Kenyatta Jackson Jr.

And it's always interesting to see these guys who do it in the final season.

Not that he's, you know, completed or put anything together, but these first three games, he's been the best defensive tackle, maybe the best defensive lineman outside of Kenyatta Jackson.

And really, Tom, who would have thought at this point we would be more satisfied by what the defensive tackles have been doing than the defensive end?

Yeah, there are several guys who I think we had high expectations for that just haven't quite lived up to that yet.

We just were wrong about Kari Wilder.

We thought he would, like, maybe start at defensive end opposite Kenyatta Jackson.

He played three snaps, and you asked Ryan Day about it after the game.

yeah so quay russo started at defensive end uh opposite kenyatta jackson and i yeah so i then so i he played those three snaps and then like kind of didn't play and then also like ohio state like kind of stopped scoring so didn't have like many kickoffs either and i wasn't like the kickoff to start the second half i wasn't paying attention to see if he ran down there or not um But then after Chris Henry Jr. scored, I was paying attention to the kickoff team.

I was like, oh, Kari Wilder was running down on kickoff.

And then he went into the game after that drive on the fourth quarter.

Will Smith had five.

Terry Moore had three.

We've heard so much about James Smith.

And we saw some interesting pursuit against Ball State from James Smith where he kind of almost ran past Kenyatta Jackson on the hoof trying to get to Keldrick Luster, grabbed him by the horse collar and got that penalty.

I really also just want to see these guys get home, get to the quarterback, whether that's Kari Wilder, whether that's James Smith, where, yeah, they're creating pressure.

The first week, Kari Wilder's pressure led to an interception.

And those the line of scrimmage continues to be the boogeyman for Ohio State.

I think today offered just a few tea leaves that suggest the solution is probably going to be that 335 configuration that we've talked about and you know that off that did include kenyatta jackson doing more stand-up stuff riley pettijohn is going to be a key part of that can do that i i think that's the direction this is going and it does you know i think you against Kent State that explained why Kyrie Wilder maybe didn't get as many opportunities as people would have wanted based on the five snaps that he had against Texas or expected him to get in a game like this because and Ryan Day was asked about it afterwards well he's he's in the speed he's in the Rushman package didn't have a ton of opportunities to necessarily go to that and then he's a backup in some of these other positions and it was he was a long detailed answer to just be like Well, he wasn't in a position to play and help based on what Ohio State's game plan was today.

Now, I don't know if that's going to continue, but I think if you're going down that list of players that Matt Patricia and Larry Johnson are considering, it certainly feels like Riley Pettijohn is A, number one up there, and then everything else will be subject to change beyond that.

We saw Zion Grady leaving me a car while there.

It does not seem to me through three games that that answer is coming by way of James Smith.

It does not seem to me that Edric Houston has turned that corner that we thought he would need to.

To me, I'm looking at this defensive front, and if you're going to put three defensive linemen out there, I'm thinking it's got to be John Walker, Jason Moore, and Kenyatta Jackson right now.

And we'll see.

We've heard so much about James Smith.

And we saw some interesting pursuit against Ball State from James Smith where he kind of almost ran past Kenyatta Jackson on the hoof trying to get to Keldrick Luster, grabbed him by the horse collar and got that penalty.

I really also just want to see these guys get home, get to the quarterback, whether that's Kari Wilder, whether that's James Smith, where, yeah, they're creating pressure.

The first week, Kari Wilder's pressure led to an interception.

I thought Trevor Goosby, the left tackle for Texas, had a good game.

Kenyatta Jackson Jr., the top edge rusher for Ohio State, he's like 6'5", 260.

I like him quite a bit.

Mm-hmm.

So what I would like to see out of the tackles is potentially Carter low, get some reps.

Last time we saw Carter was, I mean, we saw him a couple of snaps here recently against ball state, but in the spring game was really bad against Kenyatta Jackson.

So I want to see him against a starting level player at Kent state.

Who's not going to be as good as Kenyatta Jackson.

And I think you need to start figuring out what you got with Carter low here.

Has there been a little bit of improvement from that spring game? That would be awesome to see.

Look at the gap.

Look at the gap.