Ryan Day on Ohio State's defensive expectations: 'We expect a Top-10 defense'

Ohio State football coach Ryan Day knows that it’s difficult to be successful in college football without a top defense. Just look at Georgia, who won last season’s national championship on the back of its historically good defense.

The Buckeyes defense has a lot to be excited about heading into 2022, but also plenty of question marks as Jim Knowles gets ready to enter his first season as defensive coordinator. Still, with all of the returning talent, Day’s expectations are sky high.

“In terms of expectations, we expect a top 10 defense,” the coach said Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days. “When we’ve played our best football, it’s because we’ve played really good defense, We’ve been balanced and played complimentary football. We want to obviously stop the run to begin with and go from there, but we expect a top 10 defense.”

Ohio State ranked a lackluster ninth in the Big Ten in total defense in 2022, and was sixth at stopping the run. The addition of Knowles, who last season helped Oklahoma State finish first in the country in sacks and fifth in total defense, figures to fix those shortcomings. Ryan Day is confident the new DC can work his magic on the Buckeyes and get them back to being a top 10 defense.

Ohio State returns its top two tacklers from last season in safety Ronnie Hickman and linebacker Tommy Eichenberg. It also brings plenty of experience on the defensive line, where seniors Taron Vincent and Zach Harrison both return. But ultimately how successful the team can be will come down to how it adapts to Knowles’ system.

“We have to play winning football and that starts with stopping the run,” Day said. “I think that this offseason has been excellent in terms of installing the defense and schematics. I think our new staff has done an excellent job. Jim with the linebackers, Perry (Eliano) with the safeties, Tim (Walton) with the corners and obviously Larry (Johnson) up front. They come back with a lot of experience. Almost the entire defense is back and really almost the entire Rose Bowl team is back from last year. So that’s exciting. We have a little more experience there.

“But we have a new scheme, new coaches. All of those things are new. I think going up against them in the spring and seeing what’s happened this summer and now the preseason, it’s been exciting to watch.”

Ohio State is set to kick off the 2022 season on Sept. 3 against Notre Dame.