Ohio State Buckeyes: Lines looking strong again this spring

That as much as anything else is why the Buckeyes are looked at as the favorites in the Big Ten and candidates to return to the College Football Playoff despite having to replace the conference’s quarterback and offensive player of the year, the team’s leading rusher, two standout blockers and six players on defense.

It also helps Greg Studrawa sleep better at night.

“I know the state of the room, what it was when I got here,” said Studrawa, who became Ohio State’s offensive line coach in 2016.

“For the first two years, I had five people. I stayed up at night because if somebody went down, I was like, ‘Oh boy. We better get the punt team ready.’ Those were my feelings.”

He inherited a unit with no seniors and had to push true freshman Michael Jordan into the starting lineup that fall.

Nonetheless, the 2016 Ohio State offensive line was blessed with good health and a group consisting of five future NFL Draft picks — Isaiah Prince, Jamarco Jones, Bill Price, Pat Elflein and Jordan — finished No. 1 in the country in adjusted line yards, a metric developed by FootballOutsiders.com that attempts to measure the effectiveness of the blocking at the line of scrimmage.

The Buckeyes checked in at No. 8 in that category in 2017 but ranked just 65th in ’18, a slide coinciding with a dip in numbers in Studrawa’s room.

After starting with 17 scholarship offensive linemen in 2016, he had just 14 in 2018, a situation exacerbated when Jordan opted to go pro early.

That somewhat surprising decision — along with Prince and starting guards Demetrius Knox and Malcolm Pridgeon exhausting their eligibility — turned up the heat on Studrawa both as a coach and recruiter.

The coach has since delivered in both areas.

Though Ohio State still had just 14 scholarship linemen in 2019, the starting unit turned out to be stellar thanks in large part to the emergence of new sophomore starters Josh Myers and Wyatt Davis and the arrival of Jonah Jackson, a senior grad transfer from Rutgers.

Studrawa and head coach Ryan Day also started bringing in more reinforcements that year, signing five-star center Harry Miller and four-star Ryan Jacoby early then reeling in four-star Enokk Vimahi and three-star Dawand Jones late.

The momentum continued the following season with six more signees.

Crucially, Studrawa and Day were able to hang onto five-star prospect Paris Johnson Jr., who initially committed when Urban Meyer was head coach but reconsidered after Meyer retired in December 2018. Then they added four-star Luke Wypler along with three-stars Grant Toutant, Josh Fryar, Jakob James and Trey Leroux to pump the numbers in the offensive line room up to 18, the most at Ohio State in at least a decade.

Ohio State added three more highly regarded offensive line prospects in the most recent class, including four-star early enrollees Zen Michalski and Ben Christman already on campus this spring.

Five-star Donovan Jackson is set to join the group this summer, but Studrawa appears to already feel better about the future of the line than he has before.

“I’ve got smart guys, and they study so much,” Studrawa said. “Their attention to detail, especially for the young guys that are in there asking questions all the time and wanting to learn. They want to learn everything, and when you have guys that are like that, you can move those guys around and still come up with a cohesive unit even if you have a couple of injuries.

“And that’s what it should be. When you’ve got an offensive line room that has depth and those things can happen and instill confidence in everybody around them.”

Meanwhile, the defensive line room appears to be as crowded with talented players as ever.

Coach Larry Johnson confirmed that Friday, but he also pointed out there is more to making formidable fronts than signing multiple four- and five-star talents every year (which he has done).

“It’s the process, and that’s what good players understand,” said Johnson, who has coached six first-team All-Americans and 11 NFL Draft picks in his seven seasons at Ohio State.

“There’s a process to get to that third year or get to that fourth year. You’ve got to do all the grinding at the bottom to reach the top, and once you get into that rare air I call it, getting to the level that we think that we can move you maybe a half inch or just another notch up, I mean, that’s when you get really excited about coaching guys.”

Johnson lost two starters from a defensive line that ranked 11th in adjusted line yards last season, but the majority of players who received meaningful playing time last season are due back.

That includes four veteran defensive ends — Tyreke Smith, Zach Harrison, Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Tyler Friday — who were four- or five-star recruits and are going into their third or fourth year at Ohio State.

Inside, the Buckeyes return All-American Haskell Garrett and have veterans Antwuan Jackson, Jarron Cage and Taron Vincent (along with freshman Ty Hamilton) working to solidify another deep rotation that must replace standout nose tackle Tommy Togiai.

“I’m really excited about this group, I really am,” Johnson said Friday. “We lost Tommy which was a big loss, but we had guys waiting in the wings. A guy like Taron has stepped up. Jarron Cage is having the best spring since he’s been here. And I think that makes a difference. Both of those guys played a bit last season and we have good depth there.

“Then as far as the ends, we have four veteran ends returning. And that makes it really easier to teach and move forward in our defensive schemes.

“So far, it’s been really great to watch the tackles and ends step up and work.”