Ohio State brings back four of its five starting offensive linemen this season and the unit is hoping to prove that it can be one of the best front five groups in the country.
With new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith — who is known for having occassionally run-heavy schemes as a play caller — taking over, senior center Carson Hinzman said that it’s going to take being violent on the football field for the linemen to prove that.
Hinzman said that much has been communicated by the former NFL head coach.
“It’s been cool. He brings a mentality to the run game that’s — it’s hard to put into words — almost like a tangible violence that he wants to put into the run game,” Hinzman said in April. “It’s pretty fun to be able to play under someone who’s like that, knowing that we have confidence in the run game and knowing that we have confidence in the guys up front.
“When we have a guy like that calling plays, you almost feel the confidence in your play. It helps everyone out. It eliminates a lot of the guessing and lets us go play football really fast.”
When Smith is asking for his players to be violent, he isn’t hoping to see the Buckeyes getting penalized all the time.
“You want the ref clutching but not throwing,” Hinzman said. “As long as we can play on the edge of violent but also obviously in the guidelines while showing how physical and dominant we can be is important for us.”
It takes a certain mindset to be able to play that way and avoid having flags thrown against you as an offensive lineman, which Hinzman said can be helped with experience.
“With experience, you can control your emotion and not let your emotion control you,” he said. “That’s really important when you’re playing high octane like we’re trying to do here.”
The Buckeyes certainly aren’t lacking any experience on the offensive line. Hinzman is the elder statesman of the group, joining the Buckeyes in the 2022 class and starting at center during the 2023 season as a redshirt freshman.
He lost that starting spot to Alabama transfer Seth McLaughlin the next year, but was called upon midway through the year due to injuries and helped the team win a national championship.
Left guard Luke Montgomery is returning from starting all of last year. He also was called upon to help win the national championship two seasons ago, starting against Texas and Notre Dame in the final two wins.
Then, left tackle Austin Siereveld and right tackle Phillip Daniels started all of last year, and Siereveld played rotationally at guard in the 2024 season.
So experience shouldn’t be an issue for this year’s offensive line.
Hinzman is hoping that the group can prove themselves after a finish to last season that saw the Buckeyes front five give up 10 sacks combined in the Big Ten championship and the Cotton Bowl losses to Indiana and Miami, respectively.
“I expect explosiveness (out of the run game this year),” Hinzman said. “For us to come back for a lot of these guys’ senior year, I think it’s really important for us to prove that we worked our tails off to be able to put something together that’s really special.”
Smith said in March that he understands there is still improvement needed after last year’s finish to the season, which the Buckeyes have all summer and fall camp to attack before the regular season begins.
“It’s a new year and we have great depth in the O-line room,” Smith said. “A lot of things you look at after the action, even when you win big games, you need to go back and look at it with a critical eye because sometimes you look at things and you kind of got away with something, where a player makes a play kind of off schedule.
“You look at everything. You just want to be fundamentally sound. Across the board, we’re always looking to improve. We have a lot of work ahead of us before we kick off to start the season.”
