haskell garrett

Previously: Ohio State offense 

Now that I've let the OSU offense piece simmer for a couple days, and everyone has digested the horror of it (and their Thanksgiving meals), we can move into the slightly more optimistic phase of the opposition, the Buckeye defense. Ohio State's defense began the season reeling, surrendering 500 yards and 35 points to Oregon, as well as an additional 500 yards to Tulsa the week after. At that point the Buckeyes made some key schematic changes to their defense and also promoted Matt Barnes (neither the Red Sox pitcher nor the basketball player) to take over playcalling duties for the much maligned Kerry Coombs. The result was substantial improvement, allowing 7, 13, 17, and 7 points over the following four weeks, though quality of competition is an important qualifier- they faced Akron, Rutgers, Maryland, and Indiana in that stretch. 

The last four weeks have included some good and some bad. OSU allowed nearly 400 yards to a struggling Penn State offense with a half-injured Sean Clifford at QB, as well as 481 yards and 31 points to Purdue. On the flip side, they annihilated Michigan State last week, holding the Spartans to 224 yards and just 7 points. With those results in mind, let's take a look at the Buckeye defense in detail and see how vulnerable they really are, and where Michigan may be able to find exposed weakspots. 

The Film: We're going with the same combo as the offense, drawing upon both the PSU game and the MSU game, to give us a range of outcomes from the dominant to the more competitive. Just like last article, I only graded the PSU game for our pressure metric, but will use tape from both games. 

Personnel: Seth's chart, click to enlarge.

[If you are an Ohio State fan reading this, you can click HERE for a censored version of the chart]

On the defensive line, you have some stars like you expect from an Ohio State team, but not quite the same level as in past years. Considering we were used to always facing an elite, top five NFL Draft pick pass rusher every time The Game rolled around for about a six year period, the quirk of this year's meeting is that Michigan now has the two best pass rushers in this contest. That's not to say that Tyreke Smith and Zach Harrison aren't very good players. They are, and the star labels denote that. But neither are Chase Young or Bosa caliber players (or say, Aidan Hutchinson caliber). We left both solid on this chart, but there is a healthy degree of rotation at the end position, as there is across the whole defense. Backups include a pair of blue chip true freshmen in Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, who were both top five players in the 2021 recruiting class. Sawyer has seemed fine, but Tuimoloau was disappointing in your author's viewings, though both are still true freshman of course. The last name to know is the most frequent player to rotate in, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, who's been fine as a reserve. There's a pretty healthy gap between Smith/Harrison and the backups. 

The defensive tackle spot sees even more rotation, and it's rather curious how often they lift Haskell Garrett off the field, given how good he is. He's the only star at this position, one that sees a full six players get regular snaps. The other players at DT were solid, if unremarkable in the games I saw. Antwuan Jackson is the nominal other starter, but his snap count on the season is almost identical to that of Taron Vincent. Their PFF grades are both similar to that of Ty Hamilton and Jerron Cage, all of whom are mostly just guys (more on that later). Tyleik Williams is the last name to know at the DT spot, and his snap count is rather low, pretty far down the depth chart but still seeing the field each week. 

Linebacker, as it has been in the last few seasons at Ohio State, is an area of consternation. The team normally plays with just two traditional LBs on the field at one time, and there's plenty of rotation here too. Cody Simon is the listed starter at the MLB spot, but he is banged up and his status for The Game is unknown at this time. If he is absent, his presence probably will not be missed on the defense, as he's the lone cyan'd starter. It is your author's opinion that Tommy Eichenberg is the better MLB. The other spot sees Steele Chamber get the starting nod, but again you see heavy rotation with Teradja Mitchell, who was very rough in the PSU game that will be dissected for this piece. All four LBs mentioned have played more than 300 snaps and less than 400, with no one really solidifying themselves as the answer, and the position remains a weakness for the defense. 

The secondary finally sees a few consistent starters. One such example is Ronnie Hickman, who plays the new Hybrid Space Player position on the defense, named the "Bullet". Bryson Shaw is also a regular starter at the free safety position, while the "cover safety" is started by Marcus Williamson, but rotation with blitzing safety Lathan Ransom is normal. Kourt Williams II backs up Hickman at the Bullet spot, while Cameron Martinez backs up shaw at FS. The cornerback spot is anchored first by freshman Denzel Burke, with Sevyn Banks (who, yes, wears #7) and Cameron Brown rotating in opposite Burke. Ryan Watts and Lejond Cavazos get in occasionally at DB, and it's worth noting that safety Josh Proctor has been injured since early in the season. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Trying to find the Death Star's exhaust port]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receiver, OL

Another week, and another The Enemy piece. This week we switch over to the defensive side of the ball, starting with the defensive line. For clarification on this piece, I'm defining the defensive line to mean down linemen and LB's who are explicitly edge rushers ("JACK" type players), so in Michigan's case this would include the three DT's and then Aidan Hutchinson + whoever is lined up opposite Hutchinson. For some teams this requires a judgement call, although most on this list run standard four man defensive lines. Onto #1: 

1. Ohio State

Yep, another article where the Buckeyes start out on top. It really shouldn't be terribly surprising, given how well OSU has churned out defensive linemen in the past decade, although this group has some questions, as every team in this article does. What is not a question mark is Haskell Garrett, who was a 2nd Team All-American last season and would have been a high draft pick had he departed for the NFL early. Garrett is a wrecking ball defensive tackle who is going to be the veteran leader of this group. The ends, which are normally dominant for a school like OSU that produced the Bosas and Chase Young, were not quite as sharp last season but there are lots of reasons for optimism. Tyreke Smith's underlying metrics were very good in 2020, even if they didn't materialize into actual sacks, and he's a returning starter who could make that leap to great this season.

Zach Harrison, who you hopefully don't remember from his agonizing recruiting process that nearly saw Michigan pluck the 5* DE from OSU's grasp before a cold dose of reality smacked the Wolverines upside the head on November 24, 2018, has actually not been as good as advertised thus far in his NCAA career. The Bucks need improvement from Harrison, but the talent in his body makes that a decent bet. And of course, even if Harrison doesn't pop off, they have two more 5* blue chip recruits in TR Fr Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau to plug in at DE. The other DT spot is led by Taron Vincent, who was, surprise, also an elite recruit and has solid experience. Experience is a theme for back-up tackles Jarron Cage and Antwaun Jackson Jr., who provide solid depth. Ohio State ranks #1 because of a track record of producing stars at this position, in addition to the presence of an established star in Garrett, the good shot that they get another star out of one of Smith/Harrison/Sawyer, and the depth provided behind them.

[AFTER THE JUMP: More lines with more questions]