Buckeye Coaches Excited About CJ Hicks' Move To Defensive End

One of the more interesting questions going into spring football this year for the Buckeyes is where would senior linebacker CJ Hicks be lining up. A year ago, he and Sonny Styles split reps at Will linebacker, but once the season started, the splitting essentially went away.

With Styles returning for his senior season, there wasn’t going to be much of a role at linebacker for Hicks. Former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles had talked about Hicks being used as a pass rusher in the past, so that was always seen as the likeliest role this season, but it’s still quite a leap to make as a senior.

When Knowles left for Penn State one week after the Buckeyes won the College Football Playoff national championship, Hicks’ future was again thrown into question. Then when Ohio State head coach Ryan Day hired Matt Patricia to replace Knowles, it seemed like Hicks again would have a future as a pass rusher.

In his time as the defensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, Patricia and head coach Bill Belichick excelled in putting players in positions to succeed. Whatever that player’s specialty was, they’d find a way to use it.

And now that mentality is going to be running the Ohio State defense.

“You know, it’s funny, when we hired Matt Patricia, the first person I thought of was CJ,” said linebackers coach James Laurinaitis.

Hicks was a popular topic on Friday as all 10 Ohio State assistant coaches met with reporters. While Laurinaitis said that Hicks would be moving around, defensive line coach Larry Johnson confirmed that he is now in the defensive line room.

“Well, he’s with me right now trying to learn how to play the position,” Johnson said. “And I want him to learn how to play the position as a defensive end and not as a linebacker. I think that’s the transition mentally he’s got to go through.”

So far the transitioning is going well, mostly because Hicks wants this. He may have bought into this move before the coaching staff did, but now everybody is on board.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 233 pounds last year as a junior, Hicks will need to add weight and strength to hold up on the defensive line. Johnson wants Hicks to be an all-around defensive end, not just a package piece or specialist. He’s got too much potential for that to be the goal.

“We want to use him on first and second down, so my job is to get him ready to play the run from on the line of scrimmage as opposed to being in space,” Johnson said. “That’s different, and once we accomplish that as we go, then I think he’ll get a chance to give us some great depth and really do some good things for us. I’m excited about him because he’s really excited about the position change.”

Laurinaitis is also excited about the move because he has been with Hicks the past two seasons watching him work and seeing the positive traits that could be used somewhere on the football field.

“It’s a fresh start, a new set of eyes on him,” Laurinaitis said. “I think it’s an opportunity to be multiple and use him at what he does best, you know? So that’s the exciting thing. When you really study what Coach Patricia has done in the past, is he likes to take, like, ‘okay, who are our players? And then let’s build it around those guys.’ And I think CJ’s had a hell of a winter, and I think he’s one of those guys. So I’m excited to see how we get creative and use him into the spring.”

Johnson is looking forward to the possibilities as well, but the position isn’t just about speed rushing around a 310-pound left tackle. This spring is going to be a literal and figurative crash course in stopping the run.

“Well, we know he can rush. He’s got great speed off the edge. He really can get off the ball. We know that,” Johnson said. “Now, like I said before, can he play on a tight end in a six technique, standing up on two feet playing? That’s the thing he has to learn how to do. Once he masters that, the rush stuff will come easy because now he’s on the field, and that’s what we try to work on as we get going into it. If we can walk out of spring with him feeling really good about playing the run and rushing the passer, and then we’ve got a bonus, and that’s the goal.”

The Ohio State defensive front will be a more multiple than in the past, which could be right up CJ Hicks’ alley. His experience as a linebacker and the concepts he learned there will help him as a guy who can drop back into coverage or stand up on the edge or just create the right amount of confusion for an opposing offense.

The possibilities are there, and now maybe Hicks has finally found the position he was always meant to play.

“The nice thing about that is, is that you’re not handicapped just with CJ doing one thing off the edge,” Laurinaitis said. “I think you have the ability, because he understands conceptually zone drops, linebacker terminology, right? You can get really creative with how you use him. But I think he definitely needs to be utilized more as a ‘just go after the quarterback.’ Go be disruptive.”