Mark Wogenrich discusses all of the Penn State offensive weapons and the challenge that lies ahead of the Buckeyes this weekend.
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00:00 >> Now you mentioned Ohio State's defense and they're just, I mean, Penn State and
00:05 Ohio State are like 1A, 1B in a bunch of big 10 and national rankings,
00:09 flipping back and forth between them.
00:12 They've been as just as disruptive and as suffocating as Penn State's
00:17 been against a schedule, against a better schedule, frankly,
00:22 so far at least against two better offenses than Penn State has played.
00:28 How does Ohio State's defense approach a game where the offensive identity is,
00:33 in my opinion for Penn State, different than maybe what you expected?
00:39 And they have six games of film to watch and have seen that this is not
00:43 the big play offense that maybe the people came into the year expecting.
00:49 But it's comfortable in its skin of time of possession,
00:52 extending drives and being a red zone team.
00:54 Can Ohio State play defense against that?
00:58 >> Yeah, I think Ohio State, without a sliver of a doubt,
01:02 in every category that matters is a top five defense in the country.
01:07 And certainly in a lot of ways,
01:09 Penn State looks like that same caliber of defense.
01:12 There have been a few rumblings of displeasure from the defensive
01:17 line because we haven't seen the high sack totals or high tackle for loss totals.
01:25 I think it's been a byproduct of the fact that the Buckeyes have seen a lot
01:29 of teams that are trying to get the ball out of their hands quickly.
01:33 Indiana did not wanna drop back and throw the ball very much.
01:36 Youngstown State had no interest in doing that.
01:39 Western Kentucky has one of the most past happy offenses in America.
01:43 Their quarterback last year led FBS in passing, and
01:45 the kid wants to just chuck it all over the field.
01:48 And the ball was out of his hand in two seconds almost every time.
01:52 So when Ohio State fans are like, why is Jack Sawyer not racking up sacks the way
01:56 we expect him to?
01:57 He's supposed to be this big prospect.
02:00 It's kinda like pump the brakes a little here.
02:01 It's not a huge deal.
02:06 It starts up front, and Penn State knows it better than anybody else,
02:10 unfortunately, because of what JT Tui-Molawau did last year.
02:14 He is different, and he is capable of doing what he did in that game last year
02:20 pretty regularly.
02:21 He made a couple of enormous plays in the Notre Dame game that helped
02:26 Ohio State get the ball back and conserve some time, and
02:31 ultimately drive down the field and win that game.
02:33 Tyleek Williams at defensive tackle, he's been a monster.
02:37 I mean, he's been completely relentless.
02:40 And I came into the season expecting that I would say that a little bit more about
02:44 Mike Hall, who's also been very, very good.
02:47 But I'm pleasantly surprised with how well Tyleek Williams has played.
02:52 And Jack Sawyer's been excellent.
02:54 Kaden Curry has been excellent.
02:57 We've seen a little Kenyatta Jackson.
02:58 He's played really, really well.
03:00 So it starts up front for the Ohio State defense.
03:04 Tommy Eichenberg maybe hasn't had his best two games the last two weeks,
03:07 but has largely been rock solid and essentially quarterbacks the defense.
03:15 Cody Simon has earned his way on the field a little bit more recently instead of
03:18 Steel Chambers.
03:19 Cody's been really good, especially in the run game.
03:21 Jim Knowles likes to use Steel a little bit more in the pass game.
03:25 And the big improvement coming into the year overall is the secondary.
03:30 And anybody that watched Ohio State the last two years,
03:36 they basically came into this season saying exactly one thing.
03:40 I'll start believing in this team when they stop giving up big plays.
03:45 Because Michigan and Georgia destroyed the Buckeyes.
03:48 They had combined eight plays of 40 yards or more.
03:52 Ohio State has not given up a single play of 40 yards or more in six games
03:56 this year.
03:56 And it has a lot--
03:57 Penn State has won.
03:58 Offensively, Penn State has won.
04:01 Well, and to that point, I don't know that they're not capable of it.
04:04 They just haven't done it.
04:06 And so I actually asked Ryan Day yesterday about that.
04:10 It's like, how do you prepare for what you haven't seen on film?
04:13 Like, you know what their talent is.
04:16 You guys cross-recruit a lot of the same stuff.
04:19 You know what they're capable of.
04:21 Like, how do you try to make sure you're ready for everything,
04:24 even though you might only be seeing a small part of it?
04:30 And I guess I didn't expect him to go into great detail.
04:33 But he basically just said, it's your job.
04:35 You got to figure it out.
04:36 And Jim Knowles went on to say, like, be ready for everything.
04:40 Stop everything.
04:42 The defense has to do its job.
04:45 And to Jim's credit, he's acknowledged several times
04:51 publicly this year that he's essentially
04:53 changed his philosophy defensively from where
04:56 he was at Oklahoma State.
04:58 Because his two defenses the last two years at Oklahoma State
05:02 that were top five in the country were ultra aggressive,
05:06 like, extremely aggressive.
05:10 And when he came to Ohio State, he had a similar mentality.
05:14 And there were huge steps forward,
05:16 because schematically, it was better than where
05:19 it was two years ago anyways.
05:21 But the Buckeyes still couldn't stop giving up big plays.
05:23 And he said, I had to essentially tell myself
05:26 in the offseason, you know what?
05:28 I got a little bit better athlete here.
05:30 I got a little bit deeper roster here.
05:33 I don't necessarily need to call crazy exotic blitzes.
05:37 I got to trust the guys up front that
05:39 are good enough to get home.
05:40 I got to trust them to do it and play a defense that's not--
05:45 I don't want to use the word softer, but less likely
05:48 to get beat over the top.
05:51 And through six games, they haven't.
05:53 So it's still an aggressive secondary.
05:56 Josh Proctor is like the most aggressive safety
05:59 you're ever going to see play.
06:00 And it's going to burn him somewhere along the way,
06:02 I'm sure of it.
06:04 Sonny Stiles is a young kid with a super bright future.
06:08 Latham Ransom's played well this year.
06:10 Denzel Burke at corner has had a far better year this year
06:13 than he did last year.
06:14 Looks like the freshman All-American
06:16 he was two years ago.
06:18 And I think Davison Igbenosin has played fine.
06:20 I'm not completely enthralled with what I've seen from him,
06:24 but step up for sure.
06:27 Jermaine Matthews may get some time at cornerback
06:30 this weekend too because of some injuries.
06:31 So yeah, Ohio State, make no mistake about it.
06:35 They are for real because their defense this year
06:39 has totally changed the game for them.