Reality sinks in…Offensive line play wasn’t Ohio State quality in 2023, and new coordinator Chip Kelly has been hired with a priority to fix it. (Press Pros File Photos)
Chip Kelly’s experience and offensive genius label will serve the Buckeyes well if his leadership can make the Ohio State running game relevant again and the foundation to an explosive and high-scoring offense.
Columbus, OH – Chip Kelly is the new man in charge of the Ohio State offense, and by now he’s watched all the stuff on game film he’s expected to fix. He’s seen all the bad scenes everyone wants to delete.
Ryan Day, who 20-some years ago played quarterback for Kelly at New Hampshire, hired Kelly to run his offense because he trusts him and believes his old mentor is full of the right answers.
For starters, Josh Fryar’s summary will do. He did something soon after the Cotton Bowl that no one connected to Ohio State chose as a fun way to kick off the new year. He watched his team’s 14-3 loss to Missouri. He watched every one of his plays at right tackle. Then he re-watched with his attention on the entire line.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
“For me, I didn’t like it – I thought it was disgusting for my performance,” Fryar said Monday. “We should have cleaned it up a little bit more than what it was.”
Offensive line execution and an inconsistent running game, both well below Ohio State standards, hung over the team all season like storm clouds. The questions mounted like a thunderhead threatening to wash away the end of the season.
Where was the push? Where were the holes? Where was the nastiness?
Nowhere to be seen. In a bowl game, when a team should be at its best, the Buckeyes rushed for 97 yards and were sacked six times.
All that can be said for a lackluster season of running the football is that it cemented a rather large chip on the line’s collective shoulders, according to Fryar. But the idea that failure in one season can spark renewal in the next is just talk without substantial change.
Fortunately, for the Buckeyes, the presence of a more important Chip makes it seem possible that the Buckeyes could have a feared rushing attack again. The defense rebounded after the hiring of Jim Knowles, so it stands to reason that the offense can do the same thing and be the perfect complement to what could be the best defense in the nation.
Chip Kelly created Oregon’s high-octane offensive brand, gave it a shot in the NFL, and has been head coach the past six seasons at UCLA. Now in Columbus, because he just wants to coach football, Kelly’s prime directive is to let Day be the CEO while creating and calling an explosive offense.
To do that, Kelly must bring the running game back to Ohio State standards as the foundation. No one wants to re-watch the one that averaged 138 yards a game last year and was a below-average eighth in the Big Ten.
If there is an offensive coordinator capable of making Ohio State’s rushing attack relevant again in one offseason, it’s Kelly. Rushing attacks flourish everywhere he coaches. If he can’t renovate the run, then the problems are deeper than anyone wants to admit.
The linemen, at least, like what they see in spring practice.
“I’m seeing some cool run plays,” said Seth McLaughlin, who is also a Buckeye for the first time after transferring from Alabama. “I just really love the energy that he brings. And he’s a brilliant offensive mind.”
Fryar’s take: “He’s very creative in everything. I can’t get too much into detail about that, but Coach Kelly brings a new perspective, and he’s a great person, great human being – really, really super good coach.”
What type of running offense Kelly will favor is unknown, but junior George Fitzpatrick, who is trying to earn playing time at tackle, sees something different.
Will backs like TreVeyon Henderson (above) run the ball better under the designs of Chip Kelly? “It’s a combination of what you have up front and what you have out back,” says Kelly.
“We’re all running off the ball fast,” he said. “If we can run the ball, we’re doing what we’re supposed to do up front. Having Coach Kelly behind us with that same mentality is only a good thing for the O line.”
Kelly’s job is to determine what his line and running backs do best. Zone blocking schemes have been favored in the recent past but not always with success.
Zone schemes require offensive line dominance and backs with great vision to find the holes, hit them hard and get the yards that are there. Gap and power schemes are designed to create a hole for a running back to hit at full speed and go.
TreVeyon Henderson is better at hitting the designed holes than he is at finding one or cutting back. When those holes are there, his speed carries him through for big gains better than anyone he has shared carries with. Quinshon Judkins, the junior transfer from Ole Miss, looks adept at finding those zone holes and getting skinny in the creases for extra yards in the mold of J.K. Dobbins.
Calling the best plays for each and playing to the strengths of the offensive linemen is Kelly’s challenge if the 2024 running game is to resemble the six groups that won Big Ten rushing titles between 2013 and 2020.
And Kelly knows it.
VPP sponsors the Buckeyes on Press Pros Magazine.
“To say on day one that I think our scheme is going to be this or this, that’s going to be a work in progress as we start to get familiar with what the players’ skill sets are,” Kelly said during his introductory news conference on March 5. “It’s always a combination of what you have up front and what you have out back.”
Kelly can see the high-level talent of Henderson and Judkins. His next job as coordinator will be to become familiar with the new running backs coach. That job belongs to Carlos Locklyn who was hired away from Oregon. Former RB coach Tony Alford, who left for Michigan, tended to favor two backs sharing the load.
Kelly, however, knows his line coach well. Justin Frye served on Kelly’s UCLA staff before coming to Ohio State in 2022. Frye sees far more in Kelly than an improved running game. He sees a coach who has coached every position and says Kelly is in the category of forgetting more about football than most coaches and players will ever know.
“He’s going to supplement the room, and every time you add something new to the room, then that makes the room better,” Frye said. “Just a really good vision of the big picture – understanding the next step and not just the one right now.”
Kelly’s vision will carry the offense only so far. He must put the running backs in the best positions possible to allow their vision to gain yards in chunks. And Frye’s group needs to be given the best chance to get push, create holes and be nasty. Do those things well and the answer to the lingering question will be apparent.
Yes, the Buckeyes have the personnel to lead the Big Ten in rushing.
Wilson Health proudly sponsors Ohio State sports throughout the year on Press Pros Magazine.com.