Ohio State football: Larry Johnson talks pass rush

The Ohio State football team is known for having great play on the defensive line. The man coaching those players talked about how important a good pash rush is.

If you were having a conversation with a fellow football fan and they told you getting a sack isn’t always the most important thing for a pass rush, you’d probably think the same thing as I would. They got their “I’m a Football Expert” certificate from the Print Your Own Expert Certificate website.

Well, you’d think that or they were a Michigan fan. But, what if I told you Larry Johnson actually made that statement? Yeah, THAT Larry Johnson. The Larry Johnson who handles the Ohio State defensive line and is THE best in college football at coaching the position. This is what he said:

"I still believe sometimes pressure is better than a sack, because you force the quarterback to throw an errant throw; throw into an interception."

Johnson made the statement late last week when asked by Austin Ward of Lettermen Row what he thought of the pass rush last season (the Buckeyes had 21 sacks in 8 games). One thing an offense will do when facing a good pass rush is get the ball out of the quarterback’s hand quickly.

The veteran assistant coach said the Ohio State football team saw a lot of that in 2020. He went on to say the Buckeyes often came close to getting to the quarterback, “When you sit down and watch all of the pressures from last year, we were so close so many times to making a big play, but we didn’t get there.”

The situation was studied by Johnson in the off-season to see what can be done to counter the quick throws. He said his linemen have spent the spring working on bending the edge (a defensive end will bend to get his pads below those of the offensive tackle to gain more leverage), getting faster at reading the quick throws, bursting to the finish, and matching the quarterback’s hand (when the quarterback begins his throwing motion, the pass rusher raises his hand to mirror that of the quarterback. You can read a good and brief explanation by clicking here).

Johnson specifically mentions Haskell Garrett tipping the ball to himself for an interception in the end zone against Michigan State as an example of a lineman matching the quarterback’s hand (watch that play again here).

Johnson makes it clear he’s not about stats, “I’m not a guy chasing numbers. I’m just chasing production.” To him production includes batting the ball down, changing the arm angle of the quarterback when throwing, and getting hits on the quarterback.

Considering the amount of success Johnson has had churning out great defensive linemen for the Buckeyes, I’m buying whatever he’s selling. He has produced more Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Lineman of the Year winners (16) in his seven seasons with Ohio State than any other school in the conference in the last 24 years. So, yeah, I’m believing whatever he wants to tell me.

The Ohio State football team is talented and deep at defensive end, and Garrett is an All-American at tackle. If Johnson can use his 44 years of coaching experience to solve the problem of quick throws, it is going to go a long way in helping the Ohio State defense improve from last season.