COLUMBUS, Ohio--With the results of Ohio State's latest spring game, many observations can be taken away from Saturday's scrimmage, but one glaring strength for the Buckeyes is along the defensive line.

Even with the loss of Nick Bosa and Dre'Mont Jones leaving for the NFL, the Buckeyes remain dangerous and deep throughout the interior and exterior of the defensive line and look to be a terror for any offensive line in the Big Ten and the surrounding conferences.

An emerging leader has been junior defensive end Chase Young, who has given the responsibility to himself to be a big influence and push the young tackles and ends to be the best that they can be.

It showed in the spring game with a few young, but talented players having impressive days. Redshirt freshman defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste had six total tackles, four of them solo, a forced fumble, a sack, and a tackle-for-loss. While highly regarded sophomore defensive end Tyreke Smith had four total tackles, three solo tackles with 1.5 sacks and tackles-for-loss.

Young said that the performance seen today was just scratching the surface on something special and that in order to achieve something special you have to work at it every single day as hard as you can.

"As you've seen today, Tyreke and Javontae, you know they have that superstar potential," Young said. "Both of them really twitchy. I just tell them every day to keep working because somebody out there in the country that's working just as hard as you. So, get to work."

Smith has been a name spoken many times by his teammates along the line along with serval coaches including head coach Ryan Day and defensive lineman coach Larry Johnson.

Young sees Smith as a big part of the future for Ohio State defensive lineman, but Smith said before he can carry the torch from Young, he must work on his game and get ready to make his first real impact in this upcoming season in the fall and it starts with the basics.

“Trying to hone my technique and just help the unit,” Smith said. “Get some more game-type reps for my guys, go out there and try to get some stops, get a look on how the defense is gonna be.”

In order to develop the habits and work ethic that coaches like Johnson demand every play from his players, it starts with countless hours of study in yourself to make you better and that evaluation and critique really never ends under Coach Johnson.

Smith said your athleticism is a big reason why many players are at Ohio State, but it can only take you so far and that it really is the mental part and being mentally tough that puts players into an elite category.

“Athletic ability is a lot, but the mental part is a lot of it too,” Smith said. “When you can see a play before it happens, you can see the back on one side, you know it’s gonna be a stretch, that just helps you play faster, so that's definitely been helping us a lot."

With many young players looking to establish themselves as difference-making players, some might too cautious to make mistakes with fear of being critiqued more than they already are as green, raw talent, but Smith welcomes as much feedback as he can.

Smith said that he learned for Day that it is best to go 100 percent and make a mistake than to not give it your all and make the mistake anyway and building that habit is what allows you to take more and more steps down the road in a player's development.

"I just go hard," Smith said. "Coach (Day) says, 'If you just go hard and you make a mistake, that's cool with me because we can fix it.' But if you don't go hard then that's two things he has to look at. So, I'm just trying going into practice, make sure I don't make the same mistake and just look at film and make sure I'm fixing my technique, making sure I'm still working my hands and getting off the ball. Just checking stuff off the checklist and making sure I'm getting better every day."

With all the veteran players like Jonathon Cooper, Jashon Cornell, Davon Hamilton and Robert Landers combined with the young exceptional talent that Johnson has brought in with Smith, Jean-Baptiste, Tyler Friday, Tommy Togiai, Taron Vincent and Zach Harrison just to name a few, the defensive line is ready to rotate players yet again.

Young said with that long cast of players, the summer will be huge to ensure that the confidence is sky high when the group comes into fall camp and preseason hungrier than they have ever been for the 2019 college football season.

“The whole summer we gonna be working, we gonna be grinding,” Young said. “I’ve definitely got confidence in my D-line.”