When James Laurinaitis was entering his sophomore year at Ohio State in 2006, the Buckeyes had lost all three starting linebackers from the previous season. And they were all highly-skilled at their craft. A.J. Hawk was the No. 5 overall pick of the 2006 NFL Draft, Bobby Carpenter joined him as a first-round selection that season, and Anthony Schlegel was a third-round pick.
Laurinaitis had played a decent amount as a true freshman – and was thrust into action in 2005 at Michigan after Carpenter broke his leg.
But there were still questions about Ohio State's linebacker room entering 2006. The Buckeyes had just lost three draft picks at the position, and Laurinaitis was a former 3-star recruit who was taking over at middle linebacker for Hawk.
Laurinaitis responded with an All-American season as a sophomore, leading Ohio State to a 12-0 regular season record and a spot in the national championship game.
As we like to say, there is "reloading" … and then there is whatever Ohio State does. On a yearly basis, no less.
Take this year for example. Exactly 20 years after Laurinaitis took over as a starter, the Buckeyes are losing two linebackers who will likely be top-10 picks in this month's NFL Draft in Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles. Yet, Laurinaitis' room is talented and deep. Time will tell how good OSU's linebackers are this year, but from all accounts, things are more than trending in the right direction.
On Thursday, following Ohio State's seventh practice of spring, Bucknuts asked Laurinaitis if he would agree that his LB corps is still in a very good place this year, and whether this is what he envisioned when he began building his room three years ago.
Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis chats with reporters following the Buckeyes' seventh practice of spring. (Photo: Dave Biddle, 247Sports)
"Yeah, I think with Sonny and Arvell, obviously, that was a good looking room," Laurinaitis said. "Those guys worked so hard and they got drastically better as the season went on, I thought. And the standard is the standard. The standard was always to try to get our room to a point where you felt a healthy amount of pressure to perform in the sense of, if I have a bad day or two, I could be passed up by the next guy because of the talent level in the room. And I constantly want that grittiness to it, because I certainly felt it when I was here.
"I'll never forget, I think going into junior year, being asked about Ross Homan from Coldwater by you guys. I'll never forget Mark Johnson coming from LA and the hype around Mark, but it was used as motivation. And these kids now, I mean, they see it. They all know each other based on the recruiting game has blown up even more, but I think it's healthy because what it does is that you find out the mental toughness of your room and you got to see who can perform under pressure and then who's going to make a play when their number's called.
"And then what does that do? That prepares you across the board for that when they do get an opportunity to go to the National Football League, they're not intimidated by the room and having to make a play in high pressure situations because they've already been through it here at Ohio State. So, if you're Sonny or Arvell and you're about to go up there, those guys were used to being in a room with Cody Simon. And Cody Simon was used to being in a room with Tommy Eichenberg. And I think that's the way that you kind of envision it is that now it's time for these guys in this room, Payton (Pierce) being the most experienced (at OSU) to kind of see what they can do and run off with it."
In addition to Pierce, who will be a third-year sophomore, the Buckeyes main linebackers this season will be senior Christian Alliegro who transferred in from Wisconsin, plus sophomore Riley Pettijohn and TJ Alford.
Pettijohn is missing contact drills during spring with a minor ailment, but his best friend, the 6-foot-1, 233-pound Alford, has been impressive this spring.
"Man, TJ has grown so much from last season," Laurinaitis said. "He got so much better from fall camp to when we were in the postseason. There's been a maturity. I think TJ learned a lot about himself through last season. There's been a maturity in the offseason. There's been a seriousness of trying to find a way to get on the field and have a role, which I think TJ's done a phenomenal job. He's had a really strong start to this spring. I expect to see a lot of football out of TJ Alford come this fall.
"If everything keeps projecting, trending the way it's gone, he's a guy that takes coaching. He works at it. It's hard without showing you side-by-side clips of some of our stuff, but it's gotten so much better. I think the future is just really bright for TJ."
And, again, Laurinaitis knows something about a sophomore linebacker at Ohio State trying to make his name after the Buckeyes lost star linebackers from the previous year. We encourage you to watch all of Laurinaitis' conversation with reporters on Thursday in this video.
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