ANALYSIS: Ohio State defense primed for progress

I went into the preseason bullish on that unit, and I remain so.

1. If there is anything to worry about, No. 1 might be depth on the interior line.

Mike Hall Jr. and Tyleik Williams both have the ability to be special, but they have both already dealt with injuries in a spot where guys naturally get beaten up.

I wasn’t sure if bringing in Tywone Malone as a transfer from Mississippi made sense at the time, but that is already proving to be a shrewd move by Larry Johnson, who does have a solid nose guard to rely on in Ty Hamilton.

2. The cornerbacks continue to be praised, and Lathan Ransom has one safety spot locked down.

What happens with the open safety position is interesting because it could be a sixth-year guy (Josh Proctor) or one of two who just arrived: Syracuse transfer Ja’Had Carter and true freshman Malik Hartford, a Lakota West graduate.

Proctor looks the part but has struggled with consistency throughout his career. Carter apparently has looked good when healthy, but that has not been all the time. Hartford was one of the highest-rated recruits in last year’s class, so the hype shouldn’t come as a surprise, but you never know how long it will take any freshman to catch on.

Perhaps Hartford will affirm former OSU head coach John Cooper’s belief it a dog’s gonna bite, he’ll bite as a pup.

3. The Sonny Styles experiment could be fascinating.

Styles has been confirmed as the “Nickel,” which Knowles might have to give a new name.

That would be fitting for a player with a unique skillset. The 6-4, 230-pound Styles is called a safety, but he is listed as three inches taller and the same weight as Greg Bellisari, who was the starting SAM linebacker next his father, middle linebacker Lorenzo Styles, in the starting Ohio State defense in 1994.

While many teams — including Ohio State for the most part — stopped playing three traditional linebackers a long time ago, that third mid-level defender was often a player (who replaced guys like Bellisari) who would have been a smaller, more athletic linebacker or a bigger safety more geared toward stopping the run but still able to handle some coverage duties.

At Oklahoma State, Knowles concluded he was better off using a true defensive back because of how much he would be in coverage against pass-happy Big 12 offenses. However, the game is evolving back to offensive having more big people on the field, so the defense has to respond in kind.

Knowles noted he has had a player like Styles before when he was at Duke. Jeremy Cash, ironically an Ohio State transfer, was a standout for Knowles as more of a box safety/athletic linebacker type, though he wasn’t quite as big as Styles.

Using Styles as the regular “nickel” likely will be accompanied by having an alternative nickel package featuring a natural corner in Styles’ spot. So in essence Ohio State’s defense really could be more or less a 4-3 base with an old-fashioned nickel package featuring five cover guys in passing situations.

4. Flexibility is something Knowles has shown a lot of this offseason.

Early in the offseason, defensive line coach Larry Johnson expressed concern having players split time between his normal teaching of the defensive end position and Knowles’ hybrid end/linebacker role called the “Jack” could be a negative for player development.

Last week, he essentially washed his hands of the position entirely, saying he didn’t know who coaches it nor was it any of his concern (punctuating the message with a satisfied laugh).

So rather than switch to a three-man front, Ohio State has continued using two ends and two tackles consistent with the style Johnson prefers and what he has recruited to during his decorated career.

But Knowles said Monday he still sees the Jack package as a way to get C.J. Hicks, a former five-star linebacker recruit from Alter High School, on the field so we still figure to see some different looks. It’s just a matter of when and how much.

That might be a nothing-burger, or it could be a game-changer.

Like Styles, Hicks presents an intriguing wild card for a defense that can use all the positives it can get after the last three seasons.

5. Some have bemoaned the idea of hiring Knowles for nearly $2 million a season to come in and not run his system.

I get that observation, but before he was ever hired — around the time the Kerry Coombs experiment was called off in the middle of the 2021 season —I concluded Ohio State would be better served by having an actual defensive system rather than simply trying to overwhelm teams with talent, the overall plan since Urban Meyer came to town.

The Knowles “system” in this case refers to what worked for him at Oklahoma State, and that would be playing five true defensive backs, two linebackers and three traditional linemen with the “Jack” moving around the formation.

But Knowles is a long-time coaching veteran and was known not just for doing things a certain way at the other OSU but for having opponent-specific game plans that could vary quite a bit from week to week, for having answers to what the other team was doing no matter what that might be.

So even if he ends up doing different things here than he was doing there, he can more than earn his money.

Now it remains to be seen if he actually does.

Saturday’s game

Ohio State at Indiana, 3:30 p.m., CBS, 1410