The Matt Patricia experiment proved to be a smashing success for Ohio State in 2025. However, as important as schematics are, the most important element to high-quality football is high-quality players. The Buckeyes had high-quality players on their 2025 defense.
Kayden McDonald, Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs have a great chance to give the Silver Bullets a first-round 2026 NFL draft pick at every level of the defense. More All-Big Ten performers like Caden Curry and Davison Igbinosun supported them.
Ohio State finished the season with the No. 1 scoring and total defense in college football. The Buckeyes’ defense fueled a key victory over Texas to open the season and stifled almost every attack Michigan offered in The Game. Even as the offense sputtered in the Big Ten Championship Game against Indiana, the Silver Bullets battled time and again to keep a win within sight.
Miami wore down Ohio State’s front in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals and salted away a win with its running game, but that’s one of the very few blemishes on the résumé of an elite 2025 Buckeye defense. Spoiler: There are lots of As on this report card.
Defensive Line
Grade: A-
Great defenses start with a great defensive line. Ohio State’s four-man front set the tone for great performances.
McDonald had one of the greatest seasons ever by a Buckeye defensive tackle. His stats are downright unbelievable for a nose guard. He racked up 65 tackles, nine tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. A unanimous first-team All-American, McDonald was the only defensive player among the three finalists for the Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best interior lineman or linebacker.
An immaculate season from a true space-devourer. However much stock one puts into Pro Football Focus grades, McDonald was the highest-graded run defender in the entire country, regardless of position, at 91.2.
None of that should overshadow Caden Curry’s season at defensive end. He finally got his shot to start as a senior after two years as a quality backup to Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau – Curry and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. both, though Jackson still has a year remaining – and made the most of it. Curry collected 11 sacks, 4.5 more than any other defender on Ohio State’s roster, to go with 66 total tackles and a team-high 16.5 TFL. His best outing came at Washington, where he recorded 11 tackles, five TFL and three sacks.
Jackson played sound football opposite Curry at defensive end, improving as the year progressed. He produced the second-most quarterback pressures on the team, per PFF, trailing Curry’s 46 by one at 45. Jackson totaled 28 tackles with 11 TFL and 6.5 sacks.
The three-technique defensive tackle position next to McDonald featured an interesting saga. Eddrick Houston entered his sophomore season as a five-star prospect with designs of breaking out at the spot, but an injury that cost him development time in preseason camp, and he struggled to start the year. There was a three-game stretch between the Grambling State, Ohio and Washington contests where he had more penalties (three) than tackles (two). Redshirt senior Tywone Malone Jr. overtook Houston for the starting job in the second of those games.
Malone proved dependable, finishing the year with 26 tackles. Houston continued rotating and regained his footing, particularly in a three-tackle, one-sack day against Penn State. He started at three-tech for the first time since Week 2 in the CFP quarterfinals. He got to Hurricane quarterback Carson Beck for 1.5 sacks.
Unfortunately, PFF also gave Houston his worst run-defense grade of the season at 46.2 against Miami, and the eye test of film review agreed – at least the set of eyes staring at a smudged ASUS laptop screen writing this article. Couple another dominant outing from McDonald (eight tackles and a TFL) with the fact that Miami still rushed for 153 yards and had a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that included 52 rushing yards to ice its win in the fourth quarter, and clearly, the three-technique DT position was a pain point for the Buckeyes against a game Hurricane offensive line.
That semifinal-clinching series and Miami’s 5.1 yards per carry in the second half also exposed a general lack of depth for Ohio State’s defensive line, a debt that didn’t come due until the Cotton Bowl. Freshman Zion Grady ended up as the Buckeyes’ next-best defensive end option behind Curry and Jackson. Will Smith Jr. had a solid season (20 tackles) as McDonald’s backup, but the staff only entrusted him with eight snaps vs. the Hurricanes.
Overall, an incredible season for Larry Johnson’s Rushmen. But they got gassed at the very end.
Linebackers
Grade: A
It’s hard to do much better than two first-team All-Americans as your two starters at the linebacker position. That’s what Ohio State had in Styles and Reese in 2025.
Styles completed a wonderful four-year journey from high school reclassification to start his college career a year early through an up-and-down 2023 campaign at safety, to a position change and a slow start to 2024 at linebacker that saw rapid improvement before emerging as one of the nation’s best defenders in 2025. He collected a team-high 82 tackles with 6.5 TFL, one sack, an interception and three pass breakups in his senior season.
The most impressive stat associated with Styles is that he didn’t miss a single tackle during the regular season or in the Big Ten Championship Game, per PFF. He didn’t finish the season perfect on his takedowns, however, after missing two tackle attempts of powerful Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. in the CFP quarterfinals. But the team captain and Block “O” jersey recipient held the gunpowder within the Silver Bullets together.
Reese emerged as a game-wrecking chess piece for Patricia to deploy in myriad spots throughout the season. He played traditional off-ball linebacker, lined up on the end of the line of scrimmage and in B-gap or A-gap to confuse offensive fronts. Forklifting 300-pound offensive tackles from the start of the season, he racked up 69 tackles with 10 TFL and 6.5 sacks. His production trailed off in the second half of the season, with just eight combined tackles in games nine through 13 for Ohio State, but he had seven tackles vs. Miami.
Payton Pierce provided great production as the team’s No. 3 linebacker, recording 43 tackles, 1.5 TFL, an interception, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble that came on a perfect Peanut Punch against the Hurricanes. Freshman Riley Pettijohn, a five-star prospect, flashed in his brief opportunities off the bench.
James Laurinaitis has emerged as one of the best linebacker coaches in the country. All-in-all, a banner year at the position.
Safeties
Grade: A+
Downs is one of the best safeties ever to lace his cleats for the Scarlet and Gray. He joins the company of greats like Mike Doss, Jack Tatum, Donte Whitner, Malik Hooker and Mike Sensibaugh. But for a moment, we need to ponder on the season sophomore first-year starter Jaylen McClain had at Downs’ right hand.
McClain might have been listed as Ohio State’s strong safety, but he filled all the roles of an elite back-end sweeper when needed. He commanded fear in the passing game. He cleaned up any runs that leaked through. Per PFF, he allowed a mere 15 receptions for 84 yards and no touchdowns on 27 targets in pass coverage. That’s 3.1 yards per target. The nation’s worst passing offense, UMass, blew that figure out of the water in yards per pass attempt at 4.8. Staggering coverage numbers, the best among the Buckeyes’ entire secondary, in fact.
In the traditional counting stats, McClain posted 53 tackles and three PBUs. He only missed four tackles all year, and only one across Ohio State’s final eight games. And he can lay the lumber.
Downs landed his second unanimous first-team All-American selection and took home the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back. The past two seasons, his deployment and impact across Ohio State’s defense have fueled its success. He stayed versatile in Patricia’s scheme, with 240 snaps at deep safety, 241 in the box and 146 as a slot defender in 2025. He piled up 68 tackles, five TFL, a sack, two interceptions, two PBUs and two forced fumbles. He allowed just 26 receptions for 171 yards in 39 pass coverage targets (4.4 yards per target). And he probably wins Defensive MVP of the Cotton Bowl if Ohio State triumphs over Miami; he flew around the field for eight tackles and two forced fumbles against the Hurricanes in his curtain call.
The quality of Ohio State’s depth at safety, headlined by Leroy Roker III and Faheem Delane (now of LSU), largely remained a mystery despite some use in dime packages by Roker whenever starting nickel Lorenzo Styles Jr. was hurt. But it’s a mystery that didn’t need solving. No notes on the play of the Buckeyes’ two deep safeties.
Cornerbacks
Grade: B+
The only thing costing Ohio State’s cornerbacks an A-grade, which would complete a sweep for the defense’s report card, is a few costly coverage losses against Indiana and Miami. Outside that, it was an excellent season from the Buckeyes’ cornerbacks, including slot corner Lorenzo Styles Jr.
Davison Igbinosun cut back on his penalties after being college football’s most-flagged defender in 2024, penalized just five times on the year with none against Indiana or Miami. As in 2024, he was one of the nation’s best corners when he kept his coverage clean, and he did it far more often in his senior season. Opposing quarterbacks had an anemic 47.8% completion rate when targeting Igbinosun. He allowed just 4.5 yards per target, making a third Ohio State defender that turned passing offenses less efficient than the nation’s worst, UMass, when targeted.
It’s no wonder the Buckeyes finished the season as the No. 1 pass defense in passing yards allowed per game (129.7) and No. 2 in yards per pass attempt allowed (5.3).
The former Ole Miss Rebel finished his final collegiate campaign with 53 tackles, two interceptions and a team-high eight PBUs. With 157 tackles combined in his three seasons with the Buckeyes, he also goes down as one of the best run-defending corners in recent Ohio State memory.
Jermaine Mathews Jr. started opposite Igbinosun and finished the year with 26 tackles, a sack, two interceptions and three PBUs. His season got off to a roaring start with an interception against Texas, and he created two turnovers starting at nickel for the first time when Styles was out with injury vs. Illinois. But two subpar performances against Indiana and Miami will leave a sour flavor lingering in Mathews’ mouth for his senior year in 2026.
All eight combined targets of Mathews by the Hoosiers and Hurricanes were completed for a total of 108 yards. That included Elijah Sarratt’s go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter of the Big Ten title game, Indiana’s eventual game-winner.
TOUCHDOWN INDIANA
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 7, 2025
WHAT A THROW BY FERNANDO MENDOZA @IndianaFootball pic.twitter.com/7TsAQvWRbv
Conversely, Styles started the year drawing the ire of Buckeye fans by allowing a 67-yard touchdown to Ohio wide receiver Chase Hendricks. But for most of the year, Styles performed well in pass coverage at the ever-so-difficult nickel position. Excluding that 67-yard catch and dash, he allowed just 21 receptions for 194 yards in 32 targets, 6.1 yards per target. He registered 30 tackles with 1.5 TFL and three PBUs.
Styles had an up-and-down close to the season, giving up a 51-yard catch against Indiana, though Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza went 1-of-3 for 10 yards in his other three attacks of Styles, who broke up a pass. He suffered a shoulder injury in the first quarter against Miami and missed the rest of the Cotton Bowl as a result.
Five-star freshman Devin Sanchez played outside cornerback when Styles was out and entered as a sixth defensive back in dime packages when Styles was in. He made 15 tackles with two PBUs, giving up 15 receptions for 225 yards in 25 pass-coverage targets (nine yards per target).
A few plays were left on the table, but it was a good season as a whole for Ohio State’s corners as part of a great defense.
