After this past weekend I dare say this year's defense, under new coordinator Jim Heacock, might be the best assistant Jim Tressel has ever had.
I know what you are thinking - how dare I make a claim like that? We won the National Championship three years ago behind a defense that has all 11 starters currently playing on NFL teams. But before you cry heresy, hear me out.
What the defense is doing this season is unmatched, even by the frequently heralded Tressel defenses of 2002 and 2003. This year's defense has allowed just 51 points in its first four games, two of those games against preseason top-10 teams, both of those teams featuring potential Heisman Trophy candidate quarterbacks.
That 12.8 points per game is even better than the 13.1 points per game allowed by the championship defense in 2002, and significantly better than the 17.6 points per game allowed in 2003.
The 2002 defense allowed 320.9 total yards per game, and a year later they allowed just 296.8 yards. This year's team, though, has shaved almost 50 yards off that number, allowing 249 yards per game.
This Buckeye defense has swarmed opposing quarterbacks at a relentless rate, already recording 16 sacks, putting them on pace for a 48-sack season, eight more than the 2002 team and 11 more than the 2003 squad.
Its performance in bottling up the electric Vince Young of Texas after the five rushing touchdowns he put on Big Ten rival Michigan in last year's Rose Bowl was equally as impressive. The fact that Young's performance of 270 yards passing - along with two touchdowns and two interceptions - is considered a big-time Heisman performance is testament to how tough the defense is.
But the most impressive stat this season might be on the ground, where the defense has allowed 41 rushing yards per game, compared to 77.7 yards in 2002 and 62 yards in 2003.
Just how stifling has the run defense been? How about an opposing average of 1.6 yards per carry, including only four rushing yards allowed in the last two games.
Since allowing an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage against San Diego State two weeks ago, the Buckeye defense has only been on the field for 42 minutes, allowing 236 total yards on 95 plays. That is an average of 2.48 yards per play allowed over the course of almost two entire football games. The Buckeyes did not allow a point for more than 102 minutes.
Since that opening score, they have allowed just 15 first downs, held opponents to 2-of-24 on third downs, and have not allowed a single opposing player to cross the goal line.
The defense may have played its best single game of the Tressel era this Saturday against Iowa. The Buckeye defense held Iowa's offense, which came in averaging 428 yards per game, to 137 yards, forcing the Hawkeyes to punt on their first seven possessions.
The Hawkeyes were held to minus nine yards rushing and the OSU front seven hounded preseason Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year Drew Tate in a way only Ken Dorsey could accurately describe.
Where Tate fizzled preseason Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year A.J. Hawk sparkled, with eleven tackles and one-and-a-half sacks.
After leading the Buckeyes with 106 tackles in 2003 and 141 in 2004, Hawk might be enjoying his best season yet as a senior. Through the first four games of this season, Hawk has recorded a team-high 41 tackles with a career-high four-and-a-half sacks, six-and-a-half tackles for a loss, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovered.
If you still don't believe me, just ask Tate and that poor football he threw to the ground out of frustration.
Brandon Castel is a senior is journalism. Members of the 2002 and 2003 Buckeye defenses can send their hate mail to castel.4@osu.edu.
Spring Break
