Ohio State LB Sonny Styles vs. Michigan RB Jordan Marshall: The Game matchups

Breaking down one of the showdowns that should determine the rivalry

Sonny Styles (0) and Caleb Downs (2) will have some Michigan running backs to tackle Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State)

COLUMBUS — We’ll highlight a few key matchups in The Game this week as we prepare for Saturday’s matchup between the No. 1 Buckeyes and No. 15 Wolverines. Here’s the first one.

Ohio State LB Sonny Styles vs. Michigan RB Jordan Marshall

Who Styles is

The 6-foot-5, 243-pound senior from Pickerington Central has started 39 games for the Buckeyes over the last three seasons. A five-star recruit who reclassified from 2023 to the Class of 2022, he was a starting safety in 2023 as a sophomore before moving to linebacker in 2024. He’s started every game at linebacker this season and is fourth on the team in defensive snaps.

What Styles does

As pointed out by Bill, among the 496 power conference defenders who have played at least 430 snaps this season, according to PFF, only one has not missed a tackle. It’s Styles. That’s crazy.

He leads the Buckeyes with 62 tackles, and he’s the linebacker most frequently at the point of attack in the run game. The Buckeyes move their linebackers around, putting them outside as edge rushers at times, putting them in gaps as pass-rush threats on third downs. Fellow linebacker Arvell Reese, according to PFF, has an almost equal split of snaps up on the line of scrimmage and in the box in a typical linebacker spot. Styles is flexible as well, but he’s been up on the line 22 percent of the time, in coverage 10 percent of the time, and in the box 68 percent of the time.