Ohio State’s close call against Nebraska revealed a weakness that could derail title hopes

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just three weeks ago, Ohio State dominated Iowa with a physical performance against one of the country’s premier run defenses. The Buckeyes looked like they were hitting their stride up front and could win games in the trenches.

Things can change fast in college football. Now, after a 21-17 win over Nebraska, an inability to dominate in the trenches could prove to be the Buckeyes’ undoing.

Ohio State ran for just 64 yards and averaged a season-low 2.1 yards per carry against the Huskers. According to TruMedia, it averaged just 0.79 yards per rush before contact, its fourth-worst mark since 2019. It gave up two sacks and six pressures on quarterback Will Howard as the offense struggled to find its rhythm and went the entire third quarter without a first down.

There have been some changes up front with left tackle Josh Simmons out for the season due to a knee injury. Zen Michalski stepped in for him Saturday, but he struggled mightily until he went down with an injury in the fourth quarter. Michalski, who was on crutches on the sideline, wasn’t the answer, and Ohio State doesn’t have an answer yet as to who will start at left tackle in a potential top-five matchup next Saturday at Penn State, which entered this week ranked third in the FBS in pressure rate.

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Who will replace Michalski? Can that person be good enough to avoid a drop-off elsewhere on the line? Because of its recruiting struggles on the offensive line, Ohio State is not really equipped to even face those questions. Now Ryan Day, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and offensive line coach Justin Frye have to find answers fast because their Big Ten and national championship hopes depend on it.

During preseason camp, Ohio State’s offensive linemen got hit with an illness that went through the entire position group. Coaches spent weeks switching players in and out of the lineup, keeping others at home sick and giving some of the bench players reps against the defensive starters.

Day, as any coach would do, spun that into a positive, saying that it gives the Buckeyes more depth than they initially expected.

“Guys were forced into an early camp and had to respond,” Day said Tuesday.

Ohio State is 6-1, but Nebraska pushed it to the limit. (Joseph Maiorana / Imagn Images)

Midway through the season, that depth is being tested in a way nobody could’ve expected.

Starting left guard Donovan Jackson missed the first two games of the season, forcing Austin Siereveld into the lineup. He’s now rotating with right guard Tegra Tshabola. Ohio State finally got healthy before the Oregon game, then watched as Simmons went down with a season-ending knee injury.

That thrust the redshirt junior Michalski into his first career start. Despite his struggles, which included allowing a sack on the first drive and a sack that led to a fumble later in the game, Day didn’t think about pulling him.

“I felt like for his first start he had to play through it,” Day said. “We didn’t want to panic and just pull him out. It’s your first start, so there’s some things you’re going through. … We wanted him to play through that and see how that went.”

That’s an understandable response from a coach, though there also wasn’t another answer at tackle unless Ohio State moved players around. It didn’t want to do that mid-game unless Michalski got hurt, which he ultimately did. That forced Jackson to move out to tackle.

The next-man-up mentality is a coaching cliche that sounds nice until you run through so many players that the next man up isn’t ready to play. The healthy scholarship offensive tackles left on the roster are redshirt sophomore George Fitzpatrick, freshman Ian Moore and freshman Deontae Armstrong. They are not ready.

The next-best scenario is to move Jackson to tackle and Luke Montgomery to guard, like the Buckeyes did against Nebraska. Ohio State will mull other decisions this week.

Ohio State has nobody to blame but itself for the depth issues on the line getting this bad. Its recruiting failures along the offensive line made something like this a worst-case scenario all offseason.

On the high school front, it failed to recruit talented tackles for years. Ohio State hit on Jackson, a five-star, and Tshabola, a four-star, but they both moved inside since arriving in Columbus. After them, the top two tackles since 2021 were Fitzpatrick and Michalski, who didn’t look ready to play despite being in his fourth season. That’s not good enough.

Then there’s the transfer portal. Ohio State did a nice job adding Simmons from San Diego State before the 2023 season, developing him into a potential first-round pick. It also did a nice job of getting Seth McLaughlin from Alabama to play center this year. And yet depth is still lacking.

All of it has put Ohio State in the situation it’s in now, coming off an abysmal performance in which neither TreVeyon Henderson nor Quinshon Judkins — two of the nation’s most talented running backs — had more than 30 yards rushing against a Nebraska team that gave up 215 yards and five touchdowns on the ground to Indiana a week earlier.

Day said he thought it was an execution problem, along with Nebraska doing some new things.

“It’s not good enough,” Day said. “We have to be able to run the football and we didn’t do that today.”

Regardless of the reasoning, Ohio State has to get this fixed.

Ohio State is 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, losing only by a point to Oregon. It still has all of its goals on the table: the Big Ten title, the College Football Playoff and the national title. But the question remains: Does Ohio State have the bodies up front to reach those goals by beating Penn State, Indiana, Michigan — and perhaps Oregon in the Big Ten title game — and anybody else it would play in the Playoff?

The Buckeyes looked like they were erasing those concerns not too long ago, but suddenly Day is under pressure again to find answers.