Ohio State football: Time for DE’s to dominate

The Ohio State football program is known for having dominant defensive linemen since Larry Johnson got to the program. He’s coached some great defensive ends, notably Chase Young, the Bosa Brothers, Tyquan Lewis, and others. Now he’s got two other young players who are ready for the spotlight.

Jack Sawyer is one of them. He’s going to be moving around a lot this year as a DE-linebacker hybrid. He’s one of the players that I’ll be watching in the opener against Notre Dame. Quite frankly, he’s someone I’ll be watching all year. The former five-star recruit is set for a big year.

So is the other five-start recruit that came in last year’s class, J.T. Tuimoloau. JTT had only 2.5 sacks last year but also was behind the eight-ball from the moment he got to Columbus. That’s because he didn’t choose the Buckeyes until July 4th last year. He didn’t have a full summer.

Because of that, he didn’t get as many snaps as he may have hoped. There will be no such problems this year. He’s going to get rotated in heavily and could see some snaps inside at defensive tackle too. He looks bigger and stronger than he did a year ago.

Both Tuimoloau and Sawyer are looking to make big leaps as sophomores this year. If they can put pressure on the quarterback, the Buckeyes are going to win a lot of games. If they get anything out of Zach Harrison in his final season, that would be huge too.

There’s an argument to be made that the defensive ends are the most important players on this year’s Ohio State football team. If they can wreak havoc on quarterbacks, that helps a secondary that was suspect at giving up deep balls a season ago.

I’d watch all three of these guys in the opener against Notre Dame. That will give us a clue at how impactful they will be the rest of the way in 2022.