Ohio State Buckeyes Defensive Coordinator offers clarity on key positional battle between 5-star talents
We know most who will often line up for the 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes. Even as training camp just began before the start of this coming fall slate, the Buckeyes have only a few positional battles that are playing out now. One of those battles is at linebacker. Junior Sonny Styles and third-year sophomore C.J. […]
We know most who will often line up for the 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes. Even as training camp just began before the start of this coming fall slate, the Buckeyes have only a few positional battles that are playing out now. One of those battles is at linebacker.
Junior Sonny Styles and third-year sophomore C.J. Hicks continue to rotate snaps to see who will emerge as the weakside linebacker starting next to Cody Simon. According to Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, it's "neck and neck right now."
Styles played significantly more than Hicks last season, totaling 53 tackles, two sacks, and one forced fumble. He was more of a safety, though, and wasn't nearly as impactful as most expected his 5-star skill set suggested he might be. A role change to linebacker made sense because he was clearly not super comfortable in coverage.
The team's fifth-leading tackler is 6-foot-4, 235 pounds, so linebacker will fit his frame better. Hicks is 6-foot-3, 233 pounds, and is also a tremendous athlete. He played sparingly last year, totaling eight tackles.
Despite this, the linebacker changes mean there's a big opportunity to step up. Cody Simon will be the team's primary middle linebacker with Tommy Eichenberg in the NFL, and Steele Chambers' versatile role is wide open. That's 165 tackles out of the lineup from last year.
Unsurprisingly, Knowles said they'll use both Styles and Hicks next to Simon in multi-front looks. However, they'd rotate while in their base 4-2-5 alignment. Considering their experience differences, Styles seems to have the early lead.
Getting both on the field as often as possible to see what kind of playmaking they can find makes sense. The loss of Josh Proctor won't be accounted for with a linebacker on a one-to-one level, but Proctor's ability to handle various roles and create impact plays will be missed.
Styles once had the expectations of being that sort of Kyle Hamilton presence on the defense, but putting him into space exposed slow decision-making and instincts. That's okay if he's not THAT freakish. Giving him clear downhill angles will keep things simpler and help the defense work in unison.
