Justin Frye wants Ohio State’s offensive line to be a wall of violence.
That might combine a few different thoughts from the coach’s media availability on Wednesday, but it’s a good illustration of where he wants his front five to get to.
“When all five dudes know what’s going on, it just looks like a wall,” Frye said. “Whether that’s here, whether that’s my sons playing in high school, middle school football – when they know what’s going on, those five guys that don’t know much are just rolling off the ball on a run play. You’re protecting the right guys. You’re able to do that and play fast.”
See, where the former UCLA assistant believes the offensive line is lacking right now isn’t in a lack of knowledge or missed assignments. He feels they need to get back to a good, old-fashioned maul mentality.
“We’ve got to be more violent,” Frye said. “We can’t be lines on a page. We’re not making a ton of mental mistakes, which is a positive. We’ve got too many point-of-attack mistakes that we’ve got to go (improve). You can solve that through aggression and violence.”
It’s no secret that Ohio State hasn’t run the ball effectively in short-yardage situations this season.
The Buckeyes are a mere 2-for-8 (25 percent) converting on 3rd-and-3 or less, a worse conversion rate than they have on third downs of 4 to 6 yards (33 percent) or even on attempts of 7 to 10 yards (43 percent).
“Overall consistency is something that we’re working on (on the offensive line),” Day said. “We’ve got to get better. There was some improvement there (against Youngstown State), but we expect on 3rd-and-1, 3rd-and-2, 3rd-and-3 to execute, to get first downs."
Frye feels the No. 1 way to improve in short yardage is to create more movement on his offensive line. That said, he also feels Ohio State’s rushing attack position-to-position can get better.
“We all have to be efficient,” Frye said. “Up front, you look at it, there’s five guys. Everyone’s at the (point of attack) because there’s more people in the box, there’s more people down (at the line of scrimmage). So we’ve got to help each other out that way. Then, as you build on, do we add one tight end or two tight ends? Then, did we have a good read from the back? So I think it’s just a cohesive effort of the run unit on that play.”
Another issue for the group up front has been penalties.
Multiple gains of sizable yardage were called back for the Buckeyes against Youngstown State due to flags for either holding or illegal hands to the face. That includes touchdown runs from both TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams, though the latter came on a holding call against running back Chip Trayanum, which Big Ten officials told Day in the days since that the referees got the call incorrect.
Frye pointed to left tackle Josh Simmons as an example of a player who’s started correcting his hand placement to improve in that regard, however. After being whistled for the illegal hands to the face penalty that cost Henderson a touchdown in the first half, Frye stated he saw Simmons retract his hands after they shot too high on a later play.
“Why are those happening? Well, it’s because my technique or something wasn’t taking me home, or I wasn’t fixing that. You’ve got to feel that. You have to learn from them and grow,” Frye said. “We have to grow fast because there’s no room for error. ... We have to be cleaner that way.”
There’s a balance in how much technique correction to enforce on his troops, though, Frye said. He doesn’t want his men overthinking.
“We have good tape and good, meaningful reps now to look at,” Frye said. “So being able to visually show the guys – when you do your job, when you execute, good communication, good technique – this is what happens. And here is what happens when you don’t. The emphasis of effort, execution, demeanor is pressed, but those fine details – you can never get away from them, but you can’t have the guys doing paralysis by analysis.”
“Whether that’s here, whether that’s my sons playing in high school, middle school football – when they know what’s going on, those five guys that don’t know much are just rolling off the ball on a run play."– Justin Frye
Day and Frye both agreed there were improvements made against the Penguins. Both coaches have liked what they’ve seen so far from the group’s pass blocking, and their intensity is increasing.
“I thought the protection, overall, was solid,” Day said. “I think they gave Kyle some good time. Got to keep building on that. I thought their effort and their finish was much better. There were some good plays where I thought we came off the ball.”
Now, it will be a matter of developing that next level of violent performance that Frye is seeking as Ohio State gets its next test against Western Kentucky on Saturday.
“There’s no lack of ‘want to’ demeanor or grit that way. We’ve just got to execute better,” Frye said.
