Buckeye Safeties Will Be Fluid This Spring In Search Of Solidifying Defense

The Buckeyes must replace starting strong safety Lathan Ransom and starting nickel back Jordan Hancock from last year’s team, though the situation is more complicated than simply filling two open positions.

A season ago, Ohio State fielded their best trio of safeties in school history. With Ransom, Hancock, and free safety Caleb Downs, the Buckeyes had all of their bases covered, but only because those three players could do whatever was needed.

In Ohio State’s three-safety defense last year, each player had to be able to handle multiple roles. For instance, a slot receiver going into motion could force the safeties to adjust as well. Rather than follow the receiver, Hancock would become a deep safety and one of the other safeties would be responsible for the slot receiver.

Also, later in the season, Downs began playing closer and closer to the line of scrimmage, which again pushed Hancock to a deep safety role.

In Monday’s first spring practice at Ohio State, there was again more movement, but in a different manner. For instance, Downs and junior Malik Hartford opened practice as the first-team safeties. Downs would be at free safety (“Adjuster”) for a couple of snaps, then he would move to strong safety (“Bandit”). Hartford did the same. Then when the second-unit safeties Jaylen McClain and Leroy Roker came out, they also switched roles after a couple of reps.

Following practice, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was asked if the field-flipping for the safeties was a spring thing or something we could actually see this season.

“We’re gonna look at it and see what makes the most sense with the nickel position, the Adjuster and the Bandit, and that was sort of how we identified it last year with Jordan and Latham and Caleb,” Day said on Monday. “Well, now it’s gonna be a little bit different. So we wanna put those guys in position to be as successful as we possibly can.”

Replacing a veteran safety like Lathan Ransom is not going to be easy, but Hartford and sophomore Jaylen McClain have done enough to where their coaches are confident somebody will step up. The key to everything, however, may be what OSU’s new nickel can handle.

Jordan Hancock considered himself a cornerback who could play safety, which he showed on a weekly basis. The question now becomes whether or not the Buckeyes’ safety this year can do the kinds of things that Hancock did in his time at nickel.

Fifth-year senior Lorenzo Styles, Jr. was Hancock’s backup last year, so he’s more than familiar with the position, but being familiar and being capable are two very different things. Hancock’s ability to move back to deep safety throughout a game allowed the Buckeyes to involve Downs closer to the action. It was a successful move and was a key piece to OSU’s playoff run.

Ryan Day and new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia would again like to keep Downs as involved as possible, but some of that will be dependent upon their next nickel being able to do much of what Hancock did a year ago.

“As you noticed later in the season, Caleb found himself playing a little bit more down where the nickel used to be, and Jordan was playing a little bit more safety position,” Day explained. “So it was good to have some ability to change the job descriptions and have versatility. And so we’ll do the same, but this year, a little bit different bodies in there. So we wanna have the flexibility to adjust.”

Monday was just day one of a very long process. There is a lot of work still to be put in this spring and the rest of the offseason. Questions will be answered every day. The one answer the Buckeyes already have, however, came from last year, and it involves a versatile group of safeties helping this defense reach its potential.

“We want to put our players in a position to be successful,” Day said. “I thought one of the best things we did in the second half of the season was do that. In particular with Caleb, we put him more towards the action and he had more of an impact on the game. So we need to do that on defense this year based on who we have. And so we’re gonna look at field, boundary, strong, weak, left, right, all the above.”

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