Four MAJOR Concerns on the Offensive Line
Ohio State’s offensive line could be very good this season — but there are still some important questions to answer.
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss four major concerns for the Buckeyes up front, including the left tackle situation, Philip Daniels’ development, how the line handles movement and stunts, and how quickly Ohio State can settle on its best five.
They also discuss where Austin Siereveld, Ian Moore, Carson Hinzman, Luke Montgomery, Philip Daniels, Josh Padilla, Gabe VanSickle, and Jake Cook could fit into the offensive line picture.
00:00 — Intro
00:07 — Tom reacts to the title
00:19 — Concern No. 1: Is Ian Moore ready at left tackle?
01:37 — Why Ian Moore is more of a question than a crisis
03:46 — Concern No. 2: Philip Daniels’ next step
05:36 — Right-side issues from last season
06:09 — How much growth has Daniels already shown?
07:59 — Concern No. 3: Can the line handle movement and stunts?
10:08 — Why experience and Arthur Smith could help
12:21 — Concern No. 4: How long until Ohio State finds its best five?
14:11 — Fall camp options and possible offensive line combinations
16:33 — Final thoughts and listener questions
What is your biggest concern with Ohio State’s offensive line this season? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
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Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, Welcome Judian Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Johnny Gerdaman
here as always a more time.
Speaker 2: How's it going well, Tony, it's great, except I'm concerned
or your concerns. Someone is concerned, and I know because
of the title of today's show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got some concerns, lots of concerns about you people,
and you're gonna hear it now. This is more more
O higher state position based and we're going to talk
about the offensive line today, an offensive line that you
and I both believe is going to be pretty darn
good and was almost good enough last year and until
they weren't. And so the lessons that they've learned from
last year, the scars and all of that, you figure
it will be.
Speaker 3: Put to good use this year.
Speaker 1: But there are some concerns, and I think the first
one is the biggest one, is the one that everybody has,
is the one that we don't even know if it's
necessarily a question that is going to be answered, but
we assume it will. Tom the concern here is Ian
Moore ready? And when I say is Ian Moore ready?
Is Ian Moore ready to be the left tackle? And
is Tyler Bowen ready to make him the left tackle
and is everybody ready to move somebody and establish starter
from left tackle inside and open up this can of
unknown So that to me is a concern. I think
it's it's a concern, but I think the who's going
to be okay? But until you see it and you
know for sure, yeah, it's a concern.
Speaker 2: And I think this is almost to me more of
a question than a concern because this is not this
is not a load bearing Ian Moore where if you
don't have Ian Moore starting at left tackle, then all
hope is lost and there's no other potential solutions. They
have plenty of other ways they can go about this
if he's not ready. But I do think this is
absolutely a fair question to have right now, this time
of year, and I think even going back to the spring,
I have kind of consistently thought that the best possible
twenty twenty six Ohigh State offensive line involves Ian Moore
at left tackle, probably because I think if you can have,
you know, if if they feel comfortable enough about Ian
Moore at left tackle, you know, don't you don't need
to move Austin Seerveld. Austin Ziarel did a perfectly good
job at left tackle last year. If they feel comfortable
enough with Ian Moore at left tackle, then that means
they're feeling really good about left tackle, and you can
put Austin Siraveld in at probably right guard would be
where I would expect him to slot in. I think
Philip Daniels is probably staying at right tackle at this point.
If you have that, then you're probably feeling pretty good
Aboutluke Montgomery at left guard. You're feeling pretty good about
Carson Hinzman at center, Austin Siraveld.
Speaker 3: You've seen what you.
Speaker 2: Needed out of Austin Sereveld to know this is a
good Big ten starter at the very least, and if
he's in the guard, if he's inside at a guard spot,
that probably accentuates what you get out of him. Philip
Daniels was the starter last year who you know, was
maybe thrown in a year before we were expecting him
to be and was solid there. But if you're feeling
really good about Ian Moore at left tackle, and you've
got the inter the line that you had, you know
that we just talked about, and you got Philip Daniels
at right tackle, that's that's a pretty good line. Now,
did I just step on probably multiple of Tony's other
potential topics?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Am I just realizing that now? Yes, but Tony, go ahead.
What are your other concern Have I assuaged them all now?
Or do we need to do we need to continue
the show?
Speaker 1: No, we can wrap up. We're good, We've done it.
You've said it all time. But when you are talking
about Philip Daniels, that is another concern.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: The good news is he went through a year last
year where he started every game except for one where
he was injured, and he's going to be better for that.
Like most people who finally get some experience and they
get to show what they've learned, this is no longer
the first time they're doing everything, So yes, they should
be better. As you said, he was a year head
of schedule. Basically, I think I would be surprised if
Tyler Bowen or Ryan Day thought they were bringing in
a starter last year. Maybe once they saw more of
ethan Onionua then they're like, well, Philip Daniel says got
to start. But Philip Daniels won the job because of
the way he played, so he had no intention of
giving it up. Clearly had no intention of giving up
right tackle at this point, it seems like, but he
does need to be better, and I don't think anybody
would dispute that. I also don't dispute the fact that
he should be better. It's kind of a rare person,
rare player that just the best there ever going to
be is as a red shirt sophomore, Like I don't
you know, that's not something that I would subscribe to.
So I would expect him to get better. Is it
going to be good enough? How much better did he
need to be last year? Was he terrible? No, he
was pretty good, So a little bit better than that
would seem to be good enough. But it's it's certainly
a question. And the other thing is, would Ohio state
the offensive line be better if he was inside? So
I think there's some concern it would be. It would
be foolish to not mention Philip Daniels here when we're
talking about concerns, because relative to everybody else, it's hard
to ignore the way things ended last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question, And there were issues all across that
offensive line last year, and there were a bunch of
issues on the right side of that offensive line last year,
and I know a lot of the fingers got pointed
at Taker Shabolo, but a lot of times there were
people going between Tager Shabowl and Philip Daniels, and you know,
the fingers kind of got pointed at Tagra, but it
was Philip Daniels adjacent. You watched a bunch of Philip
Daniels in his red shirt freshman season at Minnesota. How
big of a jump did he take from that red
shirt freshman year to his red shirt sophomore year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think quite a big jump, because he started
those last four games and it was almost out of
desperation and he was a red shirt freshman and they
threw him out there and wasn't super mobile, you know,
but then he just he did what he could. And
then you saw him this year, this past year looked
more like a football player, a technician and certainly has
the mentality and the physicality. But yeah, there was certainly
growth from that year.
Speaker 2: To last year, and so I think it would be
reasonable to assume you may not have exactly the same
level of a leap from year two year one as
a starter to year two as a starter as you
did from four games to your first full year as
a starter, but you're gonna see more progress there is.
This is someone who did not peek in his first
appearance on the field, So yeah, it's probably this. This
may be Is this a Josh Simmons kind of progression
where he had all those penalties at San Diego State
and then he comes to Ohio State and everyone's kind
of going, oh boy, what are they getting with this guy?
And then he was perfectly serviceable his first year and
then turned into you know, basically a first round caliber
player the next year before he got hurt. I don't
know that Philip Daniels is going to be a first
round pick, but I think he's someone who you saw
that sort of jump as you went from a you
more than met the standard of your new place after
you kind of jumped up a level or two in
the sport. Philip Daniels did that last year sort of
ahead of schedule. So I think there's certainly more in there.
And as you said, he doesn't need to get leaps
and bounds better. It's just can you just kind of
continue to grow, continue to improve, just be a little
bit better than you were last year, and that would
that probably answers this question.
Speaker 1: And then based on the way this season ended, for
the next concern here is can this offensive line handle movement?
Can they handle the quick movement? I think is that's
one of the lasting impressions of the offensive line. I
know a lot of people will be like, well, remember
Ruben Bain and the other fella running around at defensive end,
just going around the tackles, and that's but there was
the Indiana game, the Miami game, the twist stunts, those things,
the quick defensive tack getting in there. These are all
things that we talked with the offensive linemen in the
spring and they said, you know, this is all stuff
that they've been working on. This is all stuff that
they were there. They remember, they know exactly what happened,
and they know they've heard about it, so they've had
to continue hearing about it.
Speaker 3: They know there are people out there who doubt them.
Speaker 1: That's only going to make them all come together in
terms of the cohesive cohesion of a room. But there
are still concerns because the last time we saw them
dealing with this it did not go well. Good news
is they've there's plenty of film too correct with those
things and It's not like this was a secret, because
we knew about it going into that game that there.
Speaker 3: Were issues with that.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the season, we had seen it,
and so the concern here is are they able to
fix it? Do they know how to fix it? These
are all professionals you had Arthur Smith and Max. There's
certainly and an awareness of what needs to be done
and how to do it. Can the players do it?
That's That's one of those things where it comes down
to coaching scheme or the player themselves at this point
whether things can or can't get done. So I think
the good news is they went through it all last year,
so none of anything they see this year will be new.
They will still see talented defensive linemen and they'll have
to match up against those schemes, I think, so just
being able to handle those quick schemes is another concern.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's a very legitimate one because
you have seen this specific group struggle with this specific issue. Now,
these are guys who are veterans, you know. All the
names we've talked about are guys who have been on
this team for a couple of years now. They're all
guys who have mostly. You know, outside of Ian Moore,
everyone else has started for this team, and you know
they should be between having veteran guys who have been
part of the system, who have worked together. We talk
all the time about the necessary of necessity of cohesion
within the offensive line. These guys have all worked together
next to each other for years now, so that that's
a huge, huge benefit. You don't have guys who are Okay,
I got to.
Speaker 3: Learn the playbook.
Speaker 2: They know the playbook. It's fine. You've got Arthur Smith
there who has kind of a background in this basic
area and has had to do it at the NFL
level where you know, I don't think I'm speaking out
of school here. You're probably facing more complicated stuff and
more different looks and you have to deal with more
different stuff. So you know, this might be a little
like Matt Patricia last year where it's just kind of like, hey,
I've seen this before, and you know you have the
just the you know, playbook, the the experience to just
kind of go, yeah, I've seen this before. The you know,
Bill Belichick did this to us in twenty and seventeen,
and so here's.
Speaker 3: What we did to that.
Speaker 2: And so you kind to have a rolodex of answers,
and then it's just okay, can you teach these guys?
And these are veteran guys, these are smart guys, Like
we talk to these guys all the time. These are
not dummies. These are smart players who are experienced. It's
all kind of you kind of have answers for all
of the well what if they do this, It's like, well,
I don't know that there's a reason to think they
can't do this. They have sort of immediate responses to
a lot of that stuff. So again, I think this
is a legitimate question. I think this is a legitimate concern.
Maybe there are communication issues, maybe there are this guy's
feet aren't quick enough, maybe there are whatever, like there
are ways that this doesn't happen. But I feel like
you have potential answers to all of those questions as
you're sort of going through and trying to trying to
pick holes in what could go wrong with this offensive line, And.
Speaker 1: There are also potential answers at every position should something
happen to somebody, And so one of my I'm not
good I guess about the depth overall. That's assuming that
guys step up who have been around for a while,
and the young talent that is there is ready to
go when their name is called. But we've seen over
the years you're gonna need more than five, and Ohio
State has more than five, but they've got to be ready,
and sometimes it's in twenty twenty four. It takes a
couple of turns before you figure out exactly the right
way to go, and that kinda I'll finish with my
last concern here, which is maybe just the whole thing
of how long does it take them to find their
best offensive line? And that was a thing where when
Josh Simmons went down, we said, your best offensive line
has Donovan Jackson at left tackle. Except they didn't do
that because they didn't or Donovan Jackson didn't want to
do it, or they didn't want to do it. They
put Mahwski out there, did not work. And so now
you they they finally figured it out. How long does
it take them to figure out their best outfensive line?
And we can sit here and say, well, obviously it's
Ian Moore left tackle, and it's Philip Daniel's the right tackle.
Speaker 3: Austin's here about it right guard.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not, and maybe they try that and it
doesn't work, or maybe they don't try that and it
takes in a little while before they're like, all right,
let's just do that instead because Josh Piddy is not
working out at right guard or whatever. I think the
concern there is just like how quickly will I find
the right five that they want to go with?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean they they did not get a
chance to see, for example, Josh Padilla at right guard
this spring because he has missed a bunch of times.
So I'm sure that you're gonna want to have this,
you know, explore this into fall camp.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 2: They are able to do some things right now. There
are NCAA rules about this specific what you can and
can't do, but they can get five offensive linemen out
there against four defensive linemen and a couple of linebackers
and just kind of go and that that's that's something
you can do and sort of evaluate this time of year,
so you know, this is this is not like everyone's
going to show up on the first day of camp
with their new backpacks and be like, oh, well, I
haven't seen you guys since the spring game. How how
is your summer?
Speaker 3: You know, these are.
Speaker 2: These are questions that are probably in the process of
getting answered right now. And this is a group that
is veteran enough that I don't know that there is
only one answer here. That this could drag on a
little bit because there are multiple potential good answers and
it's just okay if if Austin Zierwald is the best
option at right guard, but he's also maybe the best
option at left tackle, which one do you you know?
Speaker 3: Where is?
Speaker 2: Where is the gap? Who is your best five is it?
Does it involve even more at left tackle? Does it
involve Josh Patti at right guard? Does it involve Gay Vans? Like?
Speaker 3: What right guard?
Speaker 2: Does it five Jake Cook at right guard? I mean,
you've got all sorts of possible abilities here. I think
there's a there are good options everywhere. And this is
not something that I'm expecting to go into mid September
or early October where oh boy, I don't know, they're.
Speaker 3: Shuffling the offensive line again.
Speaker 2: This is this is a situation where you can go
through your first week or maybe even two weeks of
fall camp sort of figure out who you're five is
and if you know by August fifteen and you've got
a couple of weeks, you're going to have had these
guys working together in whatever that combination is anyway. And
I'm sure they're going to be doing the two practice
fields thing that they've been doing a bunch anyway, So
you're going to get all sorts of reps with these
different guys. So again, this is this is a potential concern.
It's a certainly a question, but I think that there
are enough answers here that are reasonable, good answers that
I don't think it's gonna be They're gonna get to
week one and go, oh no, this is this is
surprisingly terrible for summaris.
Speaker 1: What have we done? So those are some concerns that
I have. If you want to go and throw your concerns,
if you're watching on YouTube, throw your concerns in there.
Do you disagree with me? Do you agree with me?
I know you do. If some of you out there
want to play Devil's advocate and disagree with me, even
though I know you don't, feel free to do that
as well, Reilly, we will check those comments out. If
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will do it from here. Thank you all for tuning in,
and we will talk to you all later.
Speaker 3: Happen this time?
Speaker 2: What about using through a way?
Speaker 3: Don't no one tell me I wish you'd never done nothing.
Speaker 1: Where where my father? If you can tell me that's
a moot's all right? We could steal currently that assass