Ohio State does not have many starters coming back from its 2024 championship-winning defense, but returning starters like unanimous All-American safety Caleb Downs and All-Big Ten linebacker Sonny Styles are projected to be among the best players in the Big Ten and maybe even the country next season. Styles, who was one of 15 players on the preseason All-Big Ten list, could have a huge season in 2025, according to Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
“You take a guy like Sonny Styles, I mean, he’s one of the best players we have had in a long time at Ohio State,” Day said at Big Ten Media Day in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “I just believe he’s going to have a great year this season, and he’s one of our hardest workers and a great leader.”
Styles, a former five-star recruit out of Pickerington, Ohio, already established himself as a difference-maker for Ohio State last year, when in his first season at linebacker, he recorded 100 total tackles and six sacks. Now, with a year of experience at the linebacker position under his belt, Styles is ready to step up as one of the defense’s leaders.
“I feel super confident,” Styles said. “Year two at the position, (I’m) getting more and more comfortable and confident in what I’m doing. I’m more focused on, ‘What is the offense doing?’ Instead of trying to memorize my job. I feel like I got all that stuff down. I feel like I understand the defense at a high level, so now I’m starting to understand, ‘What’s the offense doing? What formation are they in? What plays are they running?’”
According to Styles, it was first-year defensive coordinator Matt Patricia who challenged him to learn about opposing offenses. An improved football IQ could help Styles get to an elite level as a defender, if he’s not there already.
“I think (defensive coordinator Matt Patricia) challenged me in a way of like, ‘Alright, you’re at the point where you’re smart enough to know exactly what you’re doing and what everyone else is doing, now I want you to figure out what the offense is doing. You see this formation, you see this shift, you see this quarterback looking this way, be able to start predicting where the ball is going.’ I think as a defender, especially as a linebacker, when you get to the point where you’re no longer reacting, you’re predicting what’s going to happen, that’s when you become elite.”
Styles, a 6-4, 235 linebacker, who originally came out of high school as a safety, isn’t lacking any physical tools either. Instead, the son of former Buckeye linebacker Lorenzo Styles has the rare combination of size, strength and speed to excel in various roles on defense. Still, Styles wants to continue to make improvements on the field heading into the 2025 season
“For me at the linebacker position, I feel like I can do pretty close to anything a coordinator can ask me to do on the field. I can play off the ball, I can cover, I can drop into zones, I can run the deep middle in terms of cover 2, I can blitz, I can come off the edge,” Styles said. “I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I think I’m pretty good at a lot of things. There are still a lot of things I can work on, too, like cleaning up missed tackles, cleaning up some zone drops, which I feel like I’ve gotten better at, but I think the versatility has been something that can separate me from other linebackers across the country.”
