2015 Season Preview: Buckeyes Have Depth, Experience on Offensive Line

Ed Warriner has been Ohio State’s most valuable assistant coach over the past few seasons for a reason. He’s great at what he does.

Three seasons ago, he turned tight end Reid Fragel into an NFL-caliber tackle. In 2013, he coached up a young Taylor Decker and helped him rebound from a rough early outing against Buffalo defensive end Khalil Mack. By season’s end, Decker and his linemates formed one of the country’s top offensive lines, paving the way for Carlos Hyde’s 1,500-yard rushing season and Braxton Miller added 1,000 more–despite the fact both players missed two games.

Last year, Warinner started over, with only Decker returning, and even he swapped ends to protect the quarterback from the blind side on the left. The other four spots were filled by all new starters, including two converted defensive linemen. “The Slobs,” as they affectionately dubbed themselves, started the season with a couple of rough outings, particularly against Virginia Tech in Week 2, but rebounded to become perhaps the nation’s best unit, mashing Alabama’s top-five run defense for 281 yards and two touchdowns in the Sugar Bowl (the Crimson Tide allowed only five rushing scores all season).

In the College Football Playoff championship, the Slobs ripped huge holes in the Oregon defense, as the Buckeyes finished with 295 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. It was Ohio State’s offensive line that helped Ezekiel Elliott top 200 yards rushing in all three postseason games and led the Buckeyes to the ninth-ranked rushing offense in the nation with 265 yards per game and a 5.75 yards-per-carry average.

Just like in 2013, Warinner finds himself with four outstanding starters returning and only the right tackle to replace, with the departure of Darryl Baldwin—one of the aforementioned converted defensive linemen. Back are left tackle Decker, left guard Billy Price, center Jacoby Boren, and right guard Pat Elflein. Decker and Boren are seniors and Elflein is a junior, providing a wealth of experience up front for the Buckeyes. Price, another converted defensive lineman, is a sophomore and may be the best of the bunch before his career is over. The right tackle spot appears to belong to last year’s No. 2 on the depth chart, Chase Farris. The redshirt senior from Elyria, Ohio, is—you guessed it—another converted defensive lineman.

What makes the Slobs so effective, apart from outstanding coaching, is that they are athletic, aggressive and big. From left to right, the Buckeye front five are 6-8, 315 pounds; 6-4, 315 pounds; 6-2, 285 pounds; 6-3, 300 pounds; and 6-5, 310 pounds. Surprisingly, only Elflein made the All-Big Ten first team, as voted by the coaches. No OSU lineman made the media’s first team. Decker was a second teamer for both the coaches and media and Elflein was a media second-team selection. At center, Boren serves as the unit’s field general. Despite being undersized, his intelligence and toughness allow him to play much larger.

The last few years have seen a resurgence of depth along the Ohio State line, which was a thin unit just a couple of years ago. Meyer has emphasized recruiting nationally for his hogs up front. That’s paid off, as prize prospects such as Texas product Demetrius Knox, a redshirt freshman, and Jamarco Jones, a sophomore out of Chicago, were lured to Ohio to compete for playing time right away. Both should figure in the two-deep this year, with Jones at tackle and Knox at guard.  Redshirt senior Joel Hale will also look to crack the rotation and see the field more in 2015. Hale—who suffered a calf injury in the spring and is still recovering—and Knox were Price’s backups at left guard a year ago, while Jamarco Jones was Decker’s understudy at left tackle.

The coaching staff again scoured the nation for offensive line talent in 2015. Incoming freshmen include 6-foot-6, 272-pound Maryland product, Isaiah Prince, who was the first player to get his black stripe removed and has been impressing so much in camp that he could be in the two-deep on opening day as a true frosh.

Joining Prince in this year’s class are 6-foot-6, 300-pound Sioux Falls, SD, product Grant Schmidt; 6-foot-7, 330-pound Utah native, Branden Bowen; 6-foot-4, 320-pound Matthew Burrell out of Woodbridge, VA; and 6-foot-9, 305-pound New Jersey product, Kevin Feder. Wit a class possessing this size, Ohio State’s quarterbacks will need platform shoes to be able to see over the mammoth front five in future years.

One area Warinner will want to work with his linemen—and his quarterbacks, now that he’s in charge of the entire offense—will be to cut down on sacks. The Buckeyes were just 71st in the country in sacks allowed in 2014, yielding 28 sacks for 203 total yards lost in 15 games. Some of that had to do with starting a redshirt freshman at quarterback and part of it was the time it took for last year’s starting five to gel up front. Those numbers should theoretically improve in 2015.

Seven of last year’s sacks came in Week 2 against Virginia Tech, which threw an unusual bear front against Ohio State’s inexperienced front five and the strategy worked to perfection. The young Buckeyes learned a lot from that game and decimated teams that tried that same look against them throughout the remainder of the year.

If the offensive line can pick up where it left off last year and quickly integrate Farris into the unit, 2015 could be another record breaking season for the Buckeye offense.