Way Too Early Look: Defensive Line (updated)

Last season the defensive line was the anchor of the team, and one of the best (if not the best) units in the entire country. In 2010, the line will look to continue the dominance they established in 2009, but will be missing a few key players as well as a lot of quality depth.

Luckily, there are also lots of young players in the pipeline itching to get on the field, giving Buckeye fans some competition to look forward to in the spring.

Perhaps most importantly for the line, Cameron Heyward chose to pass up NFL dollars and is staying in Columbus for one last go around in scarlet and gray. Heyward was the best player on a great defensive line last year and his return is a huge steps towards continued excellence on defense.

Best case scenario? Heyward pulls a Ndamukong Suh in his senior season.

That is setting the bar pretty high, and I don’t really expect Heyward to be in the running for the Heisman, but a Suh-like level of domination is certainly within the realm of possibilities for him.

Yeah, his decision to return is a pretty big deal.

Outside of Heyward, Ohio State has a a few other players returning from the rotation last season, and a few young guys with a ton of potential looking to get on the field for the first time. Join me after the jump for an in depth look at each position along the defensive line and the players that will be playing them.

I guess we will start with a quick breakdown of how the Ohio State defensive line is organized.

Over time, the line has moved from a straight 4-3 style defense to a hybrid system where one of the defensive ends doubles as a pseudo-outside linebacker. This position, as far as I can tell, is known as the LEO.

You could see this move towards a hybrid system as far back as 2002 with Will Smith dropping back into coverage from his end position. In 2005 Bobby Carpenter took the LEO position to a whole new level. He was the first player who was primarily a linebacker to be used in this role.

The coaches seemed to like what Carpenter brought to the position, and since 2005 the hybrid end has become more and more a part of the defensive scheme for Ohio State.

This move towards a hybrid system has resulted in two distinctly different defensive ends. On the strong side are your bigger, stronger defensive ends while on the LEO side you have smaller, quicker players that are primarily pass rushers and athletic enough to drop back into coverage.

Now that we have that covered, time to move into the positions.

Strong Side End

Strong side end happens to be the primary position of the previously mentioned Cameron Heyward, so there is little question about who will be starting here.

Last year, Heyward recorded 46 tackles, including 10 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. While those numbers might not be overwhelming, games like Penn State (11 tackles, 3 tfl, 2 sacks) showcase the level of dominance that he is capable of achieving.

Heyward will be getting a lot of attention from apposing offenses next season and will most likely be the target of many double teams. At the same time, he has the versatility and size to play inside or outside along the line. Based on these two things, it will be interesting to see 1.) how effective Heyward is against double teams and 2.) if Ohio State can move him around on defense in a way that minimizes the ability of offenses to focus their blocking schemes around him.

After Heyward, things get interesting. Long time members of the defensive line rotation Robert Rose and Lawrence Wilson are gone, leaving an opening for some young players to step in. The most likely candidates to back up the strong side are Keith Wells and Melvin Fellows.

Wells will be a redshirt junior. He has been in the program for several years but has yet to see significant action in games.

Fellows is a redshirt freshman who suffered an injury last season that cost him the entire year.

Both are relatively unknown commodities at this point, so they are worth keeping an eye on during spring practice to see if either establishes themselves as a part of the line rotation. Also worth keeping an eye on is incoming freshman Darryl Baldwin.

Baldwin has a huge frame at 6’7″ 250 lbs. which is the ideal size to be a strong side defensive end.

That being said, unless something goes bad ahead of him, Baldwin will most likely redshirt, leaving the depth chart looking something like this.

Update: the spring depth chart has Melvin Fellows listed ahead of Keith Wells.

LEO

As I mentioned, the LEO position features a smaller, quicker defensive end.

Last year Thadeus Gibson played the LEO position and played it well. Following the season, Gibson decided to take his game to the next level, however, meaning that the Buckeyes will be looking to replace his 45 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and 4 sacks this season.

Replacing Gibson’s production at the LEO position is nothing to take lightly, but the Buckeyes have Nathan Williams waiting to do just that.

Williams has been a consistent part of the line rotation since he (somewhat surprisingly) broke onto the scene as a true freshman in 2008. He had 18 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks that year in only 9 games. Not too shabby.

As a sophomore last season, Williams played in all thirteen games (including one start) and recorded 26 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks. So while losing Gibson is a hit, Williams is primed to step in without much of a drop off.

Williams has plenty of experience and is clearly the favorite to start at LEO next year, but like the strong side, the players looking to back him up do not have much game experience. The main contenders to back up Williams will be Solomon Thomas and Jonathan Newsome.

Thomas is a redshirt junior who has played in 13 games over his career, including eight games last year. In those eight games, he recorded 6 tackles. So yeah, not exactly extensive experience, especially in terms of production, but not exactly green either.

Newsome is a sophomore who played in 5 games last year as a true freshman and recorded 5 tackles. So once again, pretty inexperienced but not entirely.

Also in the mix are some incoming freshman. J.T. Moore, David Durham, and Jamel Turner are all possible candidates for the LEO position.

Before practice gets underway, it is safe to assume that the older guys will get the first crack at the position and the younger guys will redshirt (unless they really impress), leaving the depth chart at LEO looking something like this (which, of course, is subject to change once practice gets under way).

Update: Newsome hasn’t practiced all spring (probably due to academic issues) and is listed on the depth chart at strong side linebacker, replacing him on the LEO chart is Stewart Smith.

DT

Unlike the ends, there isn’t much of a destination to be made between the two tackle positions. Having said that, I would say that one tackle is used as more of a run stuffer in the middle (Dexter Larimore style) while the other plays further on the edge and takes on the roll of a 3-4 end when the LEO drops into coverage (Doug Worthington style).

That may have been a scheme to fit the personnel, however, and with the graduation of Doug Worthington who knows what we will end up with this year.

The two best players will be on the field, and the schemes will match the personnel. So a scheme designed for Worthington may be scrapped in favor of another scheme that fits the current players better.

Another thing to consider when it comes to the defensive tackles is that they are one of the most rotated positions on the team. So while there are technically two ‘starters’ who literally start the game, in reality there are 3 or 4 players who could be considered starters at tackle based on the playing time that they receive.

So, because of these two factors, I am going to list the tackles on one combined chart rather than break it down into two separate positions.

At the top of the chart is returning starter Dexter Larimore.

Larimore has played in a lot of games so far in his Buckeye career. 35 games with 8 starts to be exact, including 9 games and 5 starts last year in a season cut in half by injury. His injury kept him out of 4 whole games in the middle of the year and limited his ability to contribute in several others.

Larimore did return to start in the Rose Bowl, and he should be 100% for next year. So yeah, Larimore has been around the block in the Big Ten and he should be an anchor on the interior of the defensive line.

After Larimore, the loss of long time contributors Doug Worthington and Todd Denlinger will be felt. Worthington was a multiple year starter while Denlinger was player 1A behind Larimore, and when Larimore was injured Denlinger was the starter in his place.

Like defensive end, the experience of the backups is lacking, but there is no lack of talent.

One player that isn’t lacking in experience is John Simon, who is the clear number two behind Larimore heading into the spring. Simon played in 12 games last season as a true freshman, recording 15 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. Simon is a monster in the weight room and as the year progressed became more and more of a monster on the field.

Based on his performance as a true freshman, I think that Simon has the ability to be one of the best tackles Ohio State has had since 2002. That all depends on his ability to continue to improve however, so keep an eye on that.

Garrett Goebel is the next guy in the rotation and probably the first guy off the bench this year. Goebel played in all 13 games last season, so he has been on the field. It will be interesting to see what he does this year, especially since he is the most natural fit to replace Worthington.

The fourth spot is between redshirt freshman Adam Bellamy and true freshman Johnathon Hankins. For right now I will go with Belamy first since he has had a year in the system, leaving the depth chart looking something like this. However, the fact that Hankins is one of the few true run stuffing style tackles on the team means that he has a chance to move way up depending on how he does in practice.

Update: this matches the spring depth chart exactly, with Goebel listed behind Larimore and Bellamy behind Simon. Jon Lorenz, Dalton Britt, and Don Matheney are also listed.

Conclusion

I am confident that between Cameron Heyward, Dexter Larimore, Nathan Williams, and John Simon, the starting defensive line for Ohio State will be very good in 2010. On the other hand, behind these four are some serious question marks. Losing five guys from the line will create question marks, even at Ohio State.

But this is Ohio State, and there are plenty of talented young players ready to prove themselves on the field, they just haven’t had a chance yet.

The depth won’t be as good as last year, especially at the beginning of the season. How good the line will ultimately be is in the hands of the young players and how well they perform.

The battles between the young guys will be something to keep on eye on throughout the spring. Hopefully some of them can emerge, and maybe there will even be a few surprises. The line will be good in 2010, but depth is a real concern… at least for now.