Jim Knowles shares plan to use LEO position in Buckeyes defense

The Ohio State Buckeyes‘ new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles took some time on Wednesday to go over his plans for the LEO position in the teams’ defense. The Leo position is a hybrid combo linebacker, defensive lineman. It is a position Knowles has used and has been fond of in the past. But so far, during this year’s spring practices, it’s hard to tell who is playing that position or if the Buckeyes are even planning on using it. However, in the press conference, Knowles explains that some changes have been made to that position.

“Yeah we dropped a bunch of it in today, actually,” said Knowles. “And my plan has been to push, back off, push, back off. So I’ll download a bunch of information and then I’ll pull back into like calling the same defense for awhile. Then download a bunch of information. And we want to be able to get everything on film so we can coach off it. But yeah, we put it in today and I told them we’re not going to call LEO.

“We’re gonna call it a JACK, for now. Because the LEO is the king of the jungle. So when you become the LEO that’s a big deal because you can do what a defensive end does and you can do what a linebacker does. So right now it’s just more of what we call a JACK position.”

With Knowles renaming the position, it is likely that it will not be used precisely in the same way it has been in the past. And with a change like that, we should also expect a difference in the type of player who will play the JACK position. So far, there have been a few players that have caught the defensive coordinator’s eye.

“And yeah a bunch of guys got a shot at it today. Jack (Sawyer) got a shot at it. Like him, I like him a lot, you know. He’s serious about it. The guy who’s impressed me after the move quickly was Mitchell (Melton), you know. Mitchell has done a great job for coach Johnson and then we put him in this Jack position and I thought he showed up very well. So he’s kind of been a guy who’s jumped out at me,” said Knowles.

Day explains why Cade Stover’s move back to tight end fits Ohio States plans

Cade Stover had an interesting 2021 season. He was in his second year as a tight end, but had to move to linebacker in the Rose Bowl because Ohio State was down so many players.

Now, he’s moving back to tight end, and Ryan Day said that’s the best fit for the Buckeyes this season.

In that Rose Bowl game, he had six tackles as Ohio State defeated Utah in a shootout for the ages. But with the linebacker room back to full strength, he’s heading back to the offensive side of the ball — and Day said that’s a good thing.

“Cade, I think, always saw himself as a linebacker growing up and when he came here,” Day said. “And then he put a whole year of work into playing tight end, and the way it played out in the Rose Bowl is we were down some linebackers and I think when he got over there, he realized that he loves being over there at linebacker because he can play with that edge. So at the end of the day, it was really up to him. Same thing when Steele [Chambers] went over to defense. We want guys to own it.