VERY in depth analysis of JTT
- By UncleRicoOSU
- The Horseshoe Lounge
- 15 Replies
Someone on the 247 Michigan board wrote this dissertation on JTT. One of the crazier things I’ve seen posted. It must have taken many hours. I don’t expect anyone to read it unless you want to, but I thought I’d share.
FYI: I put a ChatGPT summary at the end.
——————
Maybe it’s a good time to talk about super highly rated recruits who go to Ohio State and aren’t developed.
Let’s talk about JTT.
First off, because we’re not toothless morons, we’ll not only say their name but say it correctly: TOOEY-mo-LO-aow. Everyone (except this guy) butchers it and maybe he tired of correcting people long ago. Well, they should pronounce it correctly because according to all, he is the *****. He has all of the hype and everyone loves him. First round pick, top ten pick, AA, he and Sawyer are the best DE duo in college football (horsesh1t), the works. The people who don’t really know anything about college football *really* love him, and those that do, well they also love him but a little less. I don’t. But I’m a Michigan fan – am I a haterz?
Well, google JTT and you’ll get 1 million results with Matt Leinart breaking down That One Game vs. Penn State. Or Klatt. Or whoever’s left at ESPN. Or your grandma or high school principal or even your own podcast that you started so we could hear your thoughts on JTT in that game. We’ll discuss *That* in a little bit.
Fist let’s talk about what else besides. Look in Phil Steele’s excellent 2023 College Football Preview Magazine on page 79, where he lists 2022 sack leaders in the B1G. 19 players are listed with at least 4.5+, and there’s no JTT (he had 3.5). In 9 of the 12 games JTT played last year, he had zero sacks. In fact here are his games with sacks in 2022:
• Maryland: 1
• Iowa: 0.5
• That One Game vs. PSU: 2
• End of transmission
Also. Look similarly at TFL leaders, and he comes in tied for 10th with 10.5, with such household names as Indiana’s Aaron Casey, Northwestern’s Xander Mueller, and Sparty’s Jacoby Windmon (6.5 of whose came against Western and Akron).
QB Pressures? He had 4. Data on that stat is harder to view on a relative basis for college football (let me know if you have a better source, I used cfbstat.com), but he was 3rd on his team, behind Zach Harrison (6) and Tommy Eichenberg (5). For Michigan (who had 31 QB pressures in 2022 vs. OSU’s 27), Jaylen Harrell had 5, Mike Morris and Eyabi Okie had 4. PSU had 51 hurries as a team, with Adisa Isaac having 8, Abdul Carter 5, and Ji’Ayir Brown 5. MSU had 30, Aaron Brule led with 5. Iowa had 31, with 4 players having 4 or more. Illinois had 47, with 5 players having 4 or more (DL Jer’zhan Newton had 11, and OLB Seth Newton had 10!). I think this is pretty widely varying stat, and probably inconsistently applied across teams. For further reference in recent Buckeye history, world beaters and legit carnage machines Chase Young and Nick Bosa each had 9 in their top college years. Joey Bosa had 14. Our man Aidan had 12, Uche and Taco 8, Rashan Gary and Winovich 7. Just looking on a relative basis, JTT seems like he ranks “OK to pretty good” here. Not great. Not near 1st round or AA.
A sobering perspective of these overall numbers (though combined with Sawyer), per Tony Gerdeman: “Tuimoloau and Sawyer both came in as 5-star prospects, and so far in their two seasons at Ohio State, they’ve produced a combined 14.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss. For a couple of comparisons, Nick Bosa produced 13 sacks and 23.5 tackles for loss by himself in his first two years. Chase Young finished his first two years with 13 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss. Joey Bosa’s numbers blow both of these out of the water so there’s no point in adding them here.”
And another, more recent one from Bucknuts: “What’s difficult to understand when reviewing the film of the Penn State game is why Tuimoloau doesn’t play that way more often. That performance made up nearly 30 percent of his tackles for a loss for the season. Prior to that game, Tuimoloau had just half a sack and only recorded one more the rest of the year. Those turnovers were the only ones he registered in 2022.”
Do you remember JTT in The Game? I don’t. He had 2 solo tackles and 2 assists.
And here is his performance in Ohio State’s best win in 2 years (their loss against Georgia):
That stat line is 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
JTT simply does not have the numbers of a 1st round pick, we all know that. But there is no doubt the kid is strong, super athletic, has a motor, and he had definitely had That One Game vs. Penn State. Wherefore the stats of a Top NFL pick that should follow?
Well I’m just a guy, what do I know? But one thing that seems obvious is that JTT doesn’t have great get-off. He lacks the coveted “explosive first step”. Even in this short 6 minute clip of Northwestern there are multiple snaps where JTT is well behind even the glacially slow Zach Harrison off the ball. I realize camera angle could be a thing here, and this isn’t every snap (some have him ahead of Harrison), but there are enough. He’s not a shotgun off the edge. Note that I’m not saying he’s necessarily slow. I am saying he’s not elite/fast.
I have a few more of these and I'll post them below (right now I'm going with 3 because the post keeps blowing up every time I add more here). If this evidence for lack of explosiveness isn’t sufficient, I'd agree. But note also that he doesn’t have much Bend. He starts low enough on most snaps, but for the most part immediately stands up and charges the blocker. Sure he contacts with his hands and uses them effectively. But that’s a poor weapon relative to a dipping shoulder. Bend is lethal because it builds momentum which builds power which can be aimed at you for one moment and turned around a corner the next; or up or down. Multiple angles for the OT to miss, or not contact effectively. JTT is instead most often content to present his upright chest and arms as the threat. At the B1G level that probably works…. Well, 3.5x a year. In the NFL this will decline to 0.
Slow, no bend.
Again. Watch the RT, which is not future first round bust Peter Skoronski, but Detroit Country Day’s own kinda-OK-right-now Caleb Tiernan. Can you imagine an easier rep for a RT?
Yes I understand that even elite players don’t get to the QB on most downs. I can clip a lot of Aiden Hutchinson not getting home as well. But I can also clip him getting to the QB 11 more times as a senior than JTT did last year. And it’s just that
nearly every
rep
looks
the same (stay for the TD at the end here).
You’ll note most of these are just bull rushes. Run at the OT, kind of lamely fake inside or out, and try to run over the guy: present chest, use arms, try to run around. Which leads to what I think is the main problem: terrible coaching. This kid looks like he’s just using his natural ability, doesn’t he? No real technique here, no footwork, no hand placement. No inside move to speak of. He just runs around the edge, tries to get around a guy using athleticism. If yes --> sack, If no --> no sack. Even at the D1 level, forget about NFL, the answer most times is going to be --> no sack.
When he looks to use another move, it’s awkward and unnatural. Here he obviously predetermines before the snap that he’s going to pull out the spin move. But the spin has to be used when you’ve set up the OT outside, so as he’s respecting your legit speed to the edge, you hit him mid-step with a spin – it’s best to keep bits of your body in contact with him, pushing him further outside with your rotating bad self – and cut inside. It’s strategy + timing + athleticism + balance and probably some more things. It’s really hard to do, even for an athletic freak. And JTT looks really far away from success here.
Even he hates his swim move.
I mean Blech af.
Has no feel here, no threatening of the edge, no set-up. He just takes a couple of steps and spins; basically present his back. Absolutely zero chance of success.
FYI: I put a ChatGPT summary at the end.
——————
Maybe it’s a good time to talk about super highly rated recruits who go to Ohio State and aren’t developed.
Let’s talk about JTT.
First off, because we’re not toothless morons, we’ll not only say their name but say it correctly: TOOEY-mo-LO-aow. Everyone (except this guy) butchers it and maybe he tired of correcting people long ago. Well, they should pronounce it correctly because according to all, he is the *****. He has all of the hype and everyone loves him. First round pick, top ten pick, AA, he and Sawyer are the best DE duo in college football (horsesh1t), the works. The people who don’t really know anything about college football *really* love him, and those that do, well they also love him but a little less. I don’t. But I’m a Michigan fan – am I a haterz?
Well, google JTT and you’ll get 1 million results with Matt Leinart breaking down That One Game vs. Penn State. Or Klatt. Or whoever’s left at ESPN. Or your grandma or high school principal or even your own podcast that you started so we could hear your thoughts on JTT in that game. We’ll discuss *That* in a little bit.
Fist let’s talk about what else besides. Look in Phil Steele’s excellent 2023 College Football Preview Magazine on page 79, where he lists 2022 sack leaders in the B1G. 19 players are listed with at least 4.5+, and there’s no JTT (he had 3.5). In 9 of the 12 games JTT played last year, he had zero sacks. In fact here are his games with sacks in 2022:
• Maryland: 1
• Iowa: 0.5
• That One Game vs. PSU: 2
• End of transmission
Also. Look similarly at TFL leaders, and he comes in tied for 10th with 10.5, with such household names as Indiana’s Aaron Casey, Northwestern’s Xander Mueller, and Sparty’s Jacoby Windmon (6.5 of whose came against Western and Akron).
QB Pressures? He had 4. Data on that stat is harder to view on a relative basis for college football (let me know if you have a better source, I used cfbstat.com), but he was 3rd on his team, behind Zach Harrison (6) and Tommy Eichenberg (5). For Michigan (who had 31 QB pressures in 2022 vs. OSU’s 27), Jaylen Harrell had 5, Mike Morris and Eyabi Okie had 4. PSU had 51 hurries as a team, with Adisa Isaac having 8, Abdul Carter 5, and Ji’Ayir Brown 5. MSU had 30, Aaron Brule led with 5. Iowa had 31, with 4 players having 4 or more. Illinois had 47, with 5 players having 4 or more (DL Jer’zhan Newton had 11, and OLB Seth Newton had 10!). I think this is pretty widely varying stat, and probably inconsistently applied across teams. For further reference in recent Buckeye history, world beaters and legit carnage machines Chase Young and Nick Bosa each had 9 in their top college years. Joey Bosa had 14. Our man Aidan had 12, Uche and Taco 8, Rashan Gary and Winovich 7. Just looking on a relative basis, JTT seems like he ranks “OK to pretty good” here. Not great. Not near 1st round or AA.
A sobering perspective of these overall numbers (though combined with Sawyer), per Tony Gerdeman: “Tuimoloau and Sawyer both came in as 5-star prospects, and so far in their two seasons at Ohio State, they’ve produced a combined 14.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss. For a couple of comparisons, Nick Bosa produced 13 sacks and 23.5 tackles for loss by himself in his first two years. Chase Young finished his first two years with 13 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss. Joey Bosa’s numbers blow both of these out of the water so there’s no point in adding them here.”
And another, more recent one from Bucknuts: “What’s difficult to understand when reviewing the film of the Penn State game is why Tuimoloau doesn’t play that way more often. That performance made up nearly 30 percent of his tackles for a loss for the season. Prior to that game, Tuimoloau had just half a sack and only recorded one more the rest of the year. Those turnovers were the only ones he registered in 2022.”
Do you remember JTT in The Game? I don’t. He had 2 solo tackles and 2 assists.
And here is his performance in Ohio State’s best win in 2 years (their loss against Georgia):
That stat line is 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0JTT simply does not have the numbers of a 1st round pick, we all know that. But there is no doubt the kid is strong, super athletic, has a motor, and he had definitely had That One Game vs. Penn State. Wherefore the stats of a Top NFL pick that should follow?
Well I’m just a guy, what do I know? But one thing that seems obvious is that JTT doesn’t have great get-off. He lacks the coveted “explosive first step”. Even in this short 6 minute clip of Northwestern there are multiple snaps where JTT is well behind even the glacially slow Zach Harrison off the ball. I realize camera angle could be a thing here, and this isn’t every snap (some have him ahead of Harrison), but there are enough. He’s not a shotgun off the edge. Note that I’m not saying he’s necessarily slow. I am saying he’s not elite/fast.
I have a few more of these and I'll post them below (right now I'm going with 3 because the post keeps blowing up every time I add more here). If this evidence for lack of explosiveness isn’t sufficient, I'd agree. But note also that he doesn’t have much Bend. He starts low enough on most snaps, but for the most part immediately stands up and charges the blocker. Sure he contacts with his hands and uses them effectively. But that’s a poor weapon relative to a dipping shoulder. Bend is lethal because it builds momentum which builds power which can be aimed at you for one moment and turned around a corner the next; or up or down. Multiple angles for the OT to miss, or not contact effectively. JTT is instead most often content to present his upright chest and arms as the threat. At the B1G level that probably works…. Well, 3.5x a year. In the NFL this will decline to 0.
Slow, no bend.
Again. Watch the RT, which is not future first round bust Peter Skoronski, but Detroit Country Day’s own kinda-OK-right-now Caleb Tiernan. Can you imagine an easier rep for a RT?
Yes I understand that even elite players don’t get to the QB on most downs. I can clip a lot of Aiden Hutchinson not getting home as well. But I can also clip him getting to the QB 11 more times as a senior than JTT did last year. And it’s just thatnearly every
rep
looks
the same (stay for the TD at the end here).
You’ll note most of these are just bull rushes. Run at the OT, kind of lamely fake inside or out, and try to run over the guy: present chest, use arms, try to run around. Which leads to what I think is the main problem: terrible coaching. This kid looks like he’s just using his natural ability, doesn’t he? No real technique here, no footwork, no hand placement. No inside move to speak of. He just runs around the edge, tries to get around a guy using athleticism. If yes --> sack, If no --> no sack. Even at the D1 level, forget about NFL, the answer most times is going to be --> no sack.When he looks to use another move, it’s awkward and unnatural. Here he obviously predetermines before the snap that he’s going to pull out the spin move. But the spin has to be used when you’ve set up the OT outside, so as he’s respecting your legit speed to the edge, you hit him mid-step with a spin – it’s best to keep bits of your body in contact with him, pushing him further outside with your rotating bad self – and cut inside. It’s strategy + timing + athleticism + balance and probably some more things. It’s really hard to do, even for an athletic freak. And JTT looks really far away from success here.
Even he hates his swim move.
I mean Blech af.
Has no feel here, no threatening of the edge, no set-up. He just takes a couple of steps and spins; basically present his back. Absolutely zero chance of success.
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