Jim Knowles' first spring in Columbus went “as good or better than I could have wished” as the Buckeye defense appears to be adapting to the offseason overhaul with flying colors.
Now a full spring camp into Jim Knowles’ tenure at Ohio State, the Buckeye defense may actually be ahead of schedule as it continues to build toward a dramatic one-year turnaround this offseason.Saturday’s spring game
“Going into the game I felt great about how far we had come, what we accomplished, how much we got installed, how the players took to it,” Knowles said in his post-spring game press conference appearance. “It was as good or better than I could have wished.” “I was very pleased. We’re continuing to work on playing close to people, throwing punches, being aggressive with our coverage,” Knowles said about Ohio State’s cornerback play in the spring game. “And that may be a little bit of a change for them, and they’re adapting to it. We’re going against the best receiving corps in the country so I think it’s gonna continue to be a reason for them to get better because of who they see every day in practice.
Up front might have been where the Buckeye defense shined the most in the spring game, as portended by Knowles a few weeks ago, as the defense finished with six sacks – and probably a couple others that should have been called – and 10 tackles for loss. The largest remaining concern for Knowles lies at safety, where despite his repeated compliments of new free safety Ronnie Hickman and the steady presence of Oklahoma State transfer Tanner McCalister at nickel, depth has been a little light with injuries to a number of key performers.
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