Can the 2026 Defense Top the 2024 Defense?
Can Ohio State’s 2026 defense be even better than the Buckeyes’ 2024 national championship defense?
Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr compare the two defenses position by position, including the defensive line, linebackers, cornerbacks, safeties, and special teams. They discuss why the 2024 defense sets such a high bar with players like J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon, Sonny Styles, Caleb Downs, Lathan Ransom, Jordan Hancock, Denzel Burke, and Davison Igbinosun.
They also look at where the 2026 Buckeyes could have an edge, including the cornerback room, the potential of the linebacker group, the return game, and whether a full-time special teams coordinator could make a major difference.
00:00 — Intro
00:10 — Comparing this year’s Buckeyes to a national championship team
00:44 — Tony sets up the 2026 vs. 2024 defense debate
00:54 — BuckeyeInsiders.com update
01:27 — Why this comparison is different from asking who can win it all
02:02 — Defensive line comparison
03:12 — Why the 2024 defensive line gets the edge for now
04:38 — Linebacker comparison
05:59 — Could the 2026 linebackers eventually catch the 2024 group?
07:32 — Cornerback comparison
08:55 — Why the 2026 cornerback room may have the edge
10:30 — Safety and nickel comparison
12:19 — Why the 2026 safeties could still be one of the nation’s best groups
13:40 — Special teams comparison
16:10 — Why 2026 special teams could be better
18:04 — Final position-by-position thoughts
19:23 — Listener question and wrap-up
Can Ohio State’s 2026 defense top the 2024 national championship defense? Drop your position-by-position picks in the comments.
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Speaker 1: No West Away.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gertleman here as always with time more time. How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 3: We get to compare this year's Ohio State team, which
everyone is very excited about, and it's getting projected as
number one in the country by some of these rating
systems and all that kind of stuff, and we're gonna
do something.
Speaker 4: Different or difficult.
Speaker 3: We're going to compare them to a team that we
already saw win a national championship. So Tony, this is
this is your idea. This is your way to spread
some you know, just bad vibes. I guess it's the
anti rat poison. This is this is one where Nick
Saban cannot be cannot be upset with you because you're
gonna tell everyone all the reasons why this IS's Ohio
State team not as good as the one from two
years ago.
Speaker 2: Do I need to do this with a lou Holtz
lisp to talk about how great the opponents are and
how bad the team that I cover is.
Speaker 4: I'd like to know where Tony Gerderman is right now.
Speaker 2: He's right here with you, and if you are here
with us, hit the thumbs.
Speaker 4: Up insiders dot com. How about that.
Speaker 2: There you go, and you can find us at Buckeye
Insiders dot com right now. The site is live. Sign
up and become a member. Would love to see you there.
It is the absolute best way to support what we do.
And I say sign up right now before I make
you angry with this discussion about looking at a tail
of the tape between the twenty twenty sixth Ohigo State
Defense and the twenty twenty four Ohigo State Defense. And
the thing is tom as we're doing this, keep in
mind the twenty twenty five defense is probably like, we
could take those guys. We could take those guys.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So the twenty twenty six versus twenty twenty four is
interesting because we saw how good a defense can be
in twenty twenty five and not win it all. So
you can have the best defense in the country and
still not win it. So that is not necessarily what
you need to have. But we know the twenty twenty
four team won a national championship. Now would a twenty
twenty six team need to go back in time to
twenty twenty four to win a national championship? Compared when
we're comparing them to that defense or could they perhaps
win it in their own timeline. I think they could, Tom,
but this is a different exercise. We're just comparing one
versus the other. You don't need to get all metaphysical.
Defensive line is.
Speaker 3: JT.
Speaker 2: Tulleym Olowow, Jack Sawyer, Tyler Williams, ty Hamilton. You're gonna
be hard pressed to find a better starting for more consistent,
more sound play as a unit, never getting like out
of their skis, are freelancing just where there need where
they need to be and where paying for offensive linemen.
We don't know as much about this year's defensive line
because of James Smith and Edward Houston finally being healthy
and in the same spot for you know, a full
cycle now and what he could be John Walker, will
Smith the defensive ends, which I think there are plenty
of There's plenty of talent there, but what we've seen
of these guys, it's we've only seen a little bit.
So I would side on the twenty twenty four defensive line,
but I think the twenty twenty six defensive line, I
think there's some real potential there that could make it interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you have to go with twenty twenty four,
just because it's a lot of potential, it's a lot
of could be, It's a lot of boy I think
we will see, but there's not you haven't seen it yet.
There's not a lot of a ton of proven guys there.
There's lots of reasons. As you said, I think that
guys are going to have bigger years this year.
Speaker 4: But we already know.
Speaker 3: J C. Tuumoloo twenty one and a half tackles for lost,
twelve and a half sacks, Jack Sawyer nine sacks, a
few impactful plays as you may recall over the years.
But uh, I don't know, boy, I don't if you
can think of any friends watching on YouTube lieve those
in the comments. I can't think of a single one
right now off the top of my head. But you
it's very difficult to say, Yeah, these guys are for
sure going to be as good as those guys.
Speaker 4: It just I think they have the possibility to be there.
Speaker 3: I think that you've got, you know, with James Smith
with I think we can sort of lump Kway Rusaw
in with this group as well, with a healthy Edwick
Houston with a you know, with Kenyada Jackson, I think
is going to have a very very big year, and
you've got lots of potential at the other defensive end spot,
but Kenyada Jackson and a lot of potential is not
you know, you can't put that even with J T. Twey,
Moloaw and Jack Sawyer knowing what those guys did. So yeah,
I think this is this is an easy twenty twenty
four for me right now. And then let's let's see
where it stands in the middle of October, end of October.
Speaker 2: Yeh, Cayden Curran, Kenyatta Jackson as the backups on defensive
end there on that one, you know, just solid depth
throughout there. Moving to linebacker and we'll just while frankly,
I guess we can talk about three linebackers because they
they've played three, but middle linebacker in twenty twenty four,
Cody Simon will be being Sonny Styles and then rvel
Reese is that third guy. Cody Simon was the first
team All Big Ten, Sonny Styles was second or third team.
Rvel Reese had like had forty three tackles. He was
not a non factor. He was not a non factor,
but he was the third linebacker this year. We have
no idea who that third linebacker is gonna be. It's
gonna be one of, you know, maybe three different guys,
and it could be could be a couple of different
guys all the time in terms of they just share
that role. Your middle linebackers, Peyton, Pierce, your will, who
knows at this point. Right So there's one known guy
and then we still got to figure out what all
of this the rest of it looks like. I like
all the parts, but I can't go against the twenty
twenty four linebackers right now. I think I think twenty
twenty six could again come close, but right now there
are way too many unknowns to take them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is one where I mean, Cody Simon had
a great, great season, but I think you can find
a Cody Simon type performance out of this group of linebackers.
And I think, you know, Sunny Styles was very good
in the twenty twenty four season. He was otherworldly in
twenty twenty five, but no one was talking about him
as a top five draft pick coming out of twenty
twenty four, so you.
Speaker 4: Know, he he was.
Speaker 3: He took another major step last year, so you got
to kind of dial him back a little bit from
the performance you remembering for twenty twenty five. This is
one where I think they could absolutely get there this
year because they have so many different potential guys. You know,
could you get a twenty twenty four rvel rees performance
out of tj Alford, out of Riley Petty John?
Speaker 4: Absolutely you could.
Speaker 3: You could maybe get better than what you got out
of r vel reas out of those two guys. That
doesn't mean that you're going to have that incredible leap
in twenty twenty seven that you got out of rvel
Rees from twenty four.
Speaker 4: To twenty five. But again we're just comparing with the
twenty four season.
Speaker 3: So this is a group that again there's there's a
lot of unproven There's a little bit of uncertainty there
in terms of where these different guys are going to
slot in. But I think this is a group where
you could again middle of the season, towards the end
of the season, if things fall right. There's enough different
talent in that room, enough depth of talent in that room,
and enough potential high end talent in that room that
I think you could potentially see this to this group
over overtake twenty twenty four, but I am definitely not
willing to put my name on that one just yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a little bit of a flyer, a futures
that type of thing where I could see it happening.
I'm not saying it is, but if it does happen,
I'm going to say I told you so. Let's uh yeah,
let's let's talk about corners, which here's here's I think
the twenty twenty six team has a shot here because
the twenty twenty four starting corners Denzel Burke and Davis Nigguanos,
and you expect Devin Sanchez to step in for Davis
Niguanos and who Law left last year. Jermaine Matthews has
already stepped in for Denzel Burke done similarly, I would say,
and has not been an All American, but has not
been somebody You're like, they got to get him out
of there, like there's there's nobody better. I know there's
been some frustrations, but there have been frustrations for regarding
Burke as well. But I think when you look at
twenty twenty four, the third corner, there was Jermaine Matthews
as a true freshman the third corner here, Dominic Kelly,
I think the I'm gonna go ahead, and I think
right now they're pretty even. And that's with the understanding
that the twenty twenty four corners won a national title
and they were all repeating they were returning starters. In
terms of Burke and Niguinosen. If you were to say
you could have one room or the other, I'm gonna say,
give me the twenty twenty six room.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm there too, and I think you have to
We talked about this on the last show. You have
to sort of price in. We've seen all these guys
win a national championship, and the twenty twenty six room
is we haven't seen Dominic Kelly do a single meaningful
thing on the field.
Speaker 4: At Ohio State.
Speaker 3: But you look at that twenty twenty four room and
I can tell people are getting their back up to
have an argument about this.
Speaker 4: In the comments.
Speaker 3: I will invite you to go back and review what
you were saying about Denzel Burke after the game at Oregon,
or what you were saying about Davison Aigunosen after any
number of individual plays where referees were reaching four penalty flags,
and you know This is a group this year where
I think this is going to be a really solid group.
I don't think this is an, you know, the single
most talented cornerback room in Ohio state history or anything
like that.
Speaker 4: But I think this is a pretty darn good cornerback room.
Speaker 3: And I think you've got some decent depth there where
you're not just relying on a true freshman to come
in like you were in twenty twenty four with Jermaine Matthews.
You're relying on a guy to come in and to
who has played a little bit at Georgia, had that
sort of first year, has gone through the whole year
of strength and conditioning and all that kind of stuff,
So he should be probably a little ahead of.
Speaker 4: Where Jermaine Matthews was.
Speaker 3: And it just looking at the other corners, I just
I think Devin Sanchez, I think Jermaine Matthews are going
to be at least as good as the two guys.
Speaker 4: Were in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: And this is one where, if things break right, this
is one that at the end of the year, we
could if we revisit this show, we could.
Speaker 4: Be saying this is an easy twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree, and that takes us to the safeties,
and boy, including the Nickel, I'm not sure Ohio State's
ever gonna have a group as good as smart, as talented,
as timely as Caleb Downs, Lathan Ransom, and Jordan Hancock.
They complimented each other perfectly, and we're just like replacing them.
You're like, you hope you can just find somebody. You're
not gonna find somebody better, and you're probably not gonna
find somebody as good. The hope is like they can
communicate as well, they can produce as well, understanding like
you're not gonna find another Caleb Downs. Maybe you can
find another lath and Ransom. But this is a guy
that's been playing forever. He was playing during the COVID
year in twenty twenty, dealt with injuries, but was just
smart and impactful.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: The play against Texas on the second down down by
the goal line where they blow up the running play.
Caleb Downs blows it up and Lathan Ransom finishes it
like they were perfect together. It's a different kind of
safety situation because neither one of them was a necessarily
like a center fielder who's going to cover a bunch
of ground. They're both they both love to hit and
love to be involved in the running game. And saying
all of that, I'm really excited to see what the
Buckeyes have and do it safety this year because I
like all of the parts and the pieces, and I
like Matt Patricia, and I think they could put up
some crazy numbers and look really good and they may
be the best safety room in America. But I can't
put anybody over the twenty twenty four safeties.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we've done a bunch of shows talking about
how excited we are about Earl Little and Terry Moore
and Jalen McClain being incredibly underrated because he's been the
guy sort of in Caleb down shadow for a couple
of years and now he's no longer in Caleb down
shadow and is sort of ready to sort of take
a big step. And you know, he's one of three
guys going to the Big Ten Media Days this year,
which that tells you an awful lot. He's the only
guy on defense going to Big Ten Media Days. That
tells you a whole.
Speaker 4: Lot about where they view his role on this year's defense.
Speaker 3: And I think, as you said, I think this could
be the best safety room in America by the end
of the season, and I mean it could be before then.
We just there's just a lot of projection because it's
two guys that we have not seen have to do
a lot. You know, we saw him in spring. We
got it, you know, we we understand, but Terry Moore
took a little longer to get up to speed than
we were expecting in the In the spring, Earl Little was.
I think the expectations for Earl Little are very very high. Again,
I think this could be a really really phenomenal Ohio
state safety unit. But the twenty twenty four Ohio State
safeties it's not quite the Orlando pace. You don't ever
comp anyone to this, but you know, an any safety
room with Caleb Downs and a couple other really really
good guys is like, this is really not a fair
benchmark to try and hold someone to.
Speaker 2: No, certainly not. And you had Lorenzo Styles is the dime.
I'm just scrolling, like Malie Hartford was a backup on
that team as well. Just boy, those safeties just really
really good time. Let's move to the special teams, which
I mean, we can also talk about the return game,
which is something that might be back, which would be
great if it was, but the punter is going to
be the same. Joe McGuire was the starting punter in
twenty twenty four. He'll be the starting punter this year.
Last year he averaged forty two yards a kick. The
year before, you average forty two yards a kick. I'm
guessing he's going to be around forty forty four yards
a kick this year, maybe between forty one and forty three,
something like that, forty two point two to forty two
point seven, somewhere in that range. That's kind of a wash.
Jaden fielding versus Connor Hawkins. I know the way that
people are going to go fielding. I think that year
was well. I think he missed five field.
Speaker 4: Goals in thirteen for seventeen that year.
Speaker 2: Okay, And the return game they're really wasn't necessarily any
They had fifteen kick fifteen kickoff returns for ten yards
a return, which is why even bother Brandon Innis led
the team with forty an average of like fifteen yards
a return. Caleb Downs had the one punt return touchdown
kind of as not a fluke, but you know, and
then Brandon Innis seven point six yards a punt return back.
Then if Legend Bay gets involved and it sounds like
they will involve him, if I like it, I'll believe
Brandon Innis is not your punt returner when I see it.
He's been the main guy the last two years. Fourteen
returns in twenty four, seventeen last year and frankly ten
point seven yards a return last year. It's not terrible.
Maybe he hits a big one. The kicking game I
think is improved, the special the return game I think
is improved. Coverage, who knows it's it's always you'll you'll
find out when you find out, it should be okay.
But sometimes we've seen over the years and it hasn't
been okay, and then you've got to get it fixed.
And they've got a coordinator seeming that could fix stuff
that is going on and won't be tied between like, well,
I'm actually the linebackers coach, and I'm going to work
on that. Get I'll get to the coverage on Wednesday
or something like that. They've got the dedicated resources to
fix those issues. So I'm going to take twenty twenty
six over twenty twenty four in the special teams.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I am as well.
Speaker 3: And you know, you look at Jaden Fielding only missing
four field goals that year, and one of them was
from fifty seven yards in the twenty one degree game
against Tennessee. So it's like he only miss three field
goals much how much better could you be? Like, well,
he missed two of them against Michigan in the game
they lost by three points, So like, oh boy, that
would be ah that's one where go ahead and miss
an extra one against Grambling or something like that. Connor Hawkins,
I think is the Certainly, the expectation is that he's
going to be an improvement at the cacking position, punting,
as you said, you know, probably a little bit of
a wash. Maybe Joe Maguire's, you know, a little better
than he was a couple of years ago. The return game,
they're just the benchmark is just not that high, and
the tie goes to the team that has the.
Speaker 4: Full time special teams coordinator who has.
Speaker 3: Which I know has not always been the case in
the history of Ohio State football in the last oh
five years or so, but you got Robbie Disher, who
you've brought in very intentionally It was not like an
internal guy who or you were looking to find a
role for. This is someone who they brought in who
is a successful special teams coordinator at Illinois, so you
were you would sort of expect a little bit more
creativity potentially there. And if you're paying for a guy
like that, tells me you are interested in having stuff
happen there. This is not just a unit that is
just sort of okay, catch the ball in hand to
the offense kind of thing. This is a unit where
you're probably looking to make some things happen this year
because you're looking at enough potential close games, one score
games that special teams could end up making a huge
difference for the Buckeyes this fall. And yeah, I'm with you.
There have not been very many where I've looked at
it and said I'm already comfortable with putting twenty twenty
six over twenty twenty four. This is one where I'm saying, yes,
give me the twenty twenty six special teams.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's one third of the game and like
one zero of the budget. No, no, no, no, you got
to spend a little bit on it. So there you go.
I think defensively, there are more opportunities for the twenty
twenty six team in special teams as well, to be
better than the twenty twenty four. The twenty twenty four
team just had some special special units where good luck
being better than the running backs, good luck being better
than those wide receivers, good luck overcoming as much adversity
as that offensive line did and still come through. And
you look at the defensive line for twenty twenty four
and it's those guys produced. They weren't monster numbers, and
there weren't monster numbers before twenty twenty four as well,
but they stepped up when when, when the opportunities were there,
when the games were on the line. And yet that
twenty twenty four team also lost two games, So there's
there's that they were. They were so good that they
lost twice in their first what twelve games. So if
they can do it, anybody can.
Speaker 4: Is that.
Speaker 2: That's not the That's not the point I'm trying to make.
But but there you go, go ahead, you got one
last time.
Speaker 4: I'm just glad you're not dividing by zero anymore. That
kind of thing you can do, just just to get
that on the record for everyone.
Speaker 2: You can with special teams. So what do you guys
think when you look at twenty twenty four position by
position in terms of the defense versus the twenty twenty sixteam,
how do you think the twenty twenty six buck guys
are going to fare? If you're watching on YouTube, go
ahead and throw those comments in there and we will
take a look at those. You can email us, you
can DM us on Twitter, we're available, or you can
also find us at Buckeye Insiders dot com where we
are constantly available on the message board there. Would love
to see there. As I said, it is if you
want a support, we do, and we thank you those
of us, those of you who have, Thank you for
watching it, thank you for the interaction all of that.
If you want to give even more, you can become
a member and say hello to us there. We would
love to see you. So that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk
to you all athletics.
Speaker 1: This time. What about.
Speaker 4: What's it through a way? Don't no one tell me?
Speaker 1: I wish it never meant nothing to me? Where if
you could tell me that's a boy, it's all right?
Speaker 4: We could steal currently tonight