Cracking Nuts: Beating the Buckeyes in Blacksburg

I made it no secret last season that I thought that the Hokies presented dangerous matchup problems for Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Hokies' aggressive, gap-shooting defensive front overwhelmed the Buckeyes' inexperienced interior offensive line. Scot Loeffler's short-passing game plan was perfectly suited to exploit an Ohio State secondary that was using a new cover 4 scheme for the first time against a sophisticated pass scheme.

The rematch is right around the corner and many of those advantages still continue to favor Virginia Tech. The Hokies return the same defensive line (and Deon Clarke) that decimated the Buckeyes' blocking schemes last season. The Hokies have an experienced, talented group of secondary players that excel covering one-on-one. The Buckeyes continue to emphasize the same coverage schemes that allowed Michael Brewer to find favorable matchups, especially Tech's tight ends against Ohio State's linebackers and safeties. When you watch the game film from last season in a vacuum, it is difficult to imagine a world where the Hokies would not be favored in this game.

That of course ignores the Buckeyes' amazing run that led to a national championship. Led by quarterbacks J.T. Barrett (R-SO, 6-2, 225) and Cardale Jones (R-JR, 6-5, 250), the Buckeyes didn't score less than 31 points a game the rest of the season. As a point of emphasis, against the four highest ranked teams that the Buckeyes defeated—Wisconsin, Michigan State, Alabama, and Oregon—the Buckeyes lit up the scoreboard like a pinball machine to the tune of 59, 49, 42 and 42 points, respectively. Ohio State is a recruiting hotbed with every financial resource available to support the program. They are a talented and well coached football team. A win in Lane Stadium on Labor Day would go down as one of the greatest wins in the history of the Hokie program. Let's examine how the Hokies can repeat last season's signature win.

The Foster Plan

The biggest story after last year's win in Columbus was how Bud Foster used the Bear defense to confound Urban Meyer's dynamic spread option scheme. The Bear front wasn't entirely new look from Foster, in the past he often used a double eagle alignment with a defensive end sliding inside and the backer walked up at the edge of the line of scrimmage. This look was prevalent especially in passing situations where Foster wanted to generate pressure. Against Ohio State, Coach Foster made additional adjustments; most visually recognizable as the "edge players" (the backer to the field side and the defensive end to the boundary) stood up and lined up as nine technique's out wide. Often the rover and sometimes the free safety would move up to flank the mike linebacker, putting eight men in the box while the two corners and the nickel were on islands out on space.

The alignment was perfectly suited to combating the strengths of the Ohio State's running game. Covering up the three interior offensive linemen negates the offense's ability to deliver combination blocks (double teams) at the point of attack. That virtually eliminated Ohio State's bread and butter inside zone read. Even if the Ohio State guards and centers could block the Hokies' front one-on-one, the Bear formation takes away the blocking angles on zone plays that allow a blocker to reach the mike linebacker. In the rare instance that Marshall, Maddy and Nicolas didn't beat a blocker, Chase Williams was free to make the tackle square to Ezekiel Elliott.

Other Ohio State favoriates like the power read and counter trey require guards to pull and lead on the outside. Expecting an offensive tackle to scoop a player with Corey Marshall or Dadi Nicolas's speed (especially when they are already focused on penetrating) was too tall a task for the Buckeyes. Time and again, the Hokies' interior defenders would beat the tackle and trail the pulling guard to the football before J.T. Barrett and Ezekiel Elliott could get a head of steam down field. Meanwhile, the jet sweep game was rendered ineffective by the defensive ends aligning wide and getting up field when they keyed jet sweep. The basic defensive concepts that Foster always employs (gap fits on the interior, edge force and spill) remained intact. However, the alignment took away many of the plays that the Buckeyes were comfortable with, and as such, the offense looked discombobulated.

No matter what look Foster uses, he will make sure that the Hokies have a numerical advantage around the line of scrimmage. The Hokies must contain running back Ezekiel Elliott. Ohio State's national championship run last season was built on Elliott getting downhill and opening things up in the play-action passing game. If the Hokies can contain Elliott, the chances of stopping the Buckeye passing game increase exponentially. The Buckeyes return two preseason All-American offensive lineman, Taylor Decker (SR, 6-8, 315) and Pat Effelin (R-JR, 6-3, 300), as well as two other starters from last year's group. Even though the twitch of the Hokies' defensive line was too much for them to handle last season, Ohio State's front five have a year of experience under their belts. However, Tech is bigger and more experienced at defensive end, have a lighter and determined Luther Maddy back on the inside, and now have more dependable depth at the defensive tackle spot with Woody Baron's improvement during fall camp. The Buckeyes played teams that used the Bear front, yet none had the quick front that the Hokies have. I expect that the Bear front will still cause significant problems on the interior of the Ohio State offensive attack.

SWOTing the Bear: Speed Option and the Deep Passing Game

The Buckeyes can exploit the Bear front even if they struggle on the interior. After reviewing the film over the last year, I found the Bear to be vulnerable in two areas. First, the Bear jams defenders into the interior of the defense. This allows the defense to have a numerical advantage on the interior; however it leaves the defense vulnerable on the edge (especially when the corners are playing man coverage).

The alignment of the edge defender takes away many of the jet sweeps and outside zones used by the Buckeyes, but the Bear is very susceptible to speed option. On a speed option against the Bear front, the edge defender has two choices—they can take the quarterback or they can take the pitch. The rover is aligned inside the tackle box, and the free safety has to play deep in center field. That distance leaves the edge defender isolated. If the edge defender takes the pitch, the quarterback can turn up quickly in the natural bubble created between the three-technique defensive tackle and the edge player for a solid gain. If the edge defender takes the quarterback, it leaves the safety with a ton of distance to cover to take the pitch man.

On this play, the Buckeyes use a pistol formation with the tight end to the right (on the bottom of the screen). They run the speed option to the wide side of the field. Backer Deon Clarke is unblocked as the option man. Every other Hokie defender is accounted for on the play side except for Detrick Bonner. Bonner is aligned deep in center field with Jarrett playing the tight end in man coverage. It is interesting to note that Kendall Fuller is playing on the wide side of the field here rather than at his normal boundary spot.

The tight end and wide receiver run off Fuller and Jarrett. Barrett runs speed option with Curtis Samuel to the right side. Clarke forces Barrett to pitch. Samuel is now one-on-one with Bonner, who has to run from centerfield and circumnavigate the natural picks created by Fuller and Jarrett. Bonner gets to Samuel after Samuel is almost ten yards down field. Bonner gets just enough of Samuel to knock him off balance so Corey Marshall (hustle!) can drag him down from behind. If Bonner had not been able to avoid Fuller and Jarrett, this could have been a much bigger run.

Foster noted the weakness and adjusted his scheme. However, against a brilliant player like Heisman favorite Ezekiel Elliott (JR, 6-0, 225), the speed option still presented challenges to the Bear front.

On this play, Chuck Clark plays to the field side and has the tight end in coverage. He reads option and pushes up the field immediately. Bonner, who is closer to the line of scrimmage, would pick up the tight end if the tight end veer-releases up the seam for a quick pop pass.

Deon Clarke again takes the quarterback. The aforementioned Chuck Clark takes the pitch and the Buckeyes' tight end drives him to the outside. Still, schematically the Hokies are in good shape because Bonner is unblocked and waiting in the alley for Elliott.

As you can see, scheme can only do so much when great players are one-on-one with defenders in space. Elliott freezes Bonner slightly and bounces outside while running through an arm tackle. This is the greatest danger of the Bear front; it leaves the edge plays exposed in space. Last season, the Buckeyes did a terrible job of sticking with the speed option to exploit that advantage. I expect they will get Elliott more touches this season, especially with the speed option look.

I also suspect that Foster has planned for this contingency. One comment that Foster made repeatedly when asked to reflect upon the defensive performance against Ohio State was that the Hokies' coaching staff treated the Buckeyes' option game like Georgia Tech. If you have paid close attention, or read my columns on Foster's defensive schemes against the Yellow Jackets, you have noticed that Foster changes his alignment and approach for defending that offense each season.

In 2012, the Hokies used double eagled defensive tackles, stand up defensive ends and Jack Tyler aligned deep behind the line of scrimmage to stop Georgia Tech with their base look. In 2013, Foster moved Kyle Fuller to the whip position and blitzed him through the interior gaps. Last season, the Hokies used the Bear front against Georgia Tech. Foster always makes a change to throw off the offensive game plan based on what worked the season before. I suspect that Foster will have similar changes in store for Ohio State's offense. That could mean more base or eight-man, four-down fronts, especially against pistol formations. The benefit for the Hokies' box defenders is that even though the defensive alignments may change, their basic responsibilities remain the same (gap fit inside, set the edge and force/spill on the outside).

A possible specific adjustment is for the defense to slide to a nickel 46 look. I highlighted the nickel 46 back in my review of the 2013 East Carolina game. In this look, the nickel and two corners play on islands outside. Instead of using three down linemen, Foster uses four down linemen, with the defensive tackles both lined up as one-techniques and the defensive ends both playing five-techniques. In 2013, the backer aligned on the boundary side, and the free safety walked up to the line of scrimmage like a whip linebacker on the field side. The rover then walked up to flank the mike linebacker. This created an 8-man front.

Because I expect the Hokies to shift in and out of the Bear, Deon Clarke will likely be the stand up player on the edge. As result, I expect Chuck Clark to align inside next to Motuapuaka, with Desmond Frye as the base backer alignment to the boundary, rather than having them flip sides. I expect that you will see Tech shift and slide back and forth before the snap (from Bear, to Base, to 46) much more than I saw in last season's game.

Against Ohio State's primary running play (the inside zone read), this alignment has some weakness. The center is not covered, and hence is free to double team the play side defensive tackle. However, this formation is well suited to stop the speed option to the field, as the free safety gives two edge defenders to the play side that are both close to the line of scrimmage. The field side offensive tackle would veer inside, leaving the defensive end unblocked. The tight end would be forced to veer block or veer release on the safety or block down to the mike linebacker.

The advantage of this formation against the speed option is that Foster's free hitter (whichever player the tight end doesn't block—mike or free safety) is now much closer to the pitch man, while the defensive end has quarterback. In the Bear, the free safety is deep and has to run through interference by the receivers running off the corners. In this look, the only way that the free hitter meets interference is with a crack back (freeing the corner to take the pitch man). The Hokies win with numbers. This adjustment allows them to have numbers. At that point, the question becomes can the Hokies free hitter put Ezekiel Elliott on the ground?

The mike linebacker is critically important from a communications standpoint. The Hokies won't be in the Bear, 46 nickel, or base the entire game, nor will they always play the front called in from the sideline. Andrew Motuapuaka will have the responsibility of identifying the offensive alignment, and then audibling to the correct front. For example, Foster may call a Bear front. If Ohio State comes to the line of scrimmage with twins to the boundary and a one receiver-one tight end look to the wide side, Motuapuaka would need to slide the front from the Bear to the 46 nickel. If they have the 46 nickel called, and the back is offset with a Y opposite, I would expect Motuapuaka to shift them to the Bear. That communication (and making sure the shift happens before Ohio State can quick snap and catch the defense off guard) will be a huge factor on Monday night.

The second and the most well-documented threat to the Bear is the deep passing game. Tech's corners and nickels were forced to play either man or cover 4 coverage throughout the game, so there was no safety help if they were beat deep. The Buckeyes tried to exploit the coverage by going deep time and time again. Kendall Fuller and Brandon Facyson mitigated that risk by taking away the easiest throws for J.T. Barrett, specifically double slants, by using inside leverage technique often on passing downs. When the Buckeye receivers released deep, the corners did a fantastic job of turning and running with the receiver, and getting their hands up to deflect passes without looking back for the ball or taking costly pass interference penalties. J.T. Barrett made several beautiful throws that great coverage (and the occasional Buckeye drop) prevented from becoming touchdowns.

Ohio State had more success picking on Chuck Clark at the nickel spot. The Buckeyes drew several pass interference penalties and completed a 58-yard pass to Devin Smith in the second quarter that put Ohio State in scoring position. Clark was in a tough spot. He was inexperienced in man coverage and didn't have the benefit of playing inside leverage on the outside (which allows a defender to use the sideline as an ally). Clark lost leverage several times, and the Hokies were fortunate that Ohio State couldn't exploit the matchup more often.

Before the suspensions of Jalin Marshall, Corey Smith and Dontre Wilson, and the broken leg of former Tech recruiting target Noah Brown, I thought that a key part of the Ohio State game plan would be to try and exploit the nickel positon with vertical routes.

That may still be part of the Buckeyes' game plan, as Braxton Miller has apparently been impressive in Ohio State's fall camp. I expect Miller to be showcased on jet sweeps and jet sweep counters from the slot (H-Back in Buckeye lexicon), however Ohio State seems to think Miller can be a receiving threat as well.

If there's better athletes in the country, I don't know where they are," cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs said. "He's got tremendous ability to make moves in space that are extraordinary. He's learning every day, leaps and bounds, about the receiver position. If you make a mistake when you cover Braxton Miller you're going to pay for it."

Curtis Samuel (SO, 5-11, 200), Elliott's back up at running back last season, will also get carries from the slot alignment.

The other options at wide receiver are talented, but very young. Terry McLaurin, James Clark, Johnnie Dixon, Parris Campbell and Alex Stump and K.J. Hill have little to no game experience. All were four-star recruits with big play ability. One of those players will line up opposite Michael Thomas (JR, 6-3, 210), the Buckeyes' leading receiver last season (54 catches). Thomas is a prototypical NFL receiver, and was the only OSU receiver to consistently get separation against Fuller and Facyson last season. Thomas is physical, and excels on the pass patterns that both OSU quarterbacks like to throw to get into rhythm (double slants and fake slant-outs). Thomas had six catches against the Hokies last season, and he beat Facyson on a slant for a 53-yard touchdown. Thomas is the one guy from Ohio State who I know can make plays down the field against man coverage. The other players are mysteries until we see them in action on Labor Day night. The lack of experience outside should force Urban Meyer to simplify an already basic passing game structure. With fewer keys to read, this allows Tech's secondary to be even more aggressive using their leverage technique to take away the easiest throws.

Given the lack of proven pass catchers, Foster will likely place even more emphasis on stopping the run while counting on the Hokies' talented secondary to contain Thomas, Miller and the young Buckeye receivers. Kendall Fuller, Brandon Facyson and Chuck Clark all are proven in man coverage and in run support. Georgia Tech may give Coach Foster the blueprint for the Bear, however recent history shows that when Coach Foster is faced with a terrific running back and teams with one great receiver that lack other options in the passing game, he tends to break tendencies in his secondary. I suspect we may see some of those curveballs against Ohio State.

As of Monday, Greg Stroman is listed as the primary nickel corner. I am very high on Stroman; however the Tech's wide receivers beat him badly on double moves in the spring. Stroman's small stature may make him a liability in run support near the line of scrimmage. Instead of seeing Stroman as the nickel, I expect Foster to have Donovan Riley as his fifth defensive back. Riley has been outstanding in fall camp and has the experience to play multiple roles.

With any alignment using Fuller, Clark, Riley and Facyson, the Hokies have their four best cornerbacks on the field at the same time. Green rover Desmond Frye likely will have little man coverage responsibility outside of covering the tight end. On any given play, any one of those four "corners" could drop back into a deep zone, play press man coverage, or come up in run support. This gives Foster a ton of flexibility to move guys around and create the best matchups possible. On any particular play, the Ohio State quarterback could see Chuck Clark as a deep safety and Riley at the nickel, yet Clark could cover the slot guy on a deep route with Riley coming up as the alley player in run support. On the next down, the Hokies could run inverted cover 2, with Clark flying forward to support the run and cover the short flat, with Facyson and Riley dropping into deeper zones. On the next snap, the Hokies can press across the board, moving their best cover guys against Michael Thomas. Any defensive alignment can have multiple variables in terms of coverage without an exploitable weakness, and that can wreak havoc on a quarterback.

This flexibility gives Foster two additional options for using Kendall Fuller to take away Ohio State's best playmakers on the outside. Normally, Fuller is the Hokies' boundary corner, meaning he covers the wide receiver aligned to the narrow side of the field. The boundary corner is usually Tech's best corner because the rover safety (also normally aligned to the boundary) has so much run support responsibility that he often can't help the boundary corner if he gets beaten deep. Foster occasionally changes things up. In 2013, the Pitt Panthers had two talented receivers in Tyler Boyd and Devin Street. Pitt often used both as twin receivers to the field side. Rather than slide his free safety or nickel over on Boyd (giving Pitt a huge matchup advantage) Foster moved boundary corner Kyle Fuller over to "spy" on Boyd.

Last season, Foster used Kendall Fuller in a similar manner against Boyd and the Panthers. Boyd was mostly utilized in the slot against the Hokies, and Fuller either bracketed Boyd in coverage or occasionally blitzed just like a whip linebacker from the slot alignment. If Urban Meyer tries to keep Thomas away from Kendall Fuller, it would not surprise me to see Bud Foster use Kendall as a shadow on Thomas no matter where he lines up. Riley is most comfortable at boundary corner, which allows Fuller to move around to the field side, where the Buckeyes love to use flood concepts in the play-action game.

Fuller's experience playing from the nickel spot also could allow Foster the ability to run Fuller as the slot corner and shadow Braxton Miller. Fuller represents the Hokies' most dependable run defender in the secondary besides Chuck Clark. (I can't recall the last time I noticed Fuller miss a tackle.) Rather than having Riley, Stroman or Clark running with Miller and Samuel on jet sweep motion, Fuller could be used to shadow them, virtually eliminating them from effectiveness on wide runs. Riley, Clark and Facyson's coverage ability creates that flexibility.

Ohio State will be better on offense than what Hokie Nation witnessed in Columbus last season. J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones are much more experienced passers. Ezekiel Elliott is now established as one of the top running backs in the country, and the Ohio State offensive line vastly improved over the course of last season. Urban Meyer isn't an idiot, and has likely put together a detailed game plan designed to attack the Bear front. (Rumors of Bothan spies dying to get Meyer information on Coach Foster's defensive game plan have not yet been substantiated). The Buckeyes will be prepared.

That said, Coach Foster has a proven track record of using the strengths of his own personnel to create subtle changes in defensive schemes that have stymied some of the best option and spread systems in college football. His defensive line returns intact with more experience and added strength. His secondary is an outstanding coverage group, and besides the rover spot, may be better across the board in run support than last season. Last season, Foster committed to getting numbers in the box, even with proven deep threats like NFL draft pick Devin Smith outside. Now, Ohio State's WR corps is significantly depleted due to suspensions and injuries. I expect the Hokies to put even more emphasis on containing Elliott. Life is tough for even the best running backs when he only has five or six blockers against eight or nine defenders. Unless the Buckeyes can burn the Hokies' press coverage deep, or the Hokies have a poor night tackling (with Andrew Motuapuaka and Desmond Frye highlighted against Elliott in space), I expect that the Buckeyes will struggle offensively on Labor Day.

Offensive Game Plan Preview: Running the Football and Exploiting the Cover 4

Put Tech's defensive success aside. The Buckeyes still put up 21 points against the Hokies last September and had numerous other big play opportunities. Twenty-one points would have been enough to tie or defeat the Hokies five times last season. Fortunately, Michael Brewer had an outstanding game through the air against Ohio State. Scot Loeffler had a game plan designed to exploit the Buckeyes, who were facing their first sophisticated passing attack under new defensive coordinator Chris Ash.

Cover 4 looks very similar to man coverage during the quarterback's pre-snap read. Four defenders divide the field vertically, and man up with receivers running into their section of the field. When a receiver breaks out of their zone, the defender passes off the receiver to the next defender and drops into a deep quarter zone. In this coverage, the Hokies will often play outside leverage. If the quarterback identifies man coverage instead of zone, he will expect the slant or post to be open on the inside. The corner shows man, but when the receiver breaks in on the slant, the safety is there waiting on the ball.

The Hokies run a ton of cover 4 (or quarters coverage) defensively, so Michael Brewer, Bucky Hodges, Cam Phillips and Isaiah Ford benefited from working against that coverage throughout fall training camp before game prep for Ohio State even started.

The cover 4 has several weaknesses that Loeffler's game plan last season exploited perfectly. In their base front, Ohio State aligned in a 4-3 over front in cover 4, with a linebacker walked outside over the slot receiver on wide-side of the field.

Loeffler exploited the cover 4 by getting his slot receivers and tight ends in one-on-one matchups in the intermediate passing game. Rub routes were extremely effective. On rub routes, the wide receivers run vertical routes to move the opposing corner and nickel deep, leaving linebackers and safeties to deal with a tight end or back running free into the flat. Sam Roger's touchdown to close the first half is a great example.

Josh Stanford and Bucky Hodges run vertical routes and intentionally get into the body of the Ohio State defenders. Essentially, they are setting picks with "incidental contact" to push the defenders off the line of scrimmage. H-Back Sam Rogers leaks out into the right flat, and the nickel corner gets picked off in the wash. Rogers has an easy catch, and he runs over the corner to add insult to injury with the touchdown.

Here is the exact same concept. This time, Willie Byrn is in the slot, and middle linebacker Curtis Grant cannot get to the flat in time.

This type of play is becoming more prevalent in today's offenses, but there's the possibility that the officials could call the receivers for illegal contact on this scheme. The blocking seems to start before the receiver catches the football. The officials' interpretation of this type of play is something to watch for on Labor Day.

Inside, Ryan Malleck had a ton of success working on flag routes against those same interior defenders. Outside linebackers Joshua Perry (SR, 6-4, 254), Darron Lee (R-SO, 6-2, 235), and safeties Vonn Bell (JR, 5-11, 205) and Tyvis Powell (R-JR 6-3, 210) were excellent in run support, but when the Hokies needed a big third down reception, Malleck was able to press into man coverage and then shield the defender from the football. Malleck set up the Hokies' first touchdown with this huge third-down catch.

The Buckeyes are playing cover 4, with their inside linebackers playing an underneath zone. Malleck lines up in the right slot, matched up with Vonn Bell.

Malleck breaks hard underneath Bell's soft coverage and finds himself bracketed by Curtis Grant. Grant illegally chucks Malleck, and Malleck fights through the chuck to break open. Powell does a good job of closing the gap as the throw arrives, however Malleck is perfectly situated between Bell and the football to make a critical first down catch. Malleck was used less and less as last season wore on. Injuries and the Hokies' pass protection issues required Loeffler to keep Malleck into the block more and more often. Malleck is healthy and coming off of a terrific spring. With Bucky Hodges and Isaiah Ford commanding so much attention on the outside, expect Malleck to get some space to work underneath against the Buckeyes' safeties and new middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan (SO, 6-2 240). If the Buckeyes press more, expect Malleck to have even more space inside this season.

The cover 4 is also susceptible to wide receiver routes that break back toward the quarterback. Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips each had important catches working back to Brewer against cover 4. Ohio State had momentum in the second quarter when Ford caught a 19-yard out from Brewer on a third-and-17 from the Hokies' own 4-yard line. Part of the Tech's success was due to the Buckeyes' inexperience in the cover 4. Young corner Eli Apple's (R-SO, 6-1, 200) only other start was Navy, and he played some soft coverage. As the season progressed, teams like Georgia Tech started playing more cover 2 to get underneath coverage on those comeback routes. In turn, that opened up more vertical routes, but the Hokies couldn't exploit them as often as those opportunities were available. By the Pitt game, the Panthers played cover 4, but pressed closely to Ford and Phillips and dared each to beat them deep. Phillips did score a touchdown, but Pitt limited big plays. With a year of experience under the duo's belt, I expect the Buckeyes to play much tighter coverage this season. Expect Ford to get some looks down field. If his performance in the spring is indicative of the kind of season we can expect from Ford, he will have some open shots down the field.

The Running Game and The Bosa Impact

Tech's pass attack against the Buckeyes last year needed to be good because the running game could not have been much worse. Outside of Marshawn Williams' touchdown run, in which Ohio State botched a blitz, I only found one effective interior run by the running backs the entire game. Time and again, the defensive tackle combination of Michael Bennett and Adolphus Washington (SR, 6-4, 290) eviscerated the inexperienced Augie Conte, a banged up Caleb Farris and an immobile David Wang. Often, Ohio State's steady stream of run blitzes seemed unnecessary given the complete lack of a running game. When the Hokies were able to move the ball on the ground, their best pickups were on jet sweeps and quarterback scrambles.

With consensus All-American Joey Bosa suspended, Washington is the only player returning from that group that dominated the Hokies last season. Washington is a preseason All-American and a dynamic athlete with great burst on the inside as a three-technique.

Bosa's loss can't be understated. He led the Big Ten in sacks, tackles for loss and highlight reel sacks. His size and strength allowed Ohio State to use some three-man fronts. Bosa played as a five-technique (inside eye of the tackle) in those sets. He mostly aligned as a seven-technique over right tackle, however on passing downs the Buckeyes occasionally moved Bosa over to the left tackle's side. Bosa's combination of size and quickness made him a threat to rush inside and outside. Watch as he bull rushes David Wang into Michael Brewer's lap.

Bosa's versatility allowed defensive coordinator Chris Ash to move his big, athletic outside linebackers all around the field. On the above play, outside linebacker Darron Lee also rushes the passer on a delayed blitz from his outside linebacker spot. Bosa draws blocking that lets Lee almost come free. Without Bosa in the lineup, the Buckeyes don't have a pass rusher that demands double teams to draw blocking away from their blitzes.

Tech's offensive tackles may be a liability against athletic speed rushers and exotic stunts. In order to maximize their speed on the edge, there is some buzz that outside linebacker Joshua Perry may play some defensive end. Perry is an athletic and versatile player with explosive burst off the edge, and he has significantly more game experience than Hubbard and Holmes. With Bosa out of the lineup, don't be shocked if Perry plays some defensive end, especially on passing downs.

Michael Brewer's scrambles and Tech's quick passing game mitigated Bosa as a pass rusher most of the game last season. However, Tech's only answer for Bosa in the running game was quick jet sweeps that either cracked on Bosa or got around the edge before he could get up field. Otherwise, Bosa was dominant.

If I learned one thing playing football it was that an offense cannot block every defender; ensure the unblocked defender is not in position to make the play. My high school coach loved to use a quick toss as an example. On a toss play, we would not block the back side defensive end. His rationale was if that defensive end can run across the field and make the tackle on a quick toss, we aren't winning today anyway. Bosa epitomizes that hypothetical defensive end.

The Hokies use an unbalanced line with tackle Laurence Gibson aligned outside of McLaughlin on the right side as an extra tackle. Bosa aligns inside as a five-technique over McLaughlin. The Hokies have fooled the Buckeyes with this formation and the resulting quick toss play should result in a touchdown. However, Bosa is able to beat McLaughlin through the inside gap, bend back to the outside, and run down the play for a loss. Anyone minimizing Bosa's absence from OSU's defense should watch this play a few times. They will come around.

In Bosa's place, Perry will get some work. Sam Hubbard (R-FR, 6-5, 265) is the most similar to Bosa in body type, however he was an Ohio all-state safety as a high school player. That is a big safety!

Virginia product Jaylen Holmes (SO, 6-5, 265) will also factor into the rotation. Neither will be as strong at the point of attack as Bosa. Tyquan Lewis (R-SO, 6-4, 260) will start across from Tech's left tackle, and Tommy Schutt (SR, 6-3, 290) will be plugged in the middle next to Washington. Lewis had a big performance against Oregon in the national championship game with several tackles for a loss, and he will be counted on to provide pass rush.

With the loss of Bennett and Bosa and a Virginia Tech offensive line group that has more experience and a significant upgrade at guard with Wyatt Teller, it is hard to imagine a scenario where the Hokies can't run the ball more effectively. An effective running game should create more opportunities for big plays via play-action. If the Hokies can't run the football, Tech's chances of winning drastically decrease.