CJ Hicks' role, run game worries, toughest games: Ohio State mailbag

Answering your question on the Buckeyes a few weeks into camp

Ohio State defensive end CJ Hicks. (Courtesy of Ohio State athletics)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State’s opener against Texas will be here before you know it. You guys had some questions about where things stand with the Buckeyes a couple of weeks into camp. I grabbed some of them for our first mailbag here.

Thanks for the questions. Let’s get to it.

From Charles P.: If Caleb Downs plays nickel, as I have heard is possible, doesn’t that mean he would be playing man coverage far more often than he did last year? And wouldn’t that have the effect of taking him out of more plays, which seems less than ideal?

It’s a fair concern, but I don’t think it means Downs would play so much more man coverage that it would be worrisome. I wrote about Downs on Wednesday. I don’t think we’re talking about a full-time move to nickel here. I think it’s something more akin to what we saw Jim Knowles do with Downs last year, which was move him around a bunch. But when Knowles moved Downs around, including giving him an uptick in nickel/slot snaps in the postseason, he rarely asked him to cover receivers man-to-man.

According to Pro Football Focus, 33.2 percent of Downs’ coverage snaps during the regular season were in man coverage. In the postseason, that number dropped to 17.7 percent. I suspect Matt Patricia will deploy a similar strategy to allow a player like Downs to keep his eyes on the backfield and do what he does best, stop the run, no matter where he’s lined up. Downs may end up occasionally covering receivers in man more than he did last year, but it’s not going to be an every-down thing.