← The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
Is Ohio State's Arvell Reese the best linebacker in the country?
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Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese doesn't lead the country in tackles or sacks, but he's impacting the Buckeyes in a variety of ways all over the field. Does that make him the best linebacker in the country?
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Foreign welcome back to the Bill and Doug Show. Happy Monday morning to you. A victory morning, I Suppose, after Ohio State's 246 win at Washington over the weekend. This is of course our Monday sort of re Watch Thoughts podcast where it's usually just myself here, Bill Landis, one half of the Bill and Doug show, talking about some things that stuck out to me or perhaps just one thing of the many things that stuck out to me in Re watching the game today's going to be a little more narrowly focused on Arvel Reese because he's a maniac man. I he's I've covered Ohio State for 10 years. I've not seen a lot of players I feel like like RVL Reese. So we're going to talk about him today. Some thoughts on him, some thoughts on him compared to past Ohio State linebackers, what he's doing this year. A plea, I think, and you guys know this, but a hope anyway that he doesn't fly under the radar because sometimes people get a little too focused on statistics and don't watch the games necessarily to see the true impact a guy may have. And Arvella Reese is obviously impacting Ohio State's defense in a few different ways. He's not the only one. I did write about Kaden Curry after the game over on the substack page, billandougosu.substack.com if you'd like to give that a shot. Kaden Curry, 11 tackles for a defensive lineman in a game is absurd. He is tied for the team lead and tackles of 25 with Arvel Reese. He is playing absolutely out of his mind right now. So he's a guy that is certainly worthy of attention. Davis Nick Benosin, I thought had a great game. Katie McDonald had a great game. I thought Sunny Styles played well in that game. Really across the board, Ohio State got a lot of pretty impressive individual efforts and then obviously a great collective effort from its defense in that game at Washington. So I don't single Arvell Reese out after that game as if to suggest he was the only one who who played well. He certainly wasn't. But it's hard to watch any Ohio State game, frankly, and not come away impressed with Arvel. And and this one I thought was sort of extra special because of all the different things he was asked to do. And I'll run through some of those in a second. First, I would like to tell you that the Bill and Duck show is brought to you by by Roback with Fall. Finally here, refresh your Activewear wardrobe with Roback. From hoodies to polos, quarter zips and fleeces, Roback has you covered. Plus their game day collection has Ohio State gear. There's stuff with like block goes on it. A lot of cool different sort of symbology. Is that the word symbolism associated with the Buckeyes that you can get on quarter zips and fleeces and hoodies and golf shirts and all that kind of stuff to have you outfitted throughout the season. We have a code for you. Use code BAD20 to get 20 off your first order at Roback. Again, the code is BAD20 to get 20 off your 1st order@roback.com Arvel Reese. So we do these things, right? Like we say, like I think Arvel Reese is the best linebacker in the country and I would stand by that. But a lot of people can say those things without all of the appropriate context, right? Like I have, I watched every single linebacker at every single team play, every single snap. To give you a definitive answer on who I think is the best linebacker in the country, of course not. I guess I would say that it is hard for me to imagine a singular linebacker having a greater impact on his team's defense than Arvel Reese. Not to say it hasn't happened, but what Arvel has done through four games is frankly absurd. Especially considering he's not played linebacker a ton. Right? This is, it's his third year. He started off as a defensive lineman and didn't really see the field much other than special teams. Didn't actually didn't see the field at all on defense. Second year, move to linebacker, played 300 snaps. But that was a very streamlined role, primarily a run stopping role for arvo Reese in 2024. This year is now like the full deal. Like we get to see him do everything. He's on the ball, he's off the ball, he's in coverage, he's spying, he's rushing the passer. He's obviously a good run stopper. The thing that's unfortunate is that I think he's so good at it that we could be in Marshawn Lattimore territory. They got to these path, you know, different paths but. But similar idea that we only got to see Marshawn for one year, then he went to the NFL. He was great and then he left for one year and we will have seen Arvel for more than one year but we really only might get this fully realized version. And it's probably not even that, but like you know this every down version of Arvell Reese as a starter for one year. Because one of the things I see more or most, I guess, on social media in reaction to Ohio State games is NFL draft people drooling over how good Arvell Reese is. And it's just really difficult for me to see a pathway where he doesn't go to the NFL after this year if this continues. Ohio State has been very good about retaining its players. We know that. So maybe there's a number they can get to to keep Arvel around for two years. I, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that. And if he does leave, Ohio State still has, you know, young linebackers to be excited about. But I would be lying if I said I'm all. If I'm not already a little bit bummed that we're, we are likely to get just one season of what we're seeing right now from Arvel Reese. So let's all cherish it together, shall we? One of the things, again, it's not, it is a concern, like, I think of like a Buckus Award, All American, all Big Ten kind of stuff. Like, the first thing people go to is just sort of raw production. And if you look at that for overall, Reese, like, it doesn't jump out of you. He has 25 tackles, as I mentioned, with this tie with Kaden Curry for the most on the team, it's actually tied for 26, the most in the Big Ten at the moment. He only has two tackles for loss and two sacks. Those numbers will go up. He has eight pressures, which is third on the team behind Curry, who has 16, and Kenyatta Jackson, who has 10. That's another guy I didn't mention. He played well against Washington, maybe his best game of his career against Washington. It was interesting. I was looking through the linebackers and power four and who has the most pressures. So Robot Reese has eight, which is like fine compared to a lot of the other linebackers. And in the power forward, you know who has the most pressures of any linebacker in the Power 4? Reed Carico, former Buckeye at West Virginia. So it seems like he's playing well for a West Virginia team that is not particularly good. But that's, that's nice to see a kid from Ironton playing well. He was just, he was never going to get on the field here. I don't think so. It's not that Ohio State really lost out on much, but it is rare even to see a guy like leave Ohio State and go on and play pretty well as a transfer. So it seems like Reed's doing a nice job there. But anyway, back to Arvella. His numbers are not top of the position type numbers. Right. Which then I, I think makes it necessary to watch what this guy does. And, and I think the Washington game stand stands as maybe the best example we have thus far of all that he can do. He was actually or you know, very good against Texas. That's when everyone kind of saw him playing. Whoa, that's pretty darn impressive. Especially some of the stuff he was doing in pass rush when they put him on the interior and he was just tossing around offensive linemen like they weigh 200 pounds of getting after Arch Manning. He actually didn't do a ton of that against Washington. He did have a pressure, he had a sack, but he wasn't doing a lot of pass rush because of what they were asking him to do as a spy. But there are four plays from that game. They're all first half plays. But he had made an impact obviously in the entire game. I highlighted these four plays in the written rewatch story that I wrote at at sub stack bill and Doug osu.substack.com and then I think just sort of encapsulate everything that he can do. So the first play was, it was the second play of the game. There's a run play. Arvo Reese is on, I think maybe a little bit of a rumble. It's, he kind of attacks the line of scrimmage right before the ball is snapped and then he gets one on one with an interior offensive lineman. Doesn't really let that guy get hands on him, kind of tosses him aside. And then solo tackles Jonah Coleman, who's one of the more difficult running backs in the country to tackle for no gain. And a couple plays later, the, the next drive, Washington is backed up in its own end zone. They get an eye formation they're going to try to throw out of the end zone and they actually do a cool thing where they put, they have, they have two tailbacks, Coleman and Adam Muhammad. They put them both on the field in eye formation. Muhammad as the, as the deep back, Coleman as the fullback, for lack of a better term, with his hand on the ground. And they run one of those play action plays where they leak the fullback out into the flat and there's a run fake involved with it. And Arvell Reese, who's playing on, on the end of the line of scrimmage, sees all that happening in the backfield. Think like, think about it. They're backed up, they're in Their end zone. He sees all this backfield action. I think any player would want to attack that right. And try to get a safety instead. Arvell Reese is incredibly patient. Doesn't take the cheese, really doesn't go after the run fake. He has Jonah Coleman in man coverage and kind of just blankets him. Takes away that initial read for the quarterback, the Mount Williams. And Williams was forced to scramble and he got two yards on the play. But. So that was Reese who made a really nice pass breakup in the Ohio game, showing us that he can cover pretty well. Like, if you look at some of the PFF numbers, there aren't a lot of guys whose grades. So it's like overall defense, run defense, tackling pass rush, pass coverage. Arvo Reese is like none of them are the best grade, but they're all balanced. Like there's not a bad grade among them. So that he can do all those things pretty well, I think is what puts him in the conversation for best linebacker in the country. And that play that I just mentioned was, was an indication of his coverage ability later on in the game. Washington driving the drive after Brandon Ennis had fumbled a punt return and gave Washington an extra possession. They run one of those plays where you fake a split zone run right where the tight end comes across the formation, usually to block the backside, and then instead of blocking, he releases into the flat, the quarterback pulls it on play action and just tosses it to him. It's usually or quite often good for, you know, a pretty easy 8 to 10 yards. And Washington did get that. But if you look at the play, like if you freeze it at the moment the guy catches the ball, he's got a lot of green space in front of him and an angle that looks like he should score. Now it's a tight end, so I don't want to make it sound like more impressive than it was, although I do think it was impressive the angle that Arvell Reese erases with speed to tackle that guy at the two yard line as opposed to letting him score and then Washington has to settle for a field goal. I just, it did not look to me like a play that every linebacker in America is going to make because I just don't think that there are a lot of guys who are as big and rangy as Arvell who can then run the way that he does and have the agility that he does. And. And that came to light too in the last play that I want to talk about. It was late. I think that same drive Washington ended up getting pushed back because of a penalty. So it was third and 10 but they're still in scoring position and Arvell fakes a rush and drops out and he's just like kind of waiting there seemed trying to see what the mon Williams does. They're in the low red zone so there's not a lot of space to throw the ball. The mod Williams is kind of like bopping up and down back there looking for a place to throw the ball to domestic he doesn't see anything. And if you watch him demand Williams enough like you know one, he normally doesn't hold on to the ball that long. Goes like one, two, I'm running. But I thought that that play again it's like it's early second quarter by this point was the first indication that Arvell Reese was creating hesitation in demand Williams mind not hesitation to throw the ball necessarily but. But making him think twice about whether or not he should scramble. And then what happened on that play is he does decide to scramble. He gets out to his left. Arvell Reese is mirroring him the entire way. Demond Williams who is among the more shifty quarterbacks in the country like breaks down, stutters his feet, is trying to give him a juke. Arvo Reese is stuttering his feet in the exact same way, just does not let him get by him. Kind of corrals him with both arms and tosses him to the ground. And that was just like okay, well Daman Williams isn't going to scramble in this game and he didn't that that's the way that he kills teams. But he did not do it against Ohio State. I actually don't believe he had. Let me double check this. I have pff up up here. He had 20 scramble yards on six scrambles and I think that was like two plays that accounted for those 20 yards. There was a play where he got out and like kind of made Kenyatta Jackson miss and got got a decent game. But they really corralled that he was the leading scrambler or among the leading scramblers yardage wise in the country and was so like on a per play, per play basis last year when he wasn't the full time starter and he just could not find any space against Arvo Reese because arvo Reese is 6'5,250 and moves as well as a 5 foot 11, 200 pound shifty quarterback which maybe if you were to say one thing about what makes ARVL re special maybe you could just say that. So it was an incredible game from him. It was another in a, in a list of really strong games from Arvell Reese as he continues to, to build a pretty impressive resume. I was really struck by something I heard over the weekend. You know, I kind of, I try to check in on the national podcast to see what they're saying about Ohio State. And I was watching the Audible podcast, which is the athletics podcast, which is Stu Mendel, Ralph Russo and Bruce Feldman. And I think Bruce is great. Bruce is, Bruce is as. As tight in with anyone, as tight in as anyone in college football, especially when it comes to coaching circles. So when he relays information secondhand from coaches that he talks to, I, I take it pretty seriously. And he said he talked to a coach who had played Ohio State already this year. I don't know who I'm going to assume somebody from Texas. And that coach told Bruce that he thinks it's Arvel Reese and not Caleb Downs who is Ohio State's best defensive player. Now, we don't, we don't have to get into that because they're both great and that's, that's really all that matters. We don't need to spend 10 minutes debating which one of those is actually the best player. We will on Wednesday, by the way, Doug and myself update our top 22 Buckeyes on our premium Substack show. We start it, we do it before the season, and then we kind of update it throughout the year and then finalize it at the end of the season. So we did a preseason one. We'll revisit that now and re rank our top 22 players. I think Arvo Reese was pretty high in the preseason, but he'll be very high, obviously, when we do it this time around. That'll be up on Wednesday again for Substack subscribers. I don't know if we'll have Arval Reese ahead of Caleb Downs or not. Safe to say both will be in the top five. And, and that's fine. We don't have to decide which one we think is better. Caleb Downs does a lot that I think that goes unseen if he's not filling the stat sheet. So two guys that I think you at times, you need to study a bit to truly appreciate. But some of the stuff that RV Reese does is a little more in your face and was very much in the face of Washington on Saturday. So I've been thinking about Arvel and what the ceiling is and how that compares to other linebackers that I've covered at Ohio State. So my first season covering Ohio State was 2014, so that was Darren Lee's red shirt freshman season. His first season starting, started in 14, started in 15 and then became a first round pick. I would probably say that he is still the best Ohio State linebacker that I have covered. I, I have made a, I think the list of 10 who I would put in the top 10 is pretty definitive. Of the guys that I have covered in Arvell Reese and Sunny Styles, both are already on it. So I didn't really put this in order but I'll just say the names other than, other than saying like right now I would have Darren Lee at the top and then the other nine guys that I would have on that list again are not going to be surprising to Anybody but Rayquan McMillan, Jerome Baker, especially for his 2016 season. He was not quite as good in 2017, but still a good linebacker. Good starting linebacker for two years. Malik Harrison, maybe one of the more underrated players I've covered. I just thought he was excellent in 2018 and 2019 as the starting will linebacker Pete Werner again maybe slightly underrated as well. Incredibly versatile, could play like safety and linebacker Cody Simon I think. Well he is, he is on my list but I, I don't, I don't know if he's underrated or not, but got thrown in the starting early, struggled kind of took a step back and had a lesser role for a year then then stepped back up to play more and I think in 2023 and 2024 was their best linebacker. Not, not even particularly close in my opinion. Sunny Styles I think is on there first year starting as a linebacker. Last year started a little, a little slow I think got better over the course of the season and has played very well to this point. To this point this year. There aren't many linebackers in college football, power four linebackers anyway that have played as many snaps as Sunny has without a missed tackle. So far this year I think there are 17 total who have zero or one missed tackles and I think the number that have zero is like eight and Sunny is one of them. So he's, he's played really well to this point. Arvella would have on the list Joshua Perry, kind of like the last of a dying breed in the sense of guys who like would really rack up pretty ridiculous tackle numbers. The sport's a little different now. You don't see too many guys racking up the tackles that Joshua Perry did, but he was a very good solid linebacker for Ohio State for two years. And Tommy Eichenberg I would put up there too. Battled some injuries over, you know, toward the end of his career, but was highly productive in Jim Knowles's system and really, you know, for a couple of years anyway, sort of felt like the engine of that system with some of the stuff that Jim Knowles was doing with his linebacker. So I, I think he belongs in that list too. But I, I mentioned that list anyway to say, like, I think it's there in league number one right now, but I think by the end of this season, there's a very good chance that I'll be putting Arvell Reese on the top of that list and Sunny Styles will be pretty high up on it too. I think by the time his career is over, which is going to be the end of this year, he has to go to the NFL draft after this season. Arvell Reese does not. But it is again, just hard to envision a world where he's going to stick around after this one. Even if Ohio State has been quite good at getting guys to put off the first round for a year, I think Arvel could be a first round pick because he is in many ways the modern on ball, off ball linebacker that the NFL covets. If he were purely an off ball kind of guy, like a Cody Simon or a Tommy Eichenberg or a Raekwon McMillan, like a couple of these guys that I mentioned, Joshua Perry, it would be a different conversation. But because he is likely to play as much, if not more on the line of scrimmage as a pass rusher than he is playing like a traditional box linebacker in the NFL. I just think that projected draft slot combined like, combined with his testing too, he's gonna test like a freak. That that projected draft slot is going to be too high, I think for Ohio State to keep him around. And I think the NFL will actually end up thinking very similarly of Sunny Styles as well. So again, enjoy it while you can because you have two, two linebackers who are playing really well, kind of at the top of their game, I would say at the top of the game in the sport right now. But one, especially in Arvel, who is a, is a special blend of talent, skill set, freakish traits. There's just, there's there's a lot there. So I don't know, like the Malik Hooker year and the Marshawn Lattimore year. I'm trying to think of others that might compare where we sort of just got like one, a one year flash before those guys left. I can't recall exactly when that became obvious. And if any of us took time to kind of like appreciate what was happening before it was too late and they were gone. So this is my, my message or plea, I guess, to make sure you appreciate what Arvell Reese is doing because I don't think he'll be in a Buckeye uniform after, after this year. We play for somebody in the National Football League and be, be a millionaire. So. Which is great for him, but angry for Ohio State, frankly, that linebacker room is, has changed quite a bit under James Laurinaitis. I think we'll continue to and, and develop a reputation that I think a lot of players, the next Arvel Reese, frankly, are going to want to come play here at that position when you combine what James Laurinatis has done, how Matt Patricia is using the linebackers and the kind of impacts we're seeing from guys like Sonny Styles and Arvel Reese right now. So we knew Ohio State was going to have athletic linebackers. I think to this point they've had even a greater impact than, than at least I anticipated. And it's been pretty fun to watch. So that was on my mind coming out of the Washington game. More coming this week. Ryan Day press conference on Tuesday. Doug and I will be there. Well, we're likely to have some kind of reaction from that either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. We'll have playoff picks up on Tuesday night. Doug tomorrow, early Tuesday, I think is going to have some thoughts on the national title race and how Ohio State fits into that. A bunch more coming later on this week as Ohio State gets ready to host Minnesota on Saturday night. A Big Ten home night game, a rare one for the Buckeye. So that should be pretty exciting. I know people, I know it's not, you know, it's not the best opponent to have one, but I know people have been wanting to get a home night game against a Big Ten team for, for a while. So I'm glad that's happening and I'm interested to see what that environment looks like on Saturday. That'll wrap up this episode of the Bill and Doug Show. Thanks so much for watching. I'll catch you.