Ryan Day showed an almost surprising amount of bluntness when addressing whether there's a gap between Ohio State's first- and second-team offensive lines Tuesday.
"I think so," Day said. "I don't see any of those guys right now, pushing. I'd like to see that. But I don't see them pushing on the door enough to say someone deserves 20, 30 snaps in a game just yet. But there's still a lot of football left to play and feel free to make a push. We want that in practice."
Ohio State's starting five of left tackle Josh Simmons, left guard Donovan Jackson, center Carson Hinzman, right guard Matthew Jones and right tackle Josh Fryar haven't exactly lived up to expectations thus far this season.
The Buckeyes are averaging just 4.4 yards per carry on the ground – 61st in the country – and posted a dismal 1.9 yards per tote against Maryland on Saturday. Much of that is due to a lack of push up front.
There are a lot of areas the offensive line needs to improve on, Day said, but the team also has to do a better job supporting the group up front.
"I always say execution fuels emotion," Day said. "I think when we are executing, that comes into play. That's a huge part of it. I don't think they're not playing hard. I don't see that part of it. I think they're working to play hard, they're working to play physical and there's certain areas like hand placement, pad level, identification of things that we can all improve on. But it's not just the offensive line either."
Day's answer above makes it clear that the answer isn't in a swap of players in his eyes, however. On the season, the only backup along the offensive line to play more than 10 total snaps is freshman Luke Montgomery, who’s played 20. That's mainly due to his role as an extra offensive lineman in the team's Bison package, though he didn't see any time against Maryland.
Overall, Day feels his team's issues running the ball and blocking up front are a byproduct of subpar execution rather than a lack of talent.
"I think we have the personnel to do it," Day said. "When you look at some of the plays that we ran, I think there was, probably, one play that schematically, I feel we were going uphill. I think for the most part, the schemes we ran, there were some pretty good looks ... but we've just got to execute better. We've got to coach it better, and that starts with me."
