Ohio State Football can win in 2023 because of their defense

I no longer believe that defense wins championships. We live in a different era in college football where offenses look more like video games than the far cry of traditional ground and pound three-yards and a cloud of dust football that was preached to many of us throughout our playing days.

High schoolers are coming into the college game better developed physically with a higher understanding of complex schemes. However, this doesn’t mean you can win without a better-than-average defense. It does however mean that you can win with a very good defense and an outstanding offense, which seems to be the methodology the Ohio State football team was going for in 2022.

If Ryan Day and Ohio State are going to take that next step on the national scale and reclaim their rightful place atop the Big 10, they’re going to need their defense to take another giant step forward in 2023. I am optimistic that they can do just that.

First, Jim Knowles has a track record of improving every year under his tutelage. While at Duke between the years of 2010 through 2017, Duke went from the 108th overall ranked defense to 21st. Yes, there were leaps and small steps back during those eight seasons, but the turnaround is remarkable nonetheless at a place that is more known for half-court defenses than a 4-2-5 scheme.

While at Oklahoma State this same pattern emerged. The Cowboys were ranked as the 112th overall defense in 2018, improving to 82nd in 2019, and then 44th in 2020. His final season in Stillwater saw the Cowboys’ defense finish in the top 10 overall, which opened the door for Knowles to walk into Columbus as the Ohio State football program’s first-ever $2 million coordinator in school history.

Knowles admittedly knew that he wouldn’t have the same amount of time given to him at Duke and Oklahoma State to turn around the defensive woes in Columbus. Coming into his first season Ohio State’s 2021 defense was ranked 38th overall, which prompted Day to make the switch at Defense Coordinator from Kerry Coombs to Knowles. Last season, Ohio State was ranked 24th.

Second, the defense received good news early this off-season when both linebackers Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers announced that they both will be returning for another season. Eichenberg led the team in tackles last season with 120, 77 of which were solo, while Chambers was second on the team with 77, 45 solos.

Not having to worry about breaking in a new pair of linebackers will allow Knowles to spend more time in the secondary, which was by far the biggest weakness in 2022. Plus, he can relax knowing that the unit is in good hands with James Laurinaitis now coaching that unit.

Third, the youthfulness of the defensive line is all grown up. The 2021 D-line recruiting class was considered one of the best of all time by many recruiting experts. Both interior lineman Michael Hall Jr. and Tyleik Williams, along with ends J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer are all going to be in their third year on campus.

This is traditionally the year in a player’s career when we see the lightbulb turn on as he takes that next step from contributor to dominating force. All four of these guys have flashed at times, but now they will be expected to consistently dominate on a week-by-week basis.

Finally, there will be a nice influx of talent in the secondary. There is a lot of buzz around safety Sonny Styles, who graduated high school a year early and spent that year developing as a freshman on campus. Plus, the transfer portal brought in experienced DBs Ja’Had Carter from Syracuse and Davison Igbinosun from Ole Miss.

When you look at all of these factors, given the traditional leap defenses take in their second year under a Jim Knowles-led defense, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic about the Ohio State football team’s defense in 2023. Will all of this bring about the return of the Silver Bullets?

Only time will tell, but for the first time in a long time, we have reason to believe that indeed Ohio State will win games in 2023 because of their defense, and not despite that side of the ball.