Ohio State Football all-time Urban Meyer team

The defensive line

This is where things get a little tough. I had only one no-brainer choice on the entire front seven. I had to make a really hard cut on the defensive line. We also run the depth chart on the 4-3 defense that Meyer ran while he was with the Buckeyes. Here are my choices:

DE: Chase Young, Joey Bosa

DT: Adolphus Washington, Dre’Mont Jones

I had to make some really hard choices. Chase Young was the no-brainer because he’s the best Ohio State football player I’ve ever seen. Shazier was a pretty easy choice as well, even though he only played for Meyer in that 2012 season when they went undefeated.

I chose Joey Bosa over Nick Bosa because Nick got hurt in that 2018 season and never got to show us just how good he was. Joey played all three years and was great in that time. Nick’s core injury suffered against TCU kept us from seeing totally unlocked Nick.

People forget how good Washington was before he got suspended for his final collegiate game. He was one of the main reasons that the Buckeyes were so good against the run up the middle during that 2012-2015 run. He was pretty darn good.

The linebacker room is going to be absolutely brutal to choose. The Buckeyes had plenty of good linebackers back then, unlike now where they have just one stud and one guy who’s pretty good. This is back when the Buckeyes were still known for producing really good linebackers.

OLB: Darron Lee, Raekwon McMillan

MLB: Ryan Shazier

People forget just how good Ryan Shazier was as a Buckeye. There’s a reason he was a first-round pick. The guy just had a nose for the ball and always seemed to make big tackles and plays. Everyone remembers the forced fumble he had against Wisconsin on the goal line to seal the game in Madison.

It’s truly a shame that he had that brutal spinal cord injury in the NFL that cut his football career short. It’s a miracle that he can walk now and do normal things with his wife. I just wish he was able to produce at the next level as he did in Columbus.

Darron Lee was another guy that was just solid. Even though he only played two seasons before heading to the NFL, he made them count. He had 146 tackles, 11 sacks, 3 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, and a pick-six in his Ohio State football career.

His teammate, Raekwon McMillan, was also a great Buckeye. He was actually on the field for three seasons for the Buckeyes. He had 275 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 6 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, and a pick-six in his Buckeye career. He was great in coverage, knocking down 10 passes too.

Ohio State doesn’t have linebackers as good as these guys anymore. Tommy Eichenberg is pretty good, but he’s not quite on the level of these three guys. This is when Ohio State kept producing studs at that position year after year. To round out the defense, we make our secondary choices.