Ohio State football may get funky with defensive lineups

This is now Jim Knowles’ third season as the defensive coordinator for the Ohio State football team. He has done a really good job with this team, making them into an elite defense once again. It seems the roster has a full grasp of what he wants to do. He also has a full grasp of what the roster can do.

Knowles is starting to experiment with different players lining up at different positions. While the “Jack” position didn’t exactly work, he still has decided to move Sonny Styles to linebacker. That opens up that safety spot for Caleb Downs to do his thing. That’s not the only change in the defense Knowles might look into doing next season.

The Ohio State football team might run a 3-4 defense at times

Knowles mentioned to the media that he is thinking of having a 3-4 defense sometimes with Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau on the outside acting as pass rushers. That would certainly be a different alignment than we are used to. That would probably help Sawyer get to the quarterback more easily since he has more speed than JTT does.

Ohio State was elite in just about every defensive category last season. The one stat they weren’t quite elite in was stopping the run. They were still a top-25 team doing that, but that’s not good enough in the Big Ten. We saw Michigan run it down their throats and take six minutes off the clock on their final drive. That ultimately ended Ohio State’s season.

Whatever alignment Knowles wants to have his defense in, he needs to get them to stop the run a little better. He was able to curtail big plays last season. He helped the defense be top-three in points per game, passing yards per game, and total yards per game. This is the last step for this defense.

It’s a loaded roster that should be able to stop most teams from running what they want.