Ohio State head coach Ryan Day always keeps one eye on his team’s rival.
He can’t go crazy about it, getting distracted from the task at hand during the season. But Day tries to at least pay some attention to what Michigan is doing.
What he's seen from the Michigan defense has been dominant.
The Wolverines are allowing an average of 16.3 points per game, allowing more than 20 points only twice this season: 29 in a three-point win against Nebraska and 37 in a four-point loss to Michigan State. Michigan has found its way to the quarterback 29 times — 19.5 of which are split between defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and linebacker David Ojabo — while forcing opposing quarterbacks to complete only 54.6% of passes.
Overall, Day knows Michigan’s defense brings a big challenge, especially up front with Hutchinson and Ojabo rushing from the edge, both of which have double-digit tackles-for-loss along with seven forced fumbles.
“You can do different things, but at the end of the day, you don’t want to go crazy and deviate from what you do well,” Day said. “But you have to know where they are and respect them for sure.”
What Hutchinson and Ojabo both bring to the table are familiar to Ohio State offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere: the speed, the athleticism, the strength. But it's nothing new for either him or fellow tackle Dawand Jones.
Petit-Frere believes it's nothing out of the ordinary.
“They are everything you would imagine a great defensive end to be,” Petit-Frere said.
Over the past two weeks, facing defensive ends like Purdue’s George Karlaftis and Michigan State’s Jeff Pietrowski, Jones and Petit-Frere have each not allowed one single hurry or pressure at each of Ohio State's tackle spots per Pro Football Focus.
Against Ohio State, Karlaftis recorded three tackles, including one for loss, but no hurries or sacks. Michigan State's Pietrowski had a bit more success at end, recording one hurry, but no sacks.
Through 11 games, the Ohio State offensive line as a whole has allowed 13 sacks, second to the Wolverines, which has allowed nine. These numbers helped Ohio State to be named as one of 13 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award — given to the country’s best offensive line — along with Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan State.
According to PFF, the Ohio State offensive line has kept clean pockets on more than 80% of redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud's drop backs in five games this season, including each of the last two against Michigan State and Purdue.
Heading into a game against talented rushers like Hutchinson or Ojabo, Petit-Frere said he watches film with Jones, talking through what they see: what the defensive ends’ tendencies are and what they could do to make their matchups successful, developing keys, tips and tricks to give the tackles the advantage at the line of scrimmage.
However, the redshirt junior offensive tackle knows that game planning and direct preparation can only take a lineman so far.
Once you get into game play, it comes down to football IQ.
“You can never expect what the other side’s going to do and even if you have keys, tips and tricks on the person, at the end of the day, you got to play football,” he said. “The game’s never going to change: two teams are going to play, there’s a ball, got to go score more points than the other team.”
Day doesn’t know what kind of game the Ohio State offense will need to have to beat Michigan on the road Saturday. All he’s focused on is winning the game, whether it’s 10-7 or 62-60.
No matter what kind of game it will be — a grudge match, an offensive free-for-all or anywhere in between — the offensive line has to be a major factor, just as it has been over the last two meetings.
In 2018 and 2019, Michigan has been unable to generate much of a pass rush against either Dwayne Haskins or Justin Fields, recording nine tackles-for-loss and one sack combined by Jordan Glasgow and Michael Dwumfour in 2019.
With that, the Buckeyes have been able to showcase its offense against the Wolverines in a major way, scoring 118 combined points and generating 1,144 yards of offense in those two games combined.
As Petit-Frere and Jones face Tyreke Smith and Zach Harrison in good-on-good practices, preparing to face Michigan's pass rush, the redshirt junior offensive tackle isn’t focused on one singular matchup.
That’s too narrow for a rivalry game like this, a game that’s been big before he got to Ohio State and will continue to be as big after he’s long gone from the program.
To Petit-Frere, the names and numbers change on the other side of the line of scrimmage, but the approach remains: to beat Michigan, no matter who he’s facing.
“Regardless of what they are ranked or anything like that, this is one of the greatest rivalry games in all of sport. It’s called The Game for a reason,” Petit-Frere said. “It’s one of the most taxing and most energy we give to any single opponent that we have because we prepare for it 365 days per year.”
