Top-ranked Ohio State's rebuilt defense depends on versatile stars Arvell Reese and Caleb Downs

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State won the national championship last season with the nation’s No. 1 defense.

It was full of talented players, but arguably the most important was Caleb Downs, a sophomore safety whose versatility gave then-defensive coordinator Jim Knowles lots of options for stopping opposing offenses and confusing their quarterbacks.

Lining up deep on one play and in the box on the next, he kept opponents guessing about what he was doing on a given snap and made multiple game-saving stops during the Buckeyes’ playoff run in January.

Although Knowles and eight NFL draft picks are gone, No. 1 Ohio State again tops the nation in total defense and scoring going into Saturday's pivotal rivalry game at No. 15 Michigan.

With 39 tackles, including five for loss, two interceptions and three other pass breakups, Downs is again a big reason why, though he’s had plenty of help.

Few have provided more than Arvell Reese.

After serving as the third linebacker in a Knowles defense that typically featured only two on the field at a time, the junior from Cleveland has been a jack-of-all-trades for Matt Patricia, who replaced Knowles after 20 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the New England Patriots.

Splitting time between inside linebacker and outside linebacker or defensive end depending on the scheme, the 6-foot-4, 243-pound Reese has 59 tackles, including 10 1/2 for loss and 6 1/2 sacks.

Clips of him overpowering offensive tackles and running down speedy ball carriers have littered the internet throughout the fall, and now Reese is a finalist for the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker. (The others are Indiana's Aiden Fisher, Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, Georgia’s CJ Allen and Texas’ Anthony Hill Jr.)

“Early in his career, he could have very easily been discouraged because he didn’t play as much early on,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said earlier this season. “We moved him to the defensive line for a couple of months and all those things helped him.

“Now his athletic ability, his mindset and now his understanding of what goes on in that room with what (linebackers coach) James Laurinaitis has done in terms of just the football IQ in that room has allowed him to play at a high level.”

A product of the same Glenville High School that produced nearly two dozen Ohio State players earlier this century, including Ted Ginn Jr., Donte Whitner and Troy Smith, Reese has jumped all the way to the top of The Athletic’s latest 2026 NFL draft prospect rankings (Downs is third).

“It’s been awesome,” middle linebacker Sonny Styles said of playing with Reese. “I think we feed off each other. He does a great job. He’s physical, flies around. You see him off the edge. I think we just complement each other very well.”

If the nation was caught off guard by his ascension, Reese did not sound all that surprised when he spoke to reporters earlier this fall.

“Yeah, yes, sir,” he replied when a reporter asked if he thought this would be his breakout year.

When asked why, Reese stifled a laugh before adding, “I just know what I can do.”

This week he is likely to be in a pivotal role trying to help slow down a potent Michigan running game that is 10th in the nation.

At the same time, the top-ranked Buckeyes will want to prevent dual-threat freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood from having too much time to throw or being able to escape the pocket to move the chains with his legs.

Patricia’s ability to move Reese around the front seven and deploy Downs in different places in the secondary could present a challenge for Underwood before the snap, too.

“Bryce has played at an elite level the whole year,” Downs said. “He’s a really good quarterback. He does what he does really well, so I think he’s going to be a challenge either way, but Coach P does have a lot of experience, especially playing against rookie quarterbacks and stuff like that. So we’re confident in what we can do.”

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