Happy Monday!
Here’s what I’m thinking about ahead of this week of Ohio State football’s spring practice and Ohio State basketball’s offseason.
Can Ohio State’s defensive line take the next step in 2022?
It didn’t matter who you talked to on the Ohio State defensive line. This is a veteran group heading into 2022.
It doesn’t matter really what the roster looks like, that the Buckeyes will have seniors and fifth-year guys like Zach Harrison, Tyler Friday, Jerron Cage and Taron Vincent at their disposal, but that incoming sophomores Tyleik Williams, Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau are set to be the players that seem to define a group that missed the mark in terms of the historical dominance it has shown in Larry Johnson’s tenure.
Yes, sophomores: sophomores who were required to take a heightened role as freshmen on a defensive line that struggled with injuries, that basically became veterans out of necessity, or in the words of Friday, “became men,” learning to adapt to the playbook and to the speed of the college game.
If anything, the senior defensive end says, the experience of guys like Williams, Sawyer and Tuimoloau in 2021 only helps Ohio State in 2022, giving them a level of depth that it didn’t have a year ago. It’s an atmosphere that shows that young players can thrive in Johnson’s room, opening the door for players like Caden Curry, Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and Hero Kanu to burst through.
But it also sets up an expectation for those sophomores — Williams, Sawyer and Tuimoloau — to take that next step, to meet the expectation of the dominance Johnson’s room has seen before, from Chase Young to the Bosa brothers.
And heading into 2022, that’s what the room is feeling like.
Sawyer’s speaking like the true leader of the room, while Tuimoloau’s heights always continue to be raised — following up an extremely short summer after an extended recruitment with 17 tackles, 4.5 tackles-for-loss and 2.5 sacks — and Williams, while showing bursts of dominance in the middle of the line, admitted to being not quite ready in terms of his body, knowing he can be better and be that explosive player for a longer time.
This is what Friday sees.
He sees his role, sure. But he sees a return to the dominance of the room he joined in 2018 headlined by Young and Dre’Mont Jones.
“It’s a way different vibe, atmosphere in the room right now,” Friday said. “And I feel like the things we’re going to be able to accomplish this year, it’s like the sky’s the limit.”
So what expectations does the Ohio State defensive line have to live up to?
It’s something it hasn’t seen.
It’s a premise they were each recruited on, knowing the history and the magic of Johnson’s room, turning five-star defensive ends and tackles into NFL-ready monsters in the span of three seasons.
It was Young in 2019: 21 tackles-for-loss and 16.5 sacks, earning him a trip to New York City with quarterback Justin Fields as a Heisman finalist, pressure that Davon Hamilton bought into in the middle, nearing double-digit totals for tackles-for-loss, pressure that allowed Malik Harrison and Baron Browning to thrive in the rush because of all of the attention centered around that former five-star defensive end out of Hyattsville, Maryland.
It’s a rush that really hasn’t reared its head in the past two seasons.
Considering it was the shortened COVID-19 year, Ohio State finished tied with Rutgers and Penn State with 21 sacks, with no player exceeding Jonathon Cooper’s 3.5 in the Buckeyes’ eight games.
With a per-game average of 2.6 coming out of the 2020 season, it was only raised by a few percentage points at the end of 2021, ending the season with an average of 2.76 sacks per game, headlined by 5.5 by Haskell Garrett and five by Williams in the middle.
Up to 2020, Ohio State had at least one defensive lineman record double-digit tackle-for-loss numbers in each season since 2012.
So what does that look like for Tuimoloau and Sawyer?
First off, Harrison’s going to play a vital role for this defensive line. By the end of the season, we may very well be talking about a defensive end who went from a second-or-third day pick in the NFL Draft to an early second or a possible first-day jump, something Harrison sees in himself and his recruitment led people to believe.
But for Ohio State’s latest two five-star defensive ends, the ones who saw increased playing time due to the injuries on the outside of the line, that got that extended taste of what college football was like, expectations are sky high heading into their sophomore year.
So what have some of Ohio State’s success stories over the past 10 years or so done jumping from their freshman to sophomore seasons?
Here’s a look at the three defensive ends Ohio State fans think of and what that jump looked like.
Joey Bosa (four-star, No. 4 strongside DE in 2013)
2013: 42 tackles, 13.5 TFL, 7.5 sacks
2014: 55 tackles, 21.5 TFL, 13.5 sacks
Yeah, that’s unreasonable. Here’s a few that may be a bit more similar to what Tuimoloau and Sawyer are facing.
Nick Bosa (five-star, No. 2 strongside DE in 2016)
2016: 29 tackles, 7 TFL, 5 sacks
2017: 34 tackles, 16 TFL, 8.5 sacks
Chase Young (five-star, No. 3 weakside DE in 2017)
2017: 18 tackles, 5 TFL, 3.5 sacks
2018: 34 tackles, 14.5 TFL, 10.5 sacks
Can Sawyer and Tuimoloau follow in the same footsteps? We’ll have to wait and see, but the track record seems good.
So what will Ohio State’s rotation look like on the defensive line in 2022?
Honestly, this is a bit of a hard question to answer.
It’s a full room, which is easy to see. So who will come out first?
The first string seems pretty set: Harrison and Tuimoloau on the outside with Vincent and Cage on the inside. Even the backups seem set, with Williams and Ty Hamilton on the inside and Sawyer and Javontae Jean-Baptiste on the outside.
But that leaves players deep on the chart like sophomore Michael Hall Jr. in the middle, Friday on the outside and Noah Potter in whatever spot gets him on the field fastest, training to move to the inside before injuries held him back. That also leaves Curry and Jackson: the two freshmen defensive ends, along with Kanu on the inside.
This will not be an easy selection process for Johnson, one who is known to rotate guys in and out.
Jim Knowles is seeing progress from some other young guys too.
Jim Knowles is in his meeting room, installing his highly-anticipated defense. And there seems to be players that are already starting to understand and adapt to his philosophy.
This past week, the Ohio State defensive coordinator named CB Jordan Hancock and Hall Silver Bullets of the Day.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has been talking about Hancock and the rest of his 2020 cornerback class ever since he got to campus, saying that both Hancock and Jakailin Johnson were recognized this offseason as two of the most improved players on the defense coming out of winter workouts.
Even before Knowles led spring practices, he saw that potential in both Johnson and Hancock.
“I didn't know them in the past, but I see them as becoming mature,” Knowles said. “Really quick, guys athletic guys quick as I watched them in the offseason work and they have a willingness to get better and to take coaching, whether it's in the weight room. So I just think there's a ton of potential.”
Hancock didn’t play a lot this past season, playing 31 total snaps against Akron, Rutgers and Maryland.
Hall didn’t either, playing 35 snaps across Akron, Maryland, Indiana and Michigan State, recording threehurries and two tackles from the middle of the Buckeyes’ defensive line.
With these simple tweets, though, it seems like people in Knowles’ meeting room are getting and understanding what he’s bringing to the table.
So E.J. Liddell is gone. What’s next for Malaki Branham?
This was to be expected.
Liddell put out his thank-you letter to Ohio State fans Friday evening, officially ending his college career and putting his name in the NBA Draft.
As Chris Holtmann has said over and over again, Liddell is the success story that many players don’t get to have: shining at points as a sophomore, training for NBA scouts and getting feedback, but deciding to return to college for one more year, skyrocketing his stock due to all-around improvement, becoming that positionless forward that professional teams eat up.
But reading that letter and reflecting on Liddell’s time in an Ohio State uniform, my mind immediately went to Malaki Branham.
Yes, I know. My mind goes exactly where yours does too: “He can follow in the footsteps of Liddell, get feedback from NBA teams and return to be ‘the man’ as a sophomore and become a high draft pick.”
But here’s the thing. That transformation already kind of happened.
It was that game in Lincoln, Nebraska where he exploded for 35 points, becoming “the man” for an offense that was so focused on Liddell that it became easy to game plan.
The progress, in a way, was already shown, transforming into a consistent and high-efficiency scorer after a struggling start to his college career. And it was something that didn’t really change as the season went on, something that Holtmann kind of expected it to.
So the question is this: What does Branham have to prove in another season?
There’s things to learn. There’s the chance to be “the man,” the one Ohio State depends on while getting another season under his belt, becoming even more mature than he became after 10 or so games of his college career. He can become much more of a playmaker, something he showed a heightened ability to do later in his season. He can become a much better defender, feeling more and more comfortable with his length, getting bigger and stronger to become more and more positionless like Liddell was.
The question remains though. Does he need Ohio State for that transformation?
I think Branham will stay. I do. And the Buckeyes are better for it.
But the more I think about it, the more I believe that Ohio State needs Branham more than Branham needs Ohio State at this point.
So who would help out if Branham leaves?
This is going to be the main talking point of Ohio State’s entire offseason: where do the Buckeyes go to fill the Liddell and possibly Branham-shaped hole in the offense in 2022-23?
To me, it starts with Eugene Brown III.
OK, fine. Call me crazy. But we don’t know if Seth Towns and Justice Sueing will be back. The Buckeyes’ offense under Holtmann has been usually centered around a bigger guard/forward who can do a bit of everything, whether it’s drive to the hoop, fade from the midrange or hit a 3.
That’s what Holtmann wants Brown to be, something that the sophomore tried to improve upon late, showing an unafraid attitude toward taking the open 3 or driving to the hoop. Did it work every time? No, but it was progress.
The Ohio State head coach talked late in the year about how important Brown’s offseason would be. And coming in if the Buckeyes don’t have Sueing, Towns, Liddell or Branham, he has to be the player to build the offense around. Not a streaky shooter like Meechie Johnson Jr. Not Zed Key in the post.
Brown, who could do both if asked. And he will need to find consistency in that or Ohio State would be in trouble.
Where does Ohio State basketball need the most help on the transfer market?
That all depends on two things: the development of the freshman and what the roster will look like.
The Buckeyes seem to already be in the hunt for transfer help, something Holtmann has been clear about even before the season was over, knowing that transfers provide that depth and experience that helps transition.
Where do the Buckeyes need the most help?
I think it starts with that playmaking guard, someone to fill Jamari Wheeler’s spot. The Wheeler experiment didn’t really work out all that well. He provided a bit of a boost defensively and had the best season of his career offensively, but it wasn’t the role he was meant to play, instead coming in thinking he would be complimenting a razzle-dazzle offensive piece like Duane Washington Jr.
Ohio State will need that play-making piece either way, but especially if Branham returns, giving someone the reins to the offense to put the sophomore wing in the best positions to score.
From there, we’ll see what the roster looks like, but that’s a no-doubt hole even as the roster stands now.
Watching Duke is something else right now.
I don’t know about you guys, but as I have watched Duke play Texas Tech and Arkansas these past two weeks, I get more and more baffled that Ohio State beat THIS team.
I mean, Mike Krzyzewski, has so much to utilize, from Paolo Banchero, who the Buckeyes were able to somewhat stymie, to Mark Williams, who has gotten SOOOOO much better on the glass and in the paint, becoming an efficient center who dominant and emotional and would now be too much of a problem for the Buckeyes to handle.
This is a team that is efficient as all get out offensively, spreading the love around to four or five different scorers from all three levels.
It’s so easy to say at this point. But this Ohio State team would not have beaten this Duke team now. And that’s even when the Buckeyes played probably the best basketball that it had all season in the second half against Villanova, storming back and cutting the Wildcats’ lead to two.
This just seems to be Duke’s year.
And for Krzyzewski, it couldn’t have worked out much better.
Song of the week
I love the Foo Fighters.
It reminds me of growing up, car trips with my brother and my parents. It was almost the soundtrack of the mundane trips to the grocery store, to and from school and from church on Sunday, whether it was the classics like “Everlong” and “Best of You” or the album “Wasting Light” front-to-back.
And for a drummer’s band — led by the former drummer of Nirvana that does not play drums with the Foo Fighters in Dave Grohl — Taylor Hawkins served as the backbone, the center of each driving anthem. I never got to see him play live, but watching videos of him behind the drum set, like this one below, he created an atmosphere of joy, one secured by a simple drum fill and a smile, knowing that what he was doing was damn great.
This version of “Times Like These” came at a perfect time in my life, stopping me in my tracks each time I watched it. And Hawkins helped make it great, along with this unmatched eagerness and emotion in the lyric.
The band announced Friday night that Hawkins had died. This is the first video I thought of when I heard the news.
See you on the board.
Here’s what I’m thinking about ahead of this week of Ohio State football’s spring practice and Ohio State basketball’s offseason.
Can Ohio State’s defensive line take the next step in 2022?
It didn’t matter who you talked to on the Ohio State defensive line. This is a veteran group heading into 2022.
It doesn’t matter really what the roster looks like, that the Buckeyes will have seniors and fifth-year guys like Zach Harrison, Tyler Friday, Jerron Cage and Taron Vincent at their disposal, but that incoming sophomores Tyleik Williams, Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau are set to be the players that seem to define a group that missed the mark in terms of the historical dominance it has shown in Larry Johnson’s tenure.
Yes, sophomores: sophomores who were required to take a heightened role as freshmen on a defensive line that struggled with injuries, that basically became veterans out of necessity, or in the words of Friday, “became men,” learning to adapt to the playbook and to the speed of the college game.
If anything, the senior defensive end says, the experience of guys like Williams, Sawyer and Tuimoloau in 2021 only helps Ohio State in 2022, giving them a level of depth that it didn’t have a year ago. It’s an atmosphere that shows that young players can thrive in Johnson’s room, opening the door for players like Caden Curry, Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and Hero Kanu to burst through.
But it also sets up an expectation for those sophomores — Williams, Sawyer and Tuimoloau — to take that next step, to meet the expectation of the dominance Johnson’s room has seen before, from Chase Young to the Bosa brothers.
And heading into 2022, that’s what the room is feeling like.
Sawyer’s speaking like the true leader of the room, while Tuimoloau’s heights always continue to be raised — following up an extremely short summer after an extended recruitment with 17 tackles, 4.5 tackles-for-loss and 2.5 sacks — and Williams, while showing bursts of dominance in the middle of the line, admitted to being not quite ready in terms of his body, knowing he can be better and be that explosive player for a longer time.
This is what Friday sees.
He sees his role, sure. But he sees a return to the dominance of the room he joined in 2018 headlined by Young and Dre’Mont Jones.
“It’s a way different vibe, atmosphere in the room right now,” Friday said. “And I feel like the things we’re going to be able to accomplish this year, it’s like the sky’s the limit.”
So what expectations does the Ohio State defensive line have to live up to?
It’s something it hasn’t seen.
It’s a premise they were each recruited on, knowing the history and the magic of Johnson’s room, turning five-star defensive ends and tackles into NFL-ready monsters in the span of three seasons.
It was Young in 2019: 21 tackles-for-loss and 16.5 sacks, earning him a trip to New York City with quarterback Justin Fields as a Heisman finalist, pressure that Davon Hamilton bought into in the middle, nearing double-digit totals for tackles-for-loss, pressure that allowed Malik Harrison and Baron Browning to thrive in the rush because of all of the attention centered around that former five-star defensive end out of Hyattsville, Maryland.
It’s a rush that really hasn’t reared its head in the past two seasons.
Considering it was the shortened COVID-19 year, Ohio State finished tied with Rutgers and Penn State with 21 sacks, with no player exceeding Jonathon Cooper’s 3.5 in the Buckeyes’ eight games.
With a per-game average of 2.6 coming out of the 2020 season, it was only raised by a few percentage points at the end of 2021, ending the season with an average of 2.76 sacks per game, headlined by 5.5 by Haskell Garrett and five by Williams in the middle.
Up to 2020, Ohio State had at least one defensive lineman record double-digit tackle-for-loss numbers in each season since 2012.
So what does that look like for Tuimoloau and Sawyer?
First off, Harrison’s going to play a vital role for this defensive line. By the end of the season, we may very well be talking about a defensive end who went from a second-or-third day pick in the NFL Draft to an early second or a possible first-day jump, something Harrison sees in himself and his recruitment led people to believe.
But for Ohio State’s latest two five-star defensive ends, the ones who saw increased playing time due to the injuries on the outside of the line, that got that extended taste of what college football was like, expectations are sky high heading into their sophomore year.
So what have some of Ohio State’s success stories over the past 10 years or so done jumping from their freshman to sophomore seasons?
Here’s a look at the three defensive ends Ohio State fans think of and what that jump looked like.
Joey Bosa (four-star, No. 4 strongside DE in 2013)
2013: 42 tackles, 13.5 TFL, 7.5 sacks
2014: 55 tackles, 21.5 TFL, 13.5 sacks
Yeah, that’s unreasonable. Here’s a few that may be a bit more similar to what Tuimoloau and Sawyer are facing.
Nick Bosa (five-star, No. 2 strongside DE in 2016)
2016: 29 tackles, 7 TFL, 5 sacks
2017: 34 tackles, 16 TFL, 8.5 sacks
Chase Young (five-star, No. 3 weakside DE in 2017)
2017: 18 tackles, 5 TFL, 3.5 sacks
2018: 34 tackles, 14.5 TFL, 10.5 sacks
Can Sawyer and Tuimoloau follow in the same footsteps? We’ll have to wait and see, but the track record seems good.
So what will Ohio State’s rotation look like on the defensive line in 2022?
Honestly, this is a bit of a hard question to answer.
It’s a full room, which is easy to see. So who will come out first?
The first string seems pretty set: Harrison and Tuimoloau on the outside with Vincent and Cage on the inside. Even the backups seem set, with Williams and Ty Hamilton on the inside and Sawyer and Javontae Jean-Baptiste on the outside.
But that leaves players deep on the chart like sophomore Michael Hall Jr. in the middle, Friday on the outside and Noah Potter in whatever spot gets him on the field fastest, training to move to the inside before injuries held him back. That also leaves Curry and Jackson: the two freshmen defensive ends, along with Kanu on the inside.
This will not be an easy selection process for Johnson, one who is known to rotate guys in and out.
Jim Knowles is seeing progress from some other young guys too.
Jim Knowles is in his meeting room, installing his highly-anticipated defense. And there seems to be players that are already starting to understand and adapt to his philosophy.
This past week, the Ohio State defensive coordinator named CB Jordan Hancock and Hall Silver Bullets of the Day.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has been talking about Hancock and the rest of his 2020 cornerback class ever since he got to campus, saying that both Hancock and Jakailin Johnson were recognized this offseason as two of the most improved players on the defense coming out of winter workouts.
Even before Knowles led spring practices, he saw that potential in both Johnson and Hancock.
“I didn't know them in the past, but I see them as becoming mature,” Knowles said. “Really quick, guys athletic guys quick as I watched them in the offseason work and they have a willingness to get better and to take coaching, whether it's in the weight room. So I just think there's a ton of potential.”
Hancock didn’t play a lot this past season, playing 31 total snaps against Akron, Rutgers and Maryland.
Hall didn’t either, playing 35 snaps across Akron, Maryland, Indiana and Michigan State, recording threehurries and two tackles from the middle of the Buckeyes’ defensive line.
With these simple tweets, though, it seems like people in Knowles’ meeting room are getting and understanding what he’s bringing to the table.
So E.J. Liddell is gone. What’s next for Malaki Branham?
This was to be expected.
Liddell put out his thank-you letter to Ohio State fans Friday evening, officially ending his college career and putting his name in the NBA Draft.
As Chris Holtmann has said over and over again, Liddell is the success story that many players don’t get to have: shining at points as a sophomore, training for NBA scouts and getting feedback, but deciding to return to college for one more year, skyrocketing his stock due to all-around improvement, becoming that positionless forward that professional teams eat up.
But reading that letter and reflecting on Liddell’s time in an Ohio State uniform, my mind immediately went to Malaki Branham.
Yes, I know. My mind goes exactly where yours does too: “He can follow in the footsteps of Liddell, get feedback from NBA teams and return to be ‘the man’ as a sophomore and become a high draft pick.”
But here’s the thing. That transformation already kind of happened.
It was that game in Lincoln, Nebraska where he exploded for 35 points, becoming “the man” for an offense that was so focused on Liddell that it became easy to game plan.
The progress, in a way, was already shown, transforming into a consistent and high-efficiency scorer after a struggling start to his college career. And it was something that didn’t really change as the season went on, something that Holtmann kind of expected it to.
So the question is this: What does Branham have to prove in another season?
There’s things to learn. There’s the chance to be “the man,” the one Ohio State depends on while getting another season under his belt, becoming even more mature than he became after 10 or so games of his college career. He can become much more of a playmaker, something he showed a heightened ability to do later in his season. He can become a much better defender, feeling more and more comfortable with his length, getting bigger and stronger to become more and more positionless like Liddell was.
The question remains though. Does he need Ohio State for that transformation?
I think Branham will stay. I do. And the Buckeyes are better for it.
But the more I think about it, the more I believe that Ohio State needs Branham more than Branham needs Ohio State at this point.
So who would help out if Branham leaves?
This is going to be the main talking point of Ohio State’s entire offseason: where do the Buckeyes go to fill the Liddell and possibly Branham-shaped hole in the offense in 2022-23?
To me, it starts with Eugene Brown III.
OK, fine. Call me crazy. But we don’t know if Seth Towns and Justice Sueing will be back. The Buckeyes’ offense under Holtmann has been usually centered around a bigger guard/forward who can do a bit of everything, whether it’s drive to the hoop, fade from the midrange or hit a 3.
That’s what Holtmann wants Brown to be, something that the sophomore tried to improve upon late, showing an unafraid attitude toward taking the open 3 or driving to the hoop. Did it work every time? No, but it was progress.
The Ohio State head coach talked late in the year about how important Brown’s offseason would be. And coming in if the Buckeyes don’t have Sueing, Towns, Liddell or Branham, he has to be the player to build the offense around. Not a streaky shooter like Meechie Johnson Jr. Not Zed Key in the post.
Brown, who could do both if asked. And he will need to find consistency in that or Ohio State would be in trouble.
Where does Ohio State basketball need the most help on the transfer market?
That all depends on two things: the development of the freshman and what the roster will look like.
The Buckeyes seem to already be in the hunt for transfer help, something Holtmann has been clear about even before the season was over, knowing that transfers provide that depth and experience that helps transition.
Where do the Buckeyes need the most help?
I think it starts with that playmaking guard, someone to fill Jamari Wheeler’s spot. The Wheeler experiment didn’t really work out all that well. He provided a bit of a boost defensively and had the best season of his career offensively, but it wasn’t the role he was meant to play, instead coming in thinking he would be complimenting a razzle-dazzle offensive piece like Duane Washington Jr.
Ohio State will need that play-making piece either way, but especially if Branham returns, giving someone the reins to the offense to put the sophomore wing in the best positions to score.
From there, we’ll see what the roster looks like, but that’s a no-doubt hole even as the roster stands now.
Watching Duke is something else right now.
I don’t know about you guys, but as I have watched Duke play Texas Tech and Arkansas these past two weeks, I get more and more baffled that Ohio State beat THIS team.
I mean, Mike Krzyzewski, has so much to utilize, from Paolo Banchero, who the Buckeyes were able to somewhat stymie, to Mark Williams, who has gotten SOOOOO much better on the glass and in the paint, becoming an efficient center who dominant and emotional and would now be too much of a problem for the Buckeyes to handle.
This is a team that is efficient as all get out offensively, spreading the love around to four or five different scorers from all three levels.
It’s so easy to say at this point. But this Ohio State team would not have beaten this Duke team now. And that’s even when the Buckeyes played probably the best basketball that it had all season in the second half against Villanova, storming back and cutting the Wildcats’ lead to two.
This just seems to be Duke’s year.
And for Krzyzewski, it couldn’t have worked out much better.
Song of the week
I love the Foo Fighters.
It reminds me of growing up, car trips with my brother and my parents. It was almost the soundtrack of the mundane trips to the grocery store, to and from school and from church on Sunday, whether it was the classics like “Everlong” and “Best of You” or the album “Wasting Light” front-to-back.
And for a drummer’s band — led by the former drummer of Nirvana that does not play drums with the Foo Fighters in Dave Grohl — Taylor Hawkins served as the backbone, the center of each driving anthem. I never got to see him play live, but watching videos of him behind the drum set, like this one below, he created an atmosphere of joy, one secured by a simple drum fill and a smile, knowing that what he was doing was damn great.
This version of “Times Like These” came at a perfect time in my life, stopping me in my tracks each time I watched it. And Hawkins helped make it great, along with this unmatched eagerness and emotion in the lyric.
The band announced Friday night that Hawkins had died. This is the first video I thought of when I heard the news.
See you on the board.
