Ohio State football: New LB’s bring more questions for defense
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State football team has a lot of returning weapons on offense and the defensive line but will be breaking in brand new linebackers in 2021.
The Ohio State football team will be breaking in a brand new set of linebackers in 2021 after all three starters graduated or went to the NFL. Ohio State will have to break in a brand new corps of linebackers that have played some but don’t have starting experience.
Gone are Pete Werner, Tuf Borland, and Baron Browning. Enter players who haven’t had a lot of experience. Dallas Gant is one of those guys. He got some snaps during blowouts but obviously doesn’t have any starting experience ahead of the guys who started this season.
Gant is probably in line for one of the starting jobs. So too is K’Vaughn Pope. Pope has good skills and can get downhill on running backs. But like Gant, he doesn’t have very much experience. He has only played in 9 total games in his career at Ohio State.
The third linebacker spot is up for grabs. Teradja Mitchell seemed angry that Justin Hilliard passed him up on the depth chart for the Big Ten Championship, posting about it on Twitter. He is a former four-star linebacker who hasn’t done much in three years in Columbus. He might look to transfer actually.
Even if Mitchell doesn’t leave he’s not guaranteed that spot. Cody Simon was a freshman who made some noise in practice. Reid Carrico is a true freshman who might fight for some time. OF course, all of this is contingent on the Buckeyes running a 4-3 instead of a 4-2-5.
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All of this will be made more clear once Spring practice rolls around. It’s the position group with the most turnover and the most questions surrounding the personnel.