While four of five starters can return, this season’s performance ensures all five starting spots must be subject to an open competition this spring and into the preseason if necessary. For the second straight year, Ohio State’s O line appears headed into a spring in which it has not yet built faith in its young prospects, is looking to the transfer portal with what some might call desperation, and under-recruiting the room based on the standard applied to every other position.
Per PFF, Kienholz faced pressure on 11 of his 19 dropbacks Friday — nearly 58% of the time. While Missouri came after the green quarterback for obvious reasons, it also created many of those pressures without an advantage on numbers. Clips began circulating on social media in-game of defenders racing into the backfield either untouched or barely acknowledged by OSU linemen.
The problems were not confined to pass protection. Ohio State went 0 for 4 when rushing for a first down or touchdown with 2 or fewer yards needed. Its rushing success rate, where 40% is considered “below average,” checked in at 28%. Of Henderson’s 19 rush attempts, 11 went for 3 or fewer yards.
With Missouri able to stack the box, OSU never combined scheme and execution to sustain a ground game in the second half. It felt like a step backward in every way for a unit whose heels never strayed far from the edge.
“I thought he battled his tail off,” Day said of Kienholz. “But clearly, we didn’t help him up front.”
Day said after the game two-year starting right guard Matt Jones moved to center because starter Carson Hinzman “was having a tough time the last couple of weeks in practice.” Hinzman was thrust into the starting job prior to the season with no more experienced option available after Luke Wypler’s unexpected early departure for the NFL. Ohio State added a Group of Five player with no history of high performance in Vic Cutler, which never seemed like a realistic starting option.
Jones could at least fall back on dozens of games of experience and years of occasional practice reps at center when he made the switch. The decision to throw fifth-year senior Enokk Vimahi into his first game of consequence all season — and leave him in the game when he clearly struggled — leads one to conclude all other potential options were not game-ready.
Tegra Tshabola supposedly contended for a starting job in preseason camp. Luke Montgomery, a promising true freshman, was not ruled out of starting contention before the season either. Both served as the sixth offensive lineman in OSU’s bison package this season.
Neither was available when Missouri defenders keep ripping through the line and sending Kienholz backpedaling?
Offensive line coach Justin Frye has been on staff two full seasons. He inherited a problem OSU saw coming but never adequately addressed — an offensive line crisis which threatened to undermine the talent spread across every other position.
A lot of the solutions Frye found for 2023 felt like half-measures. While media members voted Fryar a first team All-Big Ten selection, he did not resemble one Friday. Hinzman was forced into the lineup one year after he began learning how to shotgun snap. Long-term upside project Josh Simmons transferred in from San Diego State and became the opening-day left tackle weeks after he arrived on campus.
The offensive line class Frye just signed is the third straight with no top-100 prospect from outside Ohio. The most elite offensive line prospects from out of state in recent years who actually completed their careers — Donovan Jackson and Wyatt Davis — held close Ohio ties.
Other positions do not have nearly this much trouble finding elite national prospects who want to play for Ohio State.
Obviously, those shortcomings threaten to continue undermining the quarterback performance as well. Ohio State excels at finding and developing quarterbacks and receivers. Why it so consistently fails to recruit the position which would provide the infrastructure for their sustained success remains one of the program’s most perplexing issues.
Nothing with the most recent signing class, though, would have changed Friday’s problems, or even projections for 2024. Once again, Frye and Day must fix that on the fly.
