Biggest Concerns: Replacing Ohio State’s “irreplaceables”
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From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about our Biggest Concerns. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our Biggest Concerns here.
As the summer is officially less than a week away, it’s a reminder that before fall arrives, we’ll have Ohio State football games to watch. The Buckeyes will take the field on Sept. 5 — 17 days before fall gets here — for the season opener against Ball State.
Like any season, fans have concerns prior to that initial kickoff. My colleagues and I here at Land-Grant Holy Land will outline ours this week. I’m going with Ohio State having to replace two defensive players who don’t have a like-for-like replacement: hybrid linebacker Arvell Reese and All-American safety Caleb Downs.
As I said in my Unpopular Opinions theme weeks article, in which I stated why I thought Ohio State would take a step backward in 2026:
Patricia will be able to replace everyone with talented dudes, but game changers like Styles and Downs are rare, and replacing an athletic freak like Arvell Reese might be wishful thinking.
Having Reese and Downs on the field was a cheat code for OSU Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia a year ago. Reese’s freakish combination of size and speed allowed Patricia to use him in different ways that typically require multiple players. Reese was the perfect foil for opposing teams’ mobile quarterbacks, making them think twice before taking off to make a play with their legs and punishing them for it when they did.
Against the pass, Reese was able to rush the quarterback and drop into coverage. He finished 2025 with two pass breakups, five quarterback hurries, 6.5 sacks, and 10 tackles for loss. Reese was second on the team in tackles (69), averaging five per game.
But it wasn’t the plays he made that made Reese special last year. It was that his presence directly affected game plans and play calls. That’s a rare trait in a college football player.
Downs was just as dynamic and dominating. His presence on the field was like having an extra coach. Downs would often read a play so quickly that he could feign covering his man to bait the quarterback and then break hard on where he knew the ball was going to go.
Just his presence usually made quarterbacks throw elsewhere, but he still managed two interceptions and two pass breakups. He also forced two fumbles, recorded one quarterback hurry, sacked the quarterback once, and logged five tackles for loss. Downs finished third among all Ohio State players in tackles (68) and second in solo stops (45).
It’s tough enough to replace either one of Downs or Reese, but to have to swap out both, along with Sonny Styles, is impossible.
The ability to leave players on the field who can do so many things is underrated. It helps the entire defense deal with high-tempo by opposing offenses — especially late in the second and fourth quarters — and leaves question marks in the minds of the opposition’s quarterback and offensive coordinator on where those players will be pre- and post-snap.
I believe Patricia will ultimately be able to mitigate the losses of Downs and Reese to some degree, but it will likely require multiple players and may not come together until the Big Ten season begins.
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