Practically everyone expected Ohio State to have the best wide receiver tandem in the country entering 2025.
Jeremiah Smith is the best receiver in college football and Carnell Tate was the best No. 3 receiver in the nation last year, drawing seven-figure offers in the transfer portal to go elsewhere. Through three games, the duo has lived up to their billing, each already with a 100-yard performance.
That Ohio State could have the best linebacker tandem in college football wasn’t thought by many. But as the Buckeyes enter their off week, Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles might fit that description.
Styles entered the season with expectations of greatness, a key returning cog in Ohio State’s 2024 defense that drove the team to a national championship. He had 100 tackles as the most improved part of the Silver Bullets, an athletic freak standing 6-foot-5 who runs like a deer. But it became clear quickly that a bigger freak could be standing next to him.
Reese looks like Henry Moore sculpted him from bronze. When he charges at offensive linemen with 50 pounds on him, he knocks them backward. Not that his 6-foot-4, 245-pound frame isn’t plenty hefty. But he carries that weight while still having speed to burn.
“Pass rush, he's certainly dynamic if you can get him around the quarterback for sure,” defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said of Reese on Tuesday. “And he's big and long and can run and chase these guys down. So just continually asking him to do different things. He's done a great job of just understanding that and being put in positions. There's a lot of calls on the field, actually, where he might be changing some of the assignments based on different looks that we have. And his ability to do that has really been outstanding.”
A breakout Week 1 against Texas with nine tackles, a sack and plenty more pressures started first-round 2026 NFL draft buzz for the junior Reese, and it hasn’t slowed since. ESPN’s Field Yates has compared him to Jalon Walker, the former Georgia linebacker and first-round NFL draft pick in 2025. Against Ohio, Reese showed another layer of his game.
Bobcat quarterback Parker Navarro is as fast as they come at the position. He rushed for 1,046 yards in 2024. Reese was assigned to spy Navarro all game, and he rushed for a measly three yards on five carries, impressive for Ohio State’s defense even if he missed a bit more than a quarter of the contest with an injury. Reese finished with a team-high seven tackles, a sack and two pass breakups. Watch him explode to take Navarro down on a delayed blitz.
Reese paces the Silver Bullets in three big defensive categories: Tackles with 20, sacks with two and pass breakups with two. None of that is to diminish the man playing next to him, however. Styles has 14 tackles, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble thus far in 2025. He’s filled the centerpiece role of the defense the same way Cody Simon did last year, even though Reese is technically the team’s Mike linebacker. They’ve played pretty positionless anyway.
Reese and Styles have also been fantastic communicators to keep the defense functioning as one unit. For Styles, that element is obvious, the senior, captain and Block “O” jersey wearer is one of the defining voices of the 2025 Buckeyes. But with the amount Reese has shifted about formations, staying in lockstep with the rest of the defense has been critical. And from Caleb Downs and Jaylen McClain at deep safety on down to the defensive line, Patricia’s been impressed with how everyone is talking.
“I think those two (Downs and McClain) and their chemistry together, along with the linebackers, those are our main communicators,” Patricia said. “And Lorenzo (Styles Jr.)'s in there, too, a little bit, because he's kind of moving positions and tied into the middle of the defense more with the communication. I think those guys, those three in the back end, along with Sonny and Arvell and Payton (Pierce), tying that to the front, it's been really good.”
Styles’ leadership shines through whenever he gets in front of a microphone. Even after Ohio State’s defense put on a great show – minus one long Ohio touchdown – against the Bobcats, his focus immediately turned to Washington, even through an off week.
“Body feels good,” Styles said after the game last Saturday. “Mentally, I think we're ready to go. We know we're about to go on a big run here. And we know this week isn’t a week to just chill. It’s time to get primed and get ready. We’ve got a big game in Washington here in two weeks, so just trying to get ready for that.”
As long as Styles and Reese play to the level they’ve been at, however, the Buckeyes can bank on having one of the best linebacker tandems in the nation.
