Ohio State Hopes Tempo Carries Offensive Momentum From End of 2015 Into Spring Practice

Ed Warinner and Ohio State have a mess of holes to fill on offense, but two essential cogs in the wheel help the offensive coordinator rest easy when he leaves work.

"You sleep good at night is when Pat Elflein is your center and J.T. Barrett is your quarterback," Warinner said March 10. "You sleep good at night because it’s spring training now and I’m a baseball guy, if you’ve got a catcher and a pitcher that are pretty elite, life is pretty good. If you’re good up the middle, you’re usually pretty good."

“we ended the season with momentum and now I think it’s continued to pick up and build.”– Ed Warinner

The Buckeyes are excellent at those two spots, with Elflein moving to center after a pair of All-Big Ten seasons at right guard and Barrett setting the conference record for total touchdowns in 2014. They are bookends to a unit that must replace eight starters from its 2015 outfit, one that ran roughshod over Michigan and Notre Dame in the final games of the season.

Warinner moved to the press box for those two contests, firing down run-heavy play calls that gave the Ohio State offense an edge against the Wolverines and Fighting Irish. Ezekiel Elliott and Barrett roasted their defensive fronts for 598 yards and nine touchdowns in the victories and the offensive line thrived with tempo. That's something Meyer said he intends to see happens again this fall.

"The last two games, I want to say (it was) 80 percent tempo and it worked out really well," Meyer said March 8. "We’re going to do a lot more uptempo offense than we’ve done."

That spilled over to the first week of spring practice, though neither of the first two days were in pads. The players had spring break this week, but reconvene Tuesday for the first of 13 more practices that concludes April 16 with the annual spring game.

"I love the tempo, I love the energy," Warinner said. "I just feel really good about the momentum we’ve got. We had two practices, and I know they weren’t in pads, but I think the kids are leaving here knowing they had a great offseason of seven weeks and then they had two good practices so there’s a lot of momentum.

"And we ended the season with momentum and now I think it’s continued to pick up and build."

Such a statement could seem a bit overzealous considering how much talent from last year's offense is gone from the roster and headed to the NFL. But Warinner feels like the players fighting for starting jobs through the first two days embody the pace he and Meyer want to see — even if the team only practiced in helmets.

It is also easier for Ohio State's offensive coordinator to see the progress than last spring because he now coaches the tight ends, yielding his offensive line duties to new staff member Greg Studrawa.

Elliott and Barrett held serve against Michigan and Notre Dame.

"I’m getting used to that because usually they had me over in the corner with the O-line and I didn’t get to see all that," Warinner said. "Now, I’m in the middle of all the drills that all the skill guys do so in my opinion the tempo is really good. It would be hard for me to over-evaluate that because I had my own issues over there down in the corner with the linemen and you don’t get to see all that."

Meyer wants the offense to be "real fast" in 2016. The Buckeyes have a host of young talent on offense anxious to show its worth this spring to earn touches within the offense. Warinner is on board, citing tempo as the first part of the process to get more people involved. It makes sense — the faster you play, the more plays you call, provided the sticks move.

It all starts with Barrett and Elflein down the middle, and continues with the highly conditioned athletes molded by Mickey Marotti.

"We have a well-trained team that can play fast, we have good athletes and we have good depth and skill so why not play fast, roll them through and see if you can run 10 plays more a game, 15 plays more a game," Warinner said. "We want to be in a faster operation mode. Even when we’re not in a hurry we’re still going to play a little faster and that’ll be incumbent on us to make sure the system is simple enough to do that."