It’s worth noting on occasion that real-life athletes aren’t programmed like video game characters. They aren’t machines.
Sometimes a skill that usually comes naturally, that’s muscle memory for a player, is thrown out of whack for whatever reason.
Seth McLaughlin first took up the center position at 7 years old. He still keeps in contact with the youth coach that first put him there.
In the 15 or so years since that time, snapping had not been an issue for him. He played 11 games, starting eight for Alabama in 2022 and it wasn’t an issue then, either.
But in 2023, troubles arose out of nowhere, culminating in a College Football Playoff game that saw two bad snaps of his stall out a productive Crimson Tide drive and a low snap throw off the rhythm of quarterback Jalen Milroe on Alabama’s final fourth-and-goal play. The Tide lost 27-20 in overtime to the eventual national champions.
“Once you have a bad one you start thinking about, ‘OK, I gotta get this right.’ I don’t think I was struggling from a mental standpoint, it was more a matter of, it would just happen,” McLaughlin said. “I can’t really explain what was going on and what went into it, but that’s really in the past and I’m looking on moving forward from that.”
While McLaughlin will work this offseason to ensure his snapping isn’t an issue again come fall, he’s more eager to jump into the Ohio State offensive line room and help the Buckeyes win football games in 2024.
“Personally, I’ve always thrived off of change,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve played for three different offensive coordinators, I’ve played for three different offensive line coaches, two strength staffs. And I thought, at this point in my career, Alabama had done a great job developing me from the 265-pound kid into the 300-pound center that I was. But I thought for my fifth year I could do something different and go to a program, learn from new people, be in a new strength staff and really progress in my development.”
Ohio State appealed to McLaughlin because it is held in similar prestige with Alabama.
When looking for a fresh team for his fifth-year senior year – McLaughlin entered the transfer portal before Nick Saban’s retirement – it was important to the road grader that he was still on a team in the title hunt.
“Ohio State is one of the greatest programs in college football,” McLaughlin said. “Coming from a place like Alabama, I thought I wanted to go to another similar place that’s always competing to win championships and has great coaching and great development.”
One of the reasons the Buckeyes will, or at least should, be in the national championship conversation in 2024 is all the returning pieces they have from 2023.
Most of the stars of Ohio State’s 2021 recruiting class, many of whom were projected day two or three draft picks, are back for their senior season. That includes left guard Donovan Jackson, who McLaughlin figures to play alongside should he stay at the center position.
McLaughlin said that getting so many starters with the potential to go pro back is a “testament to the culture” of Ohio State.
“You have so many guys that could have been drafted this year and came back,” McLaughlin said. “I don’t want to speak for them, but it sounds like it’s because they think they have unfinished business, they want to win all the games and they want to leave a legacy here.”
McLaughlin’s Rose Bowl performance took some soul-searching for him to get through. But after some time to process, he feels he’s been able to let go of the emotions that were weighing him down in the days afterward.
“When you go through something like that, you kind of have to sit down and look at yourself and be like, ‘OK, who am I as a person, what am I,’” McLaughlin said. “And I sat down and thought about, ‘Where do I go from here?’ I can’t control what happened in the past. I can’t control what happened in that game, I can’t control the public reaction to that. But I’m here now, I’m in a great place to continue my development and play for an incredible program, play for incredible coaches. So, really, I’m very positive. I have no negative feelings about what happened.”
“I’m in a great place to continue my development and play for an incredible program, play for incredible coaches. So, really, I’m very positive. I have no negative feelings about what happened.”– Seth McLaughlin on his struggles in the Rose Bowl
Four years of previous experience playing college football make McLaughlin almost a no-brainer for a leadership role at Ohio State, though he hasn’t thought that far ahead.
“I think the first thing about coming into a place like this is (that) there’s so many great players, everybody was highly recruited, everybody is good at football. So it’s about earning the respect of people,” McLaughlin said. “I am coming in as a fifth-year, but in certain aspects like learning the program, learning how we work here, I kind of feel like a freshman. So I have to get on task and figure out how things work here and then once I earn the respect of my teammates I can continue on in a leadership role.”
Leadership is one of the biggest strengths of his play at center, though.
The center is almost always the voice of an offensive line, calling out pass protection schemes, making sure everyone’s blocking assignments are aligned and staying in sync with the quarterback. The mental side of the game – especially when it comes to identifying defensive fronts – is McLaughlin’s favorite part of playing the position.
“I like doing that,” McLaughlin said. “I like the intellectual part of the game. I’m a student of the game, so it’s a lot of fun learning and trying to get everybody on the same page. That’s what I like about it.
“Now it’s just kind of based on instinct. I don’t necessarily know the whole picture, but if I look in this sandbox over here, I kind of know what’s everywhere else. So once you start learning the game it becomes more instinctual.”
In his initial conversations with Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye, McLaughlin said the coach’s interest was grabbed by his athleticism and tenacity on the field.
“He told me that I play hard, that I like to finish blocks,” McLaughlin said. “I’m pretty quick on my feet, I’m athletic.”
McLaughlin added that he “really liked” talking to Frye, saying that the coach had a specific plan in place of how to address the weaknesses in his game, going so far as to show him the drills that they’ll run together.
While center seems the obvious choice for McLaughlin to play given how Ohio State benched Carson Hinzman before the Cotton Bowl in December, he stated that he’s open to playing anywhere on the offensive line.
“I came here just as an offensive lineman, I didn’t really come for a specific position,” McLaughlin said. “There’s a lot of talent in the room and I’m just gonna try to fit in the best I can.”
McLaughlin will work to find his fit along the front five, correct his snapping issues and improve his overall game as Ohio State opens spring practice in early March.
