While the coordinators and other coaching moves have gotten most of the attention this spring, players have quietly gone about their work.

One of those quiet leaders is junior linebacker Bryce Steele. Under-the-radar would be a massive understatement when it comes to Steele as the 6'1, 228lb. backer could be a huge piece to the puzzle in 2023.

On Thursday following another spring session, Steele met the media for the first time and backed up a lot of what guys like Donovan Ezeiruaku, Alex Washington and Elijah Jones have said about the defense so far.

ON HAVING CO-DC'S
"I don't think it's been that much of an adjustment. Coach Duggan, Coach Aazaar, they've been here for some time now, at least my entire time here. Coach Duggan is my position coach and I've actually known him for...going on like maybe five or six years, because he recruited me at Ohio State. I've been pretty familiar with their coaching methods and everything. I think the defense is definitely taking a turn for the better."

ON TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE OFFENSE GOING THROUGH AN ADJUSTMENT PERIOD
"Yeah. It's definitely been different (the offense) to say the least. It's been good to get out here and getting some good work going against each other. They've definitely made us a lot better on defense. We've seen some stuff that we hadn't seen from other teams the past couple season. It's good we're getting into the spring right now and seeing some new things to open up the defense's mindset to help us be prepared for anything that comes up this season."

ON HAVING VINNY DEPALMA BACK
"It's pretty good, pretty cool. He's been helping me ever since I was a freshman. Very, very smart football player. To this day, he's still giving me little tads and bits of information to help improve my game as well. It's like having another coach in the linebacker room along with Coach Duggan because he's just that knowledgeable about linebacker and the game of football."

ON THE DEFENSE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH EMMETT MOREHEAD
"I didn't know if you guys knew this, but me and Emmett went to the same high school, so I've known him for some time now. It's just pretty cool being able to talk trash to him for the past like, six or seven years. It's cool to see him become the player that he is. He's a great quarterback, a great friend and a great overall person."

ON IF HE KNEW MOREHEAD COULD BE WHO HE IS NOW IN HIGH SCHOOL
"Yeah. I always knew he had the potential. He has a really, really, really strong arm. Now, he's learning how to maneuver through defense and everything, so now we're just trying to make each other better."

ON THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR FROM LAST YEAR
"Most definitely a new mindset. It's about us forgetting about last season and moving on. It's the start to a new season, that's what we've really got to hone in and focus on. There's a lot of different things that were changing on the field and off the field as far as recovery and that as a team. I'm really excited for this season...our strength and conditioning staff is really good, so we're doing stuff in the weight room for injury prevention."