Hickman and "bandit" (strong safety) Lathan Ransom. Hickman is OSU's leader in snaps on the season, an every-down horse who has been very good in coverage and pretty solid in run defense as well. Ransom also plays an awful lot and has received stellar PFF grades in addition to a solid outing in my PSU charting. I didn't quite think he was star level but both Hickman and Ransom can play. The starters on the back-end are definitely stronger than the cover corners for the Buckeyes. Though Hickman and Ransom don't leave the field much, if they do, Cameron Martinez or veteran Josh Proctor will probably come on. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Is the OSU defense fixed?]