Eddrick Houston Will Provide Disruption From The Interior

When Eddrick Houston signed with Ohio State last year out of Buford High School in Georgia, he was ranked as one of the nation’s top pass rushers. He was a five-star prospect and the No. 7 defensive lineman in the class.

When Houston arrived at Ohio State, he was put at his customary defensive end position where he battled to be the sixth defensive end on the depth chart. He played in four of the first six games, earning just 20 snaps.

Following the Oregon loss to drop the Buckeyes to 5-1 on the season, Houston was moved to defensive tackle. He was always going to be a bigger defensive end — he was listed at 6-foot-3 and 270 pounds last year, so the move inside wasn’t a complete shocker. The Buckeyes had a week off between the Oregon game and a matchup against Nebraska, which helped him to get acclimated.

Houston picked the position up quickly. So quickly, in fact, that by the time the Nebraska game rolled around, he was the backup to starting three-tech defensive tackle Tyleik Williams. He stayed there the rest of the year, mixing in at regular intervals when Williams needed a breather.

Now with Williams off to the NFL, the job is Houston’s to win. Which means don’t expect another position move.

“He’s going to play three technique. That’s where he feels comfortable playing now,” defensive line coach Larry Johnson said last week. “He’s 285, 290, and we don’t want to switch him again. I think that he’ll give us some inside rush at a three-tech position. I think he’s very comfortable with doing that now. He helped us out to get through our stretch, and now he feels like, ‘Hey, Coach, I can do this.’ He’ll have a chance to be a starter in the fall. So that’s kind of the motivation right now.”

Playing on the defensive line as a true freshman is a tough ask. Playing two different positions over the course of that freshman season is even tougher. But Eddrick Houston never blinked.

Houston was just getting started last year. His teammates saw that and understood it. They also see what’s possible down the road.

“He has very long arms and he’s fast for his size,” former OSU defensive end JT Tuimoloau said at the NFL Combine. “I think he ran track in high school for a little bit, so for someone to move that fast and run that fast at his size and have that type of get-off, I mean, once he puts this together, man, it’s going to be scary.”

The process of “putting it together” is rarely a quick one. There are numerous tricks of the trade and fundamentals being mastered, so it won’t always just be Houston trying to win with physicality.

But that physicality is always going to be a nice tool to keep in the back pocket.

“Eddrick can be as good as anybody else in the country if he wants to be,” said former Buckeye defensive end Jack Sawyer. “With his size and his speed and his athletic ability, how strong he is too, he could be the best guy in the country at his position. So, I think you guys will see him take a big leap going into his sophomore year and be a really productive player already.”

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