Jakob James had to watch from the sideline as Carson Hinzman and Victor Cutler Jr. split first-team center reps this spring.
After undergoing surgery this offseason for an injury he says he suffered last season, James was unable to participate in any of Ohio State’s 15 spring practices. But he says he’s “fully good to go” now as the Buckeyes prepare to begin preseason camp next week.
“It feels good to be back and just working hard with my brothers,” James told Eleven Warriors at the CareSource Football ProCamp on Friday. “It was just a little injury. It happened in the season. It felt right to go get it done. But I’m back now.”
Had James been healthy, he would have taken at least some of this spring’s first-team center reps himself. After all, James was the backup to starting center Luke Wypler last season, appearing in all of Ohio State’s last 12 games with 79 offensive snaps. He was the only player besides Wypler to take snaps at center for the Buckeyes in 2022.
Even though James hasn’t yet been able to practice in 2023, Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye has said since this spring that James remains in contention for the starting center job.
“He's having a great spring for him, the best he can. Every time I turn around he’s behind me. He's like, ‘Coach, what's the call? Where's the fit?’ You see him watching the tape. He's doing exactly what he has to do to be ready to come in and compete in the fall,” Frye said in March. “So I'm really happy with what he's doing. He's a pissed-off bulldog sometimes sitting back there because you know he wants to be in there and he can't and that's fine. But he's doing exactly what a guy that can't be taking the physical reps needs to be doing right now. So that when he is given a leash and let go to go play, he’s doing a really good job with that.”
Going into his fourth year at Ohio State, James believes he is ready to be the starting center for the Buckeyes and says he is looking forward to his chance to compete for the job in August.
“I gotta earn the respect of my teammates, my coaches and show them that I can do it,” James said. “I feel like I'm getting there every day. And we’ve got a great team and I’m excited. We’ve got to fill some spots on the O-line, and we’re excited for that challenge.”
James said he had to work on getting back into football shape this summer, but he feels like he’s back there now after going through summer workouts with his teammates. Even two months ago, Frye was impressed with where James was physically.
“His body looks as good as he ever has, so that's a good thing,” Frye said in late May of James, who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 297 pounds on this year’s roster.
James will have to start strong and perform well throughout preseason camp if he’s going to win the starting center job, especially considering the strong push Hinzman made for the job while James was sidelined. But while Hinzman took more first-team reps than Cutler as the spring progressed, Ohio State hasn’t named him a starter yet. And James has the advantage of in-game experience over Hinzman, who did not play at all as a true freshman in 2022, while Cutler played primarily as an offensive tackle at Louisiana-Monroe before transferring to Ohio State this offseason.
Frye expects a healthy competition between all three centers in the weeks leading up to the season.
“They're all competitive guys by nature. There's a vacancy there that they're fighting for. And the old adage or the cliche is iron sharpens iron and guys are gonna step up and they all want it and want to fight for it,” Frye said. “So when we get to fall camp and put the pads on it's gonna be really good.”
James was complimentary of both Hinzman and Cutler when asked about them Friday, saying Hinzman has “done awesome” this offseason and Cutler has acclimated to Ohio State quickly. And he says they’ve both pushed him to become a better center himself.
“It’s awesome,” James said when asked about competing with Hinzman and Cutler. “They’ve made me so much better this spring and summer. It’s a good competition.”
