Ohio State Football: Spring more valuable for defense than offense

It’s currently Spring break for Ohio State students, so the Ohio State football team isn’t practicing this week. They’ve had a couple of days of practice this Spring already. Spring practice is more important than in past years because of all of the changes the roster is going through.

The Buckeyes will have almost an entirely new offensive line, a new quarterback, and some new starters in the secondary. Even with all of the new starters coming in on offense, this Spring is still more important for the defense than it is for the offense.

I say that because of what’s happened the last three years with the defense, particularly the secondary. The secondary has been the reason why the Buckeyes have lost games in each of the last three seasons. Falling to Bama, TTUN twice, and Georgia was all because of poor secondary play.

This will be the second season that Jim Knowles will be the defensive coordinator. He will have another offseason to fully implement the defense. That defense should be fully installed this year, as it wasn’t in 2022. Now we should be able to see what the full scheme looks like with this roster.

If Knowles can get the scheme dialed in with these players and get some help from new starters in the secondary, then the Buckeyes have a real case to get back to the College Football Playoff no matter who the quarterback is. Ryan Day has shown he can make any quarterback great.

It’s the defense that will be the straw that stirs the drink for this team in 2023. The Ohio State football team needs to be able to keep huge plays from happening. Big chunk plays are the only thing that kept them from winning a national title a year ago.

Eliminating those plays is going to be a big focus for Knowles and his unit. Let’s hope it’s something they accomplish.