Ohio State has the number one passing defense in college football, giving up just 5.2 yards per attempt. They have done it despite not getting enough production from their pass rush. They have the best secondary in the country, and it's led by true freshman Jay Timmons. When he plays, it is one of the best overall units in college football. If he can play, his presence will be key on Saturday night.
The Buckeyes are going against a good group of receivers in USC on Saturday. Probably not as good as Indiana's, but the second-best receiver room on their schedule. They gave up some yards to Charlie Becker, but ultimately held the Hoosiers' offense down. Devin Sanchez has been responsible for guarding the other team's best receiver, so he will likely be guarding star freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.
The rest of the defensive game plan will be health-dependent on Jay Timmons. If he plays, he will be the nickell/third safety role that Jordan Hancock played for the 2024 national champion Buckeyes. That allows Jermaine Matthews to be the other outside corner.
If Timmons can't play, the lack of depth at corner starts to show. Cam Calhoun is the next man up at cornerback. He would have given up the game-winning touchdown against Indiana if Nick Marsh knew where his feet were. Calhoun is a weakness that the rest of the defensive backfield needs to cover up for.
Ohio State has contingencies if Timmons doesn't play
If Calhoun plays, I would expect USC to do their best to get Kayden Dixon-Wyatt in matchups on his side of the field, or just attack his side of the field in general. It has been revealed that the lack of depth in the defensive backfield is one weakness of that unit, and teams will try to exploit it if they get the chance.
Just to contextualize how good Jay Timmons is, let's compare him to some recent freshmen. He obviously isn't as good as 2024 Jeremiah Smith. No one is. But I would venture to say he is the best Buckeye freshman on defense since at least 2021 Denzel Burke, and I would go as far as to say he is the best defensive freshman since 2016 Nick Bosa. We've seen that impact in Ohio State's biggest games, as he forced a fumble against both Texas and Indiana.
He shut down another potential Indiana scoring drive basically on his own later in the game, when he had two tackles for loss and a pass breakup in three plays to set up a fourth-down stop. I don't expect to see much more of that as the season and his career go on, because if teams are smart, they'll just stop running plays to his side.
If Jay Timmons plays, I'd feel so much better about Ohio State winning this game. If not, they will struggle a bit to contain Jayden Maiava and the USC passing attack. Let's hope for some good news on his injury, some good news on Kenyatta Jackson's injury, and a good night for the Buckeye defense.
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