Refilling the defensive line room was one of the top priorities for Northwestern's coaches this offseason.

Defensive line coach Marty Long lost Trevor Kent, Jeremy Meiser, Samdup Miller, Jeffery Pooler Jr. and Joe Spivak from his 2021 rotation. Additionally, Te-Rah Edwards, who didn't see much action in 2021, but could've taken on a bigger role this upcoming season, transferred downstate to Illinois.

That left quite a few snaps to fill in the trenches in Evanston, and Long turned to the transfer portal to fill them.

Added into the mix were Henrik Barndt from Indiana State, Taishan Holmes from UMass and Ryan Johnson from Stanford. All bring much needed experience to a defensive line room that returns only one player with significant playing time under his belt, end Adetomiwa Adebawore.

The spring practice that just ended last Friday was a time for the new-look defensive line to start to come together. Only Adebawore, the team leader in sacks last season, has a defined role. The transfers joined the group for the final three weeks of the spring, and that time was mostly about getting them up to speed.

"They've learned the scheme," Long said after the final team workout. "We'll find out how they're going to fit in the fall. The major thing right now was getting them to learn the defensive scheme, and they've done a great job. They've shown some promise, but we don't know much yet."

So far, the transition has gone well for Johnson.

"It's (been) smooth," he said. "Trying to unlearn technique that I learned for five years at Stanford has definitely been hard, but d-line is d-line. Trying to learn new calls, learn the playbook, but I feel like for the most part everything is going well."

Johnson is walking a tightrope between being one of the older guys in the defensive line room, but also being a new face. He said as he learns the defense, he can interject more as a leader. While he's still getting the defense down, though, the leadership has fallen mostly on the returners.

Long said that Adebawore has cemented himself as the leader of the group. The senior was the only consistent presence on Northwestern's defensive line last year, and he will look to help his teammates try and meet his level of play.

"I just got to understand my room," Adebawore said. "Understand I've got to be more of a leader, (make sure) those guys know what the standard is."

The standard, according to Adebawore, is to be the hardest working defensive line in the country; one that sprints to the ball and makes plays.

Another returner who has taken a step forward this spring is defensive end Sean McLaughlin. McLaughlin tallied 1.5 sacks last season in limited work and is in position to potentially start opposite Adebawore in 2022.

"Sean has gotten bigger and stronger," Long said. "We look for some great things out of him at the big end position."

It's no secret that Northwestern's defense took a step in the wrong direction in 2021. It was evident from Kenneth Walker III's 75-yard sprint to the end zone on the first play of the season that the 2021 iteration of the defense would not be at the level of its predecessors. This offseason has been a chance for Northwestern to go back to the drawing board a little bit and find solutions to the issues that plagued them in 2021.

"We just looked at some of the problems we had last year, and we've done a great job working on those specific issues we had," Adebawore said.

Chief among those problems was stopping the run. NU's run defense ranked dead last in the Big Ten in 2021 and was the root of most of the issues on that side of the ball.

Both Adebawore and Long agree that the keys to improving the run defense, at least from the line's perspective, is to do a better job of using hands to get off blocks and make plays.

Long has a simple goal for the group in 2022: get back to playing at the level expected of a Northwestern defensive line.

"Our goals are to get back to where we were as far as run defense and being ready to pressure the quarterback," Long said. "But first, stopping the run, getting back to that."

As for Adebawore, he's dreaming even bigger.

"My goal is for the team to have success, and that means winning the Big Ten," he said.