Ohio State Football: Which safety steps up?

The Ohio State football team was a disaster at the safety position last year. After Josh Proctor got hurt in the second game against Oregon, Bryson Shaw had to take over. He was very bad for most of the year and transferred out of the program in the offseason.

Now, the Buckeyes have several safeties who could step into a leading role. Ronnie Hickman is the most obvious candidate to do so after leading the team in tackles a year ago. At the same time, do you really want your safety to lead the team in tackles? That means a lot of big plays are happening against you.

Proctor is back and will be healthy by the time the season starts. He wasn’t great in 2020 either, but he was looking good in practice prior to his injury against Oregon. He wants a chance to be an impact player. He’s going to be fighting for playing time with a transfer as well.

That transfer is Tanner McCalister. McCalister comes along with Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State and figures to get a lot of snaps. He knows this defense extremely well and was able to execute it at a high level. While he doesn’t have great ball skills, he can close and tackle well in space.

True freshman Sonny Styles is the most talented safety the Buckeyes have on their roster. He is a five-star recruit that reclassified to join the Ohio State football team early. While I don’t expect him to play a ton when it matters, his snaps in blowouts will help him develop into a potential starter next year.

Of these four safeties, Hickman is going to be the best in my opinion. He knows how to tackle well and showed improved ball skills as the year went on. I think he’s going to have a big year. I also expect McCalister to be solid. Proctor is still up in the air as far as I’m concerned.

The better the safeties are, the more improved this defense will be from a year ago.