Ohio State football’s defensive line starting spring push to beat Penn State and Drew Allar

Cleveland

03 March 2023

Ohio State football’s defensive line starting spring push to beat Penn State and Drew Allar

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football’s Chase Young started a trend at Penn State in 2019.

Young came back from suspension with three sacks in a 28-17 victory. Every year since, an OSU defensive linemen headlined his season with a big game against the Nittany Lions.

Nose guard Tommy Togiai led the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season with three sacks. All of them came in the second game of the season, in State College. Tyreke Smith recorded five pressures against PSU during a stretch of the 2021 season that featured the best football of his career.

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Of course, J.T. Tuimoloau obliterated the standard last season with two sacks, two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown), one pass tipped into an interception and one forced fumble. He served up a sampler platter of every way a defensive lineman could ruin a game.

All of those performances helped disrupt the same Nittany Lions quarterback — Sean Clifford. At long last he has relinquished the quarterback job to Medina’s Drew Allar. The sophomore brings another dimension to the job: Prototypical quarterback frame with arm strength to match and enough mobility to turn a breakdown into a positive scramble.

The Big Ten East is shaping up to be defined by the three quarterbacks at the top: Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy already arrived. Kyle McCord and Devin Brown are battling for the right to lead Ohio State. Allar served his one season apprenticeship and can finally put his five-star abilities on display.

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Ohio State collected the pieces necessary to build a defensive line to thwart him. This spring it can build on last season’s improvements toward the possibly unattainable standard the Young-fronted group set in 2019.

Through five games, OSU averaged merely two sacks per game. Had it held, that would have been the lowest since the 2011 squad averaged 1.77. But things picked up, and OSU finished the season at 2.62 sacks per game — essentially right in line with where it has ended up in each of the three post-Chase Young seasons.

As we reported at the time, the low sack numbers correlated with the low number of opposing pass attempts. Ohio State’s sack rate at the time, 7.46%, was adequate — not elite, but certainly not historically low. It could not record sacks on passes that were not being thrown, though.

Over the final eight games, OSU posted a sack rate of 9.23%. That stretch of the season included Mike Hall Jr.’s eight explosive snaps at Michigan State, J.T. Tuimoloau’s performance for the ages at Penn State and Zach Harrison’s career night at Maryland.

For the season, OSU’s 8.6% sack rate led the Big Ten and surpassed its average for the entire playoff era. That is a better performance that one might assume considering the absence of a single impressive sack leader.

However, advanced metrics suggest room for growth remains.

The only OSU edge defender who ranked in Pro Football Focus’ top 100 in pressure percentage was now-departed senior Zach Harrison. Tuimoloau ranked 108th among qualifiers, Sawyer 122nd. The latter did crack the top 100 in win percentage, measured directly against blocking.

So those two returning juniors can still crank up their ability to create and finish pressure. Within Johnson’s rotation, though, they need help. Harrison predicted big things for Caden Curry at the NFL Scouting Combine. This spring, though, is even bigger for the two defensive ends from the 2022 signing class who barely played last season: Kenyatta Jackson and Omari Abor.

Jackson in particular offers great intrigue as a pass rusher. His upside suggests he could have a sophomore impact off the edge like Mike Hall Jr. did at tackle last season. Both were ranked in the middle of the national top 100. Both took a back seat their first year. Both had something to prove as redshirt freshmen.

Hall, by the way, ranked 16th nationally among defensive tackles in PFF’s pressure percentage. if Jackson can slide that sort of performance in behind Tuimoloau and Sawyer, a four-quarter threat begins to emerge.

Allar alone may be a challenging matchup, but Penn State brings balance. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen combined for nearly 2,000 rushing yards last season.

Again, OSU knows what it has at the top of the tackle rotation. It needs to come out of April with a better idea of what Hero Kanu can bring to that six-deep concept. He combines size (6-4, 305) and athleticism with a still-maturing mastery of the game, having started his football experience late in life.

The Buckeyes took control of a Penn State program which had become a nuisance by winning battles up front. Keeping that going is the best way to ensure they can beat Allar before he beats them.

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