Julian Sayin, the receivers, and the offense. But can anyone argue that the foundation to another national title run rests with dominant line play? (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
If you taped it, go back and listen to the telecast of Ohio State’s spring football game, and then compare to what was written last year about their ability to block and run the football. Then tell me…were you convinced from what you saw on Saturday.
Like many of you, I had other things to do on Saturday that kept me away from seeing the Buckeyes’ spring football shoving match in person.
And besides, Press Pros was well represented, anyway. It’s what columnists Jeff Gilbert and Marcus Hartman do as well as any NCAA scribe assigned to football. We’re blessed to have them, along with photographer Brian Bayless who provided the Kodak moments from Saturday.
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They touched on all the key points…but one.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The quarterbacks…who starts (Julian Sayin, of course), and who’s ready to play dependable backup? And that would be Bellefontaine’s Tavien St. Clair, a redshirt freshman who garnered what seemed to be a disproportionate percentage of the post-game coverage.
And will Sayin be capable and willing to run more in 2026, a point worn out since their disheartening losses to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship game and Miami in the Cotton Bowl?
The receivers…and who can possibly write enough about the receivers? Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Inniss, and incoming freshman Chris Henry, Jr. – son of Chris, Sr., about whom a million words has already been exchanged among the faithful about how he might change the dynamic in 2026?
But how will he pair with Jeremiah? Players like that demand the football, and there’s only one. And history tells us the wide receiver position is pretty much equal parts of speed, hands, and ego.
And of course, there was some mention of the running game Saturday on BTN. But not much, even on Press Pros. More, actually, over the absence of the running game and principals Bo Jackson and Isaiah West who are being held out for off-season surgery repair.
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Defense got some appreciation, with who replaces studs like Arvell Reese and Caleb Downs. Christian Alliegro and Payton Pierce got their creds. And the impactful of returning pass rusher Kenyatta Jackson, whose future beyond Ohio State is surely in some opposing backfield on Sundays.
And our own coverage even featured a shot of place kicker hopeful Connor Hawkins, counted on to replace the beleaguered Jayden Fielding, who hopes to catch on, come fall, with an NFL roster.
For his impact on the field, former Buckeye Orlando Pace has support for being the best Ohio State player of all time.
But the most glaring omission was the question, or questions, dedicated to the offensive line. And who plays alongside ol’ what’s his name, Carson Hinzman, who’s been there almost as long as the smoke stacks at the campus power plant.
In my mind, and in many of your own, the biggest concern should be whether this unit from tackle to tackle can block anyone again in 2026 and establish the kind of run game dominance that once defined power and intimidation – three yards and a cloud of dust. And yes, Ohio State football.
It wasn’t there last year, and it hasn’t been there, despite the National Championship win in 2024, since the days of Urban when all the people noticed (or cared about) was waxing Michigan, annually!
In fact, questionable line play, which Marcus Hartman, himself, mentioned in his Saturday column (What Did We Learn…?) was almost an afterthought in coverage of the spring game.
It got far less concern in print than who would back up Julian Sayin at quarterback. And that’s with a big exclamation point!
But it should be the primary concern, as those who worked on the sidelines and in the end zones during the four Michigan losses, and the loss to Miami, can attest.
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In due part, Ohio State lost those games to Michigan because they couldn’t run the ball, protect a halftime lead, kill clock, and deny the Michigan offense all those opportunities for big plays. It provided the emotional advantage for Michigan, who suddenly believed they couldn’t be stopped. And in truth, they weren’t.
Against Miami, you could actually hear the trash talking from the Miami interior line on the goal line.
“We own you.” We own you?
Did Miami open some eyes in the Cotton Bowl with their domination of the run game (2 yards per carry)? Time will tell.
And on the goal line stand during Ohio State’s failed effort to score before halftime, the Miami defense could clearly be heard shouting to each other, “They can’t block us.”
Which ultimately led to a missed field goal by Fielding, more emotional advantage for Miami, and that feeling of doom absorbed by Ohio State fans in the second half.
But is it just Ohio State who’s forsaken line of scrimmage dominance for the lure of glitz, and excitement, and the instant gratification of the passing game in college football?
And in the professional game, for that matter?
One might rightly ask, will there ever be another Orlando Pace, or John Hicks, at Ohio State…in comparison to the attention now given to the Chris Olaves, Jaxon Smith-Injigbas, and Jeremiah Smiths?
Would Jim Brown, in modern football, even be relevant, or what he was sixty years ago as the NFL’s iconic offensive figure. When he ran behind a superb offensive line of John Wooten, Gene Hickerson, John Morrow, and Ohio State’s own Dick Schafrath?
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Would Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung matter at Green Bay, running Lombardi’s patented sweep with hall of fame linemen Jim Ringo, Jerry Kramer, Forrest Gregg, and Fuzzy Thurston?
And yes, the Browns had receivers – Gary Collins and Paul Warfield.
And the Packers had Boyd Dowler and Max McGee.
But the game, itself, and championships, centered around the ability to dominate the line of scrimmage and run the football.
And guaranteed, if you listen to him on the old NFL films – if Lombardi were here now – he’d preach that same message of run game and physical dominance at the point of attack. What you don’t see from the back of the end zone now when you watch Ohio State on the goal line.
Move the pile and give it to an Eddie George, a John Brockington, or Jim Otis.
With apologies, I realize some will have to look them up on Google.
Instead of a revolving door of offensive coordinators coming and going, shouldn’t it be a revolving door of offensive personalities that the rest of the locker room deathly fear?
No, today’s goal line football has to have some deception with the skilled positions. Maybe involve the tight end, and call it power football.
But think of the difference…to have Pace and Hicks screaming in the face of Miami’s defensive front, “You can’t stop us!”
Physical power and dominance. Scholastic All Big Ten be damned.
Three yards and a cloud of dust.
Something new to write about.
All the expletives (deleted or otherwise) you want.
What everybody missed at the Spring Game!
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