Ohio State’s Revamped Defense Eyes Top 5 Ranking in 2026
The Ohio State Buckeyes' defense is poised to be a top-ten unit this season, thanks to an influx of fresh talent. It's impressive considering their turnover.
Video Transcript
This year, On3 has Ohio State's defense ranked eighth coming into the season, which, you know, people might look at that as a slight, but when you look at all that they've lost- Mm-hmm it's pretty impressive that people think of them that highly already.
And they're gonna have to go out there and prove it.
But if they're a top 10 defense again this year with all of the turnover that they had, I think this team is gonna be unbelievable.
Oh, yeah, and I, I think I saw something about their projected starters.
You look at it, and it's a bunch of either new guys in new roles or transfers.
So, the fact that they're able to get in the top 1t with a bunch of guys in new roles, that's just, that's a credit to Matt Patricia and Ryan Day, what they've been doing with that defense the past couple years.
I think, I think they can finish in the top five just because we kind of have a little bit of knowledge of the, these guys coming in.
I feel like, like we said earlier, Earl To- oh, I almost said, called him Earl Thomas.
Probably plays like him.
Earl Little Jr., I think he's gonna have a sensational year.
James Smith, he's gonna be fantastic.
Talked about Christian a little bit.
He's gonna be a part of that linebacker little room rotation they might have.
So, they've got a whole bunch of new faces that I think are gonna make a big time splash, and I don't know if people are anticipating them to have the impact that they're probably gonna have.
So, I think this defense, they're gonna be top five again this year.
Just, it's Coach Day and Patricia just continuously rolling guys in and out of this program, onto the NFL, and just making huge successes of themselves.
Absolutely, and, like, the big area of question for me coming in, I thought they'd be fine on defense.
You know, Peyton's coming back and he's played a lot.
But the combination of, you know, you got TJ Alford, who I thought played really well, in spring.
Christian played really well in the spring.
Riley was hurt, but he played, you know, he had a lot of good film last year.
Mm-hmm.
I know they're trying to get Stove and get him in s- in the mix as well, 'cause he looked really good in the spring.
Like, finally it looks like the game's kind of slowing down for him.
And so they've got, like, the players that they can put out there.
And what Matt Patricia always likes to do is he tries to build packages for guys.
Right.
And so, "Hey, if you can do these things," like, "This is a four linebacker package we have.
Maybe this is more of a, you know, a blitzing package, a coverage package, a run stop package."
And, you know, look at the, the teams that they're playing this year, you know, going from playing, you know, Iowa and Illinois, where you're gonna see a lot of 12, 13 personnel, s- two tight ends, three tight ends on the field so you get more linebackers.
And then there's gonna be games where they're playing USC, where they're, you know, not running the ball hardly at all.
They're gonna try to sling all over God's creation.
So, it might be a little bit of a different look or feel, those guys building into this.
So I knew the linebackers.
Felt pretty confident about them.
Mm-hmm.
Secondary, you're losing Caleb.
Obviously, that's huge.
Losing Davidson, that's huge.
But, you know, Jalin McLean was coming back.
You also lost Lorenzo Styles, too, but Jalin McLean coming back, Jermaine coming back.
Mm-hmm.
Devin Sanchez, like, taking that next step.
And then they drop, like, Earl Little in there.
Royers has stepped up.
A lot of stuff, it's like, okay.
Secondary-wise, like, they, they've got guys who have played before that are coming in.
They've got some guys that are ascending.
You feel good.
The D-line was really the big question mark.
Yeah.
But after bringing Coy Rousseau, Rousseau, James Smith has been really good.
John Walker coming in.
Like, I think Phil Steele had the D-line as one of the best D-lines in the country.
And so if you're telling me that the area I thought was the biggest question mark is now one of the top units based upon, you know, who's in there and some of these guys developing and, you know, the development of Kenyatta and everybody else, like, they could be really stinking special.
