Ohio State’s 3 Men In The Middle Prepared To Steer O-Line Renaissance

Center Carson Hinzman spoke for the offensive line this week about why they will be better. And head Buckeye Ryan Day doesn’t disagree about what this group could mean to team success.

Columbus, OH – Once upon a time, the Olentangy River flowed through the green plain now occupied by Ohio Stadium. When engineers planned the stadium over a hundred years ago, they tasked other engineers with what to do about the river that ran through it.

Those engineers re-routed the Olentangy to the west about the length of a football field from the home sideline.

But if the Olentangy hadn’t been diverted, Ryan Day is of the opinion that his three-headed leviathan of interior linemen – Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinzman, Austin Siereveld – would, nonetheless, rise from the river bottom and dominate the line of scrimmage this season.

“Those guys are walking on water right now,” Day said at Tuesday’s news conference four days before Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. season opener against Ball State on the Horseshoe’s new artificial turf that needs no watering.

Walk on water? Explain.

“I mean, you see them walk down the hallway, you see the way that they’re out there in practice, they’re highly energized, they’re rocking off the ball,” Day said.

About 11 minutes later, Hinzman, the center of Day’s water-walking triumvirate, was asked for his reaction to Day’s praise.

“Walking on water? I don’t know, Peter, but I wish I could,” Hinzman said. “That’d be sweet.”

What will be even sweeter for the Buckeyes, and their legion of fans, is if the offensive line – all five of them plus the tight ends – can hold their water this season. They are the rampart against what projects as possibly the most difficult regular season schedule since long before the Olentangy surrendered its path to the edifice that sits along its bank.

The theory goes that experience will matter greatly in protecting quarterback Julian Sayin from being swamped by edge rushers and in escorting running backs Bo Jackson and Isaiah West to the second level of the defense.

The interior three are seniors and have combined for 72 starts at Ohio State. Left tackle Phillip Daniels, also a senior, started 13 games last season as a transfer from Minnesota. Left tackle Ian Moore started one game as a sophomore last season and appeared in every game.

The most recent memories, however, of line play are the Big Ten title game loss to Indiana and the playoff loss to Miami when second-level runs were nonexistent. Against Indiana, the Buckeyes averaged 2.2 yards per carry, and Sayin was sacked five times. Against Miami, the numbers were 1.9 and five.

Hinzman understands Saturday’s game is the first step toward proving this isn’t the same line that finished the season with two losses. A clean game will set them up for further proof a week later at Texas. And will add credibility to the preseason talk that the running game is finding the second level of bigger gains a lot more often.

“We haven’t put anything on tape yet, so everything we’ve done to this point doesn’t really mean nothing until we go and prove that we are the best offensive line in the country,” Hinzman said.

The Joe Moore Award recognizes the best line in the country. The award began in 2015, and Ohio State has yet to win it. Hinzman was asked if the award is the goal. He began by saying it was a tough question. Yes, it would be great, but …

“Priorities are important,” he said. “Our priority first is to go win football games.”

Then, of course, he mentioned the goals of beating Michigan, winning the Big Ten, and winning the national championship. And the award?

“If it trickles down to that, it would be awesome,” he said. “For us to just focus on being the best offensive line in the country is what’s important first because obviously the best offensive line in the country has a chance to win that award. That’d be a great legacy to leave behind.”

The journey from the disappointment of the Miami loss to the precipice of a new season made the linemen hungry for a championship outcome. During the physically and mentally taxing days in the weight room, spring practice, hot summer workouts and fall camp, their passion for perfection multiplied.

The addition of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith increased their resolve. Now they have two coaches, Smith and line coach Tyler Bowen, who played their position. To have a coordinator who believes in his soul that his play calling is only as good as his blockers, created an atmosphere change in their meeting room.

“The mentality he has going into a unit meeting … I mean … it gets guys going,” Hinzman said. “That mentality of, ‘Hey we’re going to be the most dominant group in college football’ is really important to us.”

Carson, please define the Smith-instilled mentality.

“One final push is important to us,” he said. “Coach Smith encapsulates that violence. He’s tangible. He’s like, ‘This is how we’re going to do it.’ Our standard of being the best of all time is important to us.”

You can almost hear the growl coming from their meeting room, like a caged behemoth bellowing to be free. That’s their mentality. How far their mind, body and spirit will take them is like a mystery of the deep until they do it under the Saturdays of midday sun and nighttime lights.

But the linemen’s collective confidence comes from more than clever words. If, in a few weeks, the consensus is this line is indeed clearly better than a year ago – even a Joe Moore Award candidate – Hinzman will remember the sweat.

“I would look back to the mat drills we’ve done, to the hard days in practice that we’ve had to go through, the different situations that have been adversity bringing,” Hinzman said. “For us that have come through fall camp, have come through the off season that Coach Mick [Mickey Marotti] correlates and puts together so well, that’s what we look back to.”

The interior makeup of Hinzman, flanked by Siereveld and Montgomery, is because of Siereveld’s unselfishness and Moore’s emergence.

Siereveld came to OSU from Lakota East High as a guard and made seven starts as a sophomore. Last year he moved to left tackle out of necessity. This year he is back at guard because Moore, a more natural tackle talent, is ready to perform.

Siereveld said last week he wasn’t asked if he wanted to move to guard or if it was even OK with him. “It don’t matter,” he said. “Whatever they want.”

Day has yet to officially announce Siereveld as the right guard and Moore as the left tackle, but Siereveld is expecting to start that way Saturday.

“Well, if he expects that, it’s really good for him,” Hinzman said, looking figuratively over his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. I don’t want to get fined.”

But, with everyone knowing it to be true, Hinzman addressed the elephant in the room that is the three-man interior with 72 combined starts.

“Hypothetically, that’s a lot of experience to have in the middle right now,” Hinzman said. “It’s a really great trio that we can build off of.”

When Day looks at his three middle men, he sees seniors who have navigated the rough waters of learning to be good players. To Day, their presence is more than 72 starts and knowing the playbook. Siereveld is the only captain among the three, but as a group they make Siereveld’s voice stronger.

“They know what this place is,” Day said. “They bleed Scarlet and Gray. That is really significant. And then the overall football IQ of those three guys is really high.”

All hands on deck, you might say about the men in the middle.

“We all trust each other,” Hinzman said, “because we’ve all played with each other through ups and downs.”

Fifteen minutes into his 18 minutes of answering questions in the sanctuary of the team meeting room, Hinzman paused and slipped off his slides. He wasn’t standing on holy ground.

He just doesn’t want anything between his feet and the water.