Hybrid defensive position being shelved this spring
Defensive coordinator shifts away from combo spot ‘because you have to go with what works.’
Ohio State began spring football drills with the disclosure that one of the mosttalked-about topics of 2022 is going to be de-emphasized, at least for now.
“I don’t know how much we’ll be delving into the ‘Jack’ this spring,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said Tuesday.
That marked the latest twist in the story of a position that ended up getting a lot more inches in print and pixels online than it did snaps on the field last fall.
First, Knowles was calling it the “Leo.” Then he said the name would be “Jack” until someone rose above the rest to make it their own because Leo is for lion, the king of the jungle.
He envisioned using the Jack, a hybrid defensive end/linebacker, one-third or even 40% of the time, but that number ended up at more like 15, according to Knowles.
The reason?
“We weren’t as productive out of it,” he said. “You have to go with what works.”
To make matters worse, trying coincidentally named sophomore Jack Sawyer at the position might have stunted his growth, so Sawyer is going to be a fulltime defensive end this spring in an effort to help him reach the potential he brought as a fivestar recruit two years ago.
However, if the position is out of sight over the 15 practices, it is not out of Knowles’ mind.
In fact, he already has at least one player in mind for it who is not full-go this spring as he recovers
from a knee injury suffered in the 2022 spring game: Mitchell Melton.
“I want to see him back to where he was, right?” Knowles said. “I thought he had a real chance. So we moved him from a linebacker to the front when I got here and then started experimenting with him in the Jack position and he jumped out. He jumped out. He really did.”
Melton is able to do individual work but is sitting out team drills in hopes of getting him to the fall at full strength.
He could make sense as the Jack
really having those guys compete at right tackle was the right play,” Day said. “It’ll take a little bit of adjustment for them.”
Michalski was the backup left tackle last season while Tshabola broke into the twodeep at right guard despite not arriving until summer workouts.
An early commitment to Ohio State’s 2022 recruiting class, Tshabola came in somewhat under the radar, especially for a four-star prospect who was the No. 104 player nationally in his class, but fans might want to start getting to know him because the staff is high on his future.
“Tegra got a lot of (second team) reps for us last year,” Day said. “We see a lot of potential in Tegra, and you know I think every rep you get in Tegra is gonna to pay off in the long run. I think it’s a really good investment. Hoping that he can make a push.”
Michalski also was a fourstar recruit, though at No. 306 nationally he was not as highly regarded coming out of Floyds Knob, Indiana, in 2021.
“This is a big year for him,” Day said. “This is year three and so again, I don’t think we’ll get an idea until we put the pads on, but even then, we were talking about it as an offensive staff at this time last year and even into the middle and towards the end of spring our guys had a hard time blocking our front.
“I think they did a great job closing the gap throughout the summer.”