James Laurinaitis notes encouraging developments for Ohio State true freshman linebackers

After piling up 181 tackles — including 40 for loss and eight sacks — as a senior at Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas, linebacker Payton Pierce had to wait before he could do anything of the sort in a college practice — even though he early enrolled at Ohio State.

A significant ankle injury in his final prep game sidelined him throughout much of his first semester.

Don’t mistake Pierce for a summer enrollee, though. He wasn’t held back by his boot. Pierce — a finalist for the High School Butkus Award last year — absorbed loads of information during his first seven months with the Buckeyes.

When he finally took the field at the start of training camp this month, his football acumen and instinct showed.

“He’s not behind at all,” Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis said Wednesday. “There’s some certain tweaks to the defense that you gotta feel and experience and stuff, you know. But the thing you notice from Day 1 with Payton is that he was going to come downhill. And he’s very natural, very natural in the box. He has an understanding for blocking schemes and how to fall back on certain gaps.

“Just a very natural, smart football player and tough. So he’s a scrapper, not surprised — you knew that when you recruited him, him coming out of Texas and having a wrestler background. Very smart, instinctual linebacker.”

Pierce is a tackling machine. His senior year at Lovejoy wasn’t a fluke. The season before, he registered 131 tackles, complete with 21 TFLs and six sacks, not to mention five forced fumbles.

Laurinaitis described Pierce Wednesday as one of the players in his unit who, mentally, can handle multiple positions.

“I think Payton has done a nice job being at WILL, but he also understands, conceptually, the defense,” said Laurinaitis, who noted that he even tried Pierce a couple reps at MIKE linebacker that practice, just the sixth of Pierce’s young college career.

Pierce’s roommate, Garrett Stover, is also impressing so far in camp, mainly because of his speed.

Garrett Stover, the cousin of former Ohio State and current Houston Texans tight end Cade Stover, played a good bit of safety at nearby Big Walnut. He transitioned to linebacker full-time in the back half of his high school career, but he still has room to grow at the position, perhaps more than Pierce does.

Where Stover can make noise right away is in the third phase of the game.

“Garrett can run. I can tell you that. Garrett can run,” Laurinaitis said of the Sunbury, Ohio, native who also ran the 100-meter dash and 4×400 relay in high school.

“I think sometimes you got to get him to just slow down. He can be a little spastic at times, just with his feet. But when I think of Garrett Stover, if he’s not on our kickoff unit, then that’s a problem, because he can fly.”

Like Pierce, Stover certainly has tackling chops, too. He totaled 89 tackles as a senior and 92 the year before that. Besides, special teams is often the gateway to offensive or defensive snaps at Ohio State.

“Garrett’s doing well,” Laurinaitis continued. “There’s a learning curve there with him. I think the thing I love about Garrett is he’s tough, man. Those Stover boys are tough. But he’s learning as well. And him and Payton being roommates is a great thing, because those guys are trying to get in the book.”

Pierce and Stover are behind a fleet of uber-athletic linebackers on the depth chart at the moment. They don’t have to play meaningful defensive snaps in 2024.

That doesn’t take away from the strides they’re making in their first Ohio State training camp, however.