Ohio State football: Jim Knowles says defense is “100% ready”

There has been a lot of talk about the Ohio State football team’s defense during this off-season. We know that Jim Knowles brought in a new scheme and has been trying to implement it with a new set of players. The defense is talked about as the missing link on this team.

When asked about the defense’s level of preparation for the season-opener against Notre Dame, Knowles said that the defense is “100% ready”. That tells me that he’s extremely confident about the work that the unit has done since Knowles took over after the Rose Bowl.

Knowles knows what the expectations are for the defense this season. He wouldn’t say something like this if he didn’t believe that it was true. The Buckeyes are projected to be one of the best teams in the country. They need to have a decent defense for that to be true.

Notre Dame is a really good test for this defense early. A good performance against the Fighting Irish would show the country that this Ohio State team is for real. We know the offense is going to be really good. Having a defense that matches would be insane.

Of course, not even Knowles can know for sure how his team is going to react on the field against a different opponent. This Saturday will be the first time they’ve played against someone else other than themselves since January. That’s a big change for a unit implementing a new system.

I do think the defense will show signs of greatness on Saturday night. How great remains to be seen. I don’t think they’ll shut Notre Dame completely down or anything like that. But again, they don’t need to be great. They just need to be average.

We’ll see just how ready Knowles’ unit really is soon enough.