When Ohio State lost linebackers Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese to the NFL draft, it didn’t just lose two starters. It lost the identity of a linebacker corps that had anchored Matt Patricia‘s first season as defensive coordinator. Replacing that group has fallen to a room built around a different kind of player: Payton Pierce, a self-described “throwback Mike linebacker” who spent 2025 waiting for exactly this opportunity.
Pierce’s numbers last season, 43 tackles, one forced fumble and one interception, came in a limited role behind Ohio State’s veteran linebacker rotation. They were productive enough that Patricia and his staff named him a team captain heading into 2026, a vote of confidence in a player who has spent the offseason preparing to be the emotional and schematic center of the defense rather than a complementary piece. “When I came here, it was my goal to be a captain and be a leader of this team,” Pierce said. “So every decision I make is kind of towards that, doing what’s best for the team and trying to be the best leader I can every day.”
Depth Behind the Captain
He’s not doing it alone. Christian Alliegro transferred in from Wisconsin to take over the Will linebacker spot, bringing experience from a Big Ten program that has built its own reputation on physical, downhill linebacker play. Behind them, sophomores Riley Pettijohn and TJ Alford have already shown they’re ready for real snaps rather than simply developmental reps. Pettijohn paced the Buckeyes with six tackles in the season-opening win over Ball State, and Alford turned a pressured throw into an interception that flipped the game’s momentum in the second quarter. Cincere Johnson rounds out a five-deep rotation that gives Matt Patricia flexibility to rotate fresh legs in without sacrificing physicality.
Alford, for his part, describes the room’s identity in almost the same terms Patricia uses for the defense as a whole. “It’s crazy versatile,” Alford said. “You got guys that can drop in coverage. You got guys that can blitz the A-gap, blitz off the edge, hit somebody in the mouth when it’s time to hit somebody in the mouth. And I feel like it’s not like this person does that, this person does that. We all can do it.” That’s precisely the kind of interchangeable, do-anything linebacker room a disguise-heavy scheme like Patricia’s needs to function.
That depth matters more this season than it did a year ago. Patricia has talked openly about building a defense on collective strength across every level rather than leaning on one or two standout stars, and the linebacker room is the clearest test case. Pierce provides the veteran presence and the leadership voice. Alliegro brings a proven college resume from another power conference. Pettijohn and Alford give the room its ceiling, two young players already flashing the instincts that made them recruiting priorities in the first place.
A Scheme That Demands More
The scheme itself asks a lot of that group. Patricia’s defenses, dating back to his years coordinating in the NFL, are built around disguise and multiplicity, fronts and blitz packages that shift week to week depending on the opponent. Executing that kind of system requires linebackers who can process quickly and communicate at the line of scrimmage, not just run and hit. Pierce, in particular, has drawn praise for exactly that kind of football intelligence, the trait that separates a productive linebacker from one capable of running an entire defensive front.
Ohio State’s linebacker corps won’t be judged on the Ball State opener. It will be judged over 12 more games, starting with a considerably tougher test in Austin against a Texas offense that can hurt a defense in the run game as much as through the air. But the early returns, six tackles from Pettijohn, a turnover-forcing pressure that led to Alford’s interception, and a captain in Pierce who has waited two years for this exact role, suggest Matt Patricia has the pieces in place to replace last year’s linebacker corps without missing much of a step.
There’s also a symbolic weight to Pierce wearing a captain’s patch this season. Ohio State’s linebacker room has been a proving ground for Big Ten defense for decades, and handing that torch to a player who spent his first two years mostly watching from the rotation says something about how Patricia evaluates readiness. What matters instead of tenure is whether a player has already shown he understands the whole defense well enough to make the calls that put everyone else in position, and by every account from fall camp, Pierce has cleared that bar.