During the Ohio State-Virginia Tech game last season, it was obvious that Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster was guilty of malice aforethought.
The Buckeyes had four new starters on their offensive line, including redshirt freshman Billy Price at left guard. They also had redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett, elevated just a couple of weeks earlier when Braxton Miller was lost for the season, and it was just the second game of the year. So Foster deployed his Hokies in what the Buckeyes found to be a surprising Bear defense, a 4-2-5 alignment that featured incessant blitzes.
“That was a wave we weren’t ready for,” Price recalled.