Ohio State football: The little thing Larry Johnson wants his pass rushers to improve
Aug. 17—COLUMBUS — Once known for producing fearsome pass rushers, Ohio State has struggled to get to the quarterback as much in recent seasons.
The Buckeyes finished with 34 sacks in 2022.
That total was down three from the previous season and the second-lowest in a full season since Larry Johnson became defensive line coach in Columbus in 2014.
Ohio State had only 28 sacks in 2016.
Considered a pass-rush teaching specialist, Johnson went to work in the offseason looking for ways to help his pupils improve. That led him to focus on getting off the line faster.
While that might sound simple, Johnson explained why it isn't.
"It's like anything else, right? You put a car in rear and you want to go forward, and then you know what's gonna happen, right?" Johnson said. "So what we're trying to do in our evaluation of every play that we watch from practice is we pause it to watch every step to make sure it's correct."
That includes getting maximum depth out of each step and maintaining a straight line to the quarterback.
"Once we can fix those steps and get him to understand that he's gotta cross the line of scrimmage on the first step, then you start developing," Johnson said. "So it's not something we just guess. We have to have a reason why we fix that step. He has to be able to see it on videotape to do that, if that makes sense."
J.T. Tuimoloau, who had 3.5 sacks last season, is a believer.
"I think my first step has evolved since my freshman year and it can still be a little better, but that's one of the small things I felt like I've been better at," the junior said.
Meanwhile, Johnson sounded as if he did not want the focus of the front to be only on sacks.
While the Buckeyes did not make much progress from a pass-rushing standpoint, they did improve against the run in the first season under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, especially from an efficiency standpoint.
That was achieved with the linemen doing more to occupy gaps on early downs to allow the linebackers to clean up.
This season the challenge is to maintain a team-focused effort to stop the run while adding more individual splash plays in the backfield without compromising one for the other.
"I think when you talk about sacks, you're talking about a stat," Johnson said. "I'm talking about having four guys who have the skill set to rush the quarterback and no one cares who gets the credit," said Johnson, who hopes to have a deep rotation with Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer at end backed up by Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Curry and Mitchell Melton.
"So now you have four guys who can make an impact. J.T., Jack or K.J. — it doesn't matter who they are — they're not as good unless my inside guys are providing an inside rush. So there's a combination of both. So we don't look at stats. We're looking for unit stats, how we're doing as a unit.
"Are we getting pressure? Are we getting there? I think that's what you have to wait and see how it goes. They could triple team J.T. and he might not get one sack all season. Is he a bad player? No, so you've got to have that guy or that guy or that guy who can change the game because you can't double-team everybody."
