To create indecision for opposing offenses, Jim Knowles can’t have any indecision during his defensive meetings.

Whether it's through a mix of call-and-response phrases or "game shows," quizzing players on scheme, the Ohio State's defensive coordinator's job heading into the spring is to get his players to a point where decisions are instantaneous and instinctive.

“Any time during my presentation… their picture could pop up and they have to stand up and within 2.5 seconds, they have to answer a question,” he said. “Otherwise it’s, ‘No, sit down. Play’s over.’”

Knowles found that at Oklahoma State.

No team in 2021 was better at getting to the quarterback than the Cowboys, finishing the season as the only team in the country to average more than four sacks per game.

Only three teams were better at getting opposing offenses off the field on third down, with a third-down success rate of 28.8%.

Oklahoma State's defense created indecision for opposing offenses because of how simple it looked.

“We want to create two-to-three simple pictures that when you look at it or the offensive coordinator looks at it, he can’t tell what’s going to happen from that same picture and we have the ability to do really anything out of that same picture or looks,” Knowles said.

Those pictures start with the Leo.

It’s a position Ohio State transfer safety Tanner McCalister knows well.

Playing cover safety for Oklahoma State for the past four years under Knowles, McCalister watched Collin Oliver turn into a freshman All-American and Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and Brock Martin turn into a first-team All-Big 12 team member from that defensive end/linebacker hybrid.

It was flash players making splash plays, the safety said, combining for 19.5 sacks and 29.5 tackles-for loss splitting time at the Leo position last season.

And it was simply because opposing offenses couldn't plan for what the Leo would do.

“A quarterback, his job is to check the front, make sure everybody’s blocked. But if you got a guy moving around, you don’t know where he’s going to land.” McCalister said. “So it’s kind of hard to check your front to make sure everybody’s blocked if there's a guy moving around.”

Coming into Ohio State, Knowles didn't know who would take that Leo spot, building off the momentum of Oliver and Martin from their 2021 seasons in Stillwater.

In his first days with the coaching staff after weeks on the road recruiting, the defensive coordinator sat with head coach Ryan Day and assistant athletic director for football performance Mickey Marotti, listening to fellow assistant coaches, figuring out what puzzle pieces he has to work with.

All Knowles had war the checklist.

The Leo needs to be an intelligent player and he needs to be reckless, recognizing plays and keys quickly as a jack-of-all-trades, a Swiss Army Knife that can be plugged in and put into different places to take advantage of the weakness of opposing offenses.

McCalister is not going to make the decision of who will play the Leo spot in front of him on Ohio State’s defense. However, based on his knowledge of the position and what Knowles wants in general, he sees Cade Stover.

Ohio State’s new safety has been working with the tight end-turned linebacker in the weight room, calling Stover “gritty” and as a player who gets after guys.

2022 early-enrollee Caden Curry has also been viewed as a possible option at the spot, saying that the coaches feel he could play either at the Leo or at defensive end.

“I kind of see myself more as an athletic build and i can have more speed,” Curry said. “So kind of just seeing that, playing like a bigger end, but a more athletic and skill type of guy.”

Curry said he wants to be like Nick Bosa, developing athleticism and speed from the outside that led the former Ohio State defensive end to be the second-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

But Curry also said he has the versatility to be that roaming player necessary to play the Leo, playing zero-technique, three-technique, five-technique and middle linebacker in high school, along with a stint as the team’s long snapper.

That’s all Knowles is looking for: productivity and multiplicity, tough players who are able to get players on the ground.

The Leo is just the product of what Knowles wants his defense to be known for at Ohio State.

“For being tenacious. Just for overwhelming the offense, for always being in the right place,” Knowles said. “When you are watching, you say, ‘Oh, he’s in the right place.’ Not giving up anything easy and attacking with the tackles-for-loss and the sacks and the third-down domination.”