Saw a tweet from College Football with Sam earlier today saying Oregon and Indiana are in a "tier of their own" when it comes to the DL this year in the B10. Have also heard Driskell over from the Notre Dame side say he's not high on our DL this year, take some jabs at James Smith saying they didn't want him blah blah (they took the Pitt guy that Ohio State didn't want because of his measureables). 

Let me take everyone back to a year ago when there was all out panic after the spring game wondering how the Buckeyes would survive the season with no returning starters, 4 players off to the NFL and and seemingly nobody of stardom on the way up. NOBODY predicted what happened. 

All Matt Patricia and Larry Johnson did in a short time was turn Caden Curry into an All American draft pick with 12.5 sacks, turn Cayden McDonald into a top NFL draft pick and even make Tywone Malone look pretty serviceable. By the end of the year I thought Kenyatta Jackson was playing like we all thought he could and if the officials in the B10 championship had the balls to call holding, we probably win that game. They didn't have a lot of superstar depth but these guys were so well coached and schemed which brings me to another point-how can you overlook the coaching aspect if you're talking about the DL or comparing them to another team? This line is deeper, more experienced and now Matt Patricia is getting his own guys in and brings back a ton of players with experience in his system. Why can't people just use proof of concept from coaching and say it's arguable that they could be better up front than a year ago with a deeper and more talented group? I'll tell you this I wouldn't trade the combo of Patricia, LJ and Joe Kim for any other group in the country. 

I don't think Indiana is as talented or deep up front as Ohio State. They don't have Kenyatta Jackson. They don't have Qua Russaw. Tyreik Tucker and Mario Landino are very good but what's behind them? Our two starters are former five stars and John Walker might be in the league now if he hadn't gotten injured in 2024. Will Smith is more than serviceable and is an old experienced veteran that's played a lot of snaps. 

On paper Oregon is pretty darn good especially their starters but I'm not trading Mateo for Kenyatta. I can't say that they have more raw talent than Ohio State it's just that everyone has seen them play together. Washington and Alexander are a great duo but Ohio State is equally as talented with better coaching IMO.  

The Film Guy Network did a breakdown of our spring game and was openly questioning how in the world Kenyatta Jackson is still playing college football as in, he should be off to the NFL I think he's going to be an All-American has already been mocked to the first round by a couple of publications. 

I think James Smith was horribly coached at Alabama and also misused as far as where they placed him at on the DL. Even with that he was a good player that their fans didn't want to see leave and thought would have a breakout season for them this year. 

John Walker is going to be a dude here. I can't recall one of the beat writers said during the open practice that Mickey Marotti pointed at Walker and said "that guy right there can play." 

Eddrick is as talented as any DL in the country IMO, now up to 305 pounds this should be a breakout season for him. People just automatically assume that because he is a former 5 star that he was going to make a seamless transition from the edge to the interior last year. 

This D end room looks incredibly deep, old and versatile with a lot of different body types. They definitely do not lack talent. Regardless, we look like we're in a WAY BETTER position heading into the fall across the entire DL.