Even though his season ended last month, Seth McLaughlin is still invested in seeing Ohio State make a run in the College Football Playoff.
The Ohio State center’s lone season as a Buckeye was cut short on Nov. 19 when he tore his Achilles in practice, but McLaughlin remains with the team and is trying to help the Buckeyes from the sidelines as they gear up for their first-round CFP game against Tennessee on Dec. 21.
With no more collegiate eligibility remaining after this season, McLaughlin didn’t necessarily have to stay with the Buckeyes after his injury. Fellow Ohio State offensive lineman Josh Simmons, by contrast, has already moved back to California to focus on rehabbing and preparing for the NFL after his season-ending injury. But McLaughlin has taken on the role of a quasi-coach to offer his knowledge and mentorship to Ohio State’s other offensive linemen.
“We've got some young guys stepping up, some guys who have played a lot of football before moving into new roles, and I'm just going to do my best to coach them up and kind of see the things how I see it,” McLaughlin said in an interview with the National Football Foundation earlier this week while in Las Vegas for the NFF’s annual awards dinner. “Kind of try to be the middleman in between the players and the coaches, because if a coach says something, that might hit the player's brain a different way. Hopefully I can be that middleman and translate that and just do everything that I can to help guys. Pass that water on the sideline, keep the energy up, whatever I've got to do.”
Ohio State’s offensive line can certainly use any help McLaughlin can provide as it prepares to take on a Tennessee defensive front that has been one of the best in the country this year. That group leads the way for the Volunteers to allow just 13.9 points per game and 278.3 yards per game, both the fourth-lowest marks in the FBS. The Buckeyes’ offensive line has struggled since McLaughlin went down before their game against Indiana, particularly in their most recent game against Michigan, in which they ran for less than three yards per attempt in a 13-10 loss to the Wolverines.
Ohio State has had to reshuffle its offensive line multiple times this season – first when Simmons went down in the Oregon game, then again after McLaughlin suffered his injury. Right guard Tegra Tshabola and right tackle Josh Fryar are the only Buckeye offensive linemen who have started every game at the same position, with Donovan Jackson moving from left guard to left tackle and Carson Hinzman replacing McLaughlin at center after initially replacing Jackson at left guard. More offensive line changes could be on the horizon for the Tennessee game, as Ryan Day said both Joshua Padilla and Luke Montgomery – neither of whom has started a game this season – are competing with the incumbents for potential starting jobs in the CFP.
Despite all of that, McLaughlin is confident his teammates can get the job done in what he expects to be a great environment at Ohio Stadium when the Buckeyes host the Volunteers under the lights on Dec. 21 (8 p.m., ABC/ESPN).
“We've got a lot riding on this one. It's going to be a huge game. We've got a really tough matchup in Tennessee, and it's going to be fun to see the Shoe at night,” McLaughlin said. “Having a big-time matchup up north in the cold is going to be awesome, and hopefully the Buckeyes put on a show.”
Although his individual season didn’t end the way he had hoped, McLaughlin remains thrilled by his decision to become a Buckeye for his final season of college football. Even though he had already played four years of college football at one of the nation’s top programs at Alabama, McLaughlin says he’s grown a lot in just one year in Columbus.
“It's been great. It's everything I needed,” McLaughlin said. “Just being in Alabama for four years, I wasn't where I wanted to be at the end of last year. And for the people at Ohio State to welcome me in with open arms and really pour into me and develop me even further, it didn't feel like I could develop anymore as a 22-year-old senior, but as a 23-year-old fifth-year, I think they really got a lot out of me this year.”
As McLaughlin prepares to make the jump to the NFL, he believes having the opportunity to learn from Day and Ohio State’s coaching staff after four years of playing for Nick Saban at Alabama gave him new perspectives that helped him become a more complete football player.
“Coming out of high school, you're like a ball of Play-Doh. They can mold you in any way, shape or form. And being under Coach Saban for that long a time definitely molded me in a very strong way, and I'm very appreciative of all the lessons that he's taught me,” McLaughlin said. “I go back through when I'm talking to people, and they're like, ‘Oh, that sounds like Coach Saban.’ I was like, ‘I didn't even realize that, just kind of the mentality that they breed into you that Coach Saban did.’
“And then just carrying that over to Ohio State and learning from Coach Day, Coach Day's really taught me that, different from Coach Saban, that Coach Saban was stuck in his ways and he's been doing it so long because it worked. But now being somewhere where somebody's open to hearing ideas and switching it and changing it into how the players need it to be successful, it's been really interesting learning from both of them.”
“It's everything I needed ... It didn't feel like I could develop anymore as a 22-year-old senior, but as a 23-year-old fifth-year, I think they really got a lot out of me this year.”– Seth McLaughlin on his growth at Ohio State
Despite playing in only 10 games as a Buckeye, McLaughlin will get a tree in Buckeye Grove after being named a first-team All-American by multiple media outlets. He is one of three finalists for the Rimington Trophy, which will be awarded to college football’s best center on Thursday night. McLaughlin has also excelled in the classroom throughout his college career, which was why he was at the NFF’s banquet on Tuesday as one of 16 finalists for this year’s Campbell Trophy, which honors college football’s top scholar-athlete.
McLaughlin’s former Alabama teammate Jalen Milroe ended up winning the award, but McLaughlin said it was an honor just to be a finalist, which made him a member of this year’s NFF National Scholar-Athlete class.
“It's such an incredible award, and all the people who have won this in the past have been incredible people. So to even be mentioned in the same breath with them is an honor,” McLaughlin said.
