Offensive line experimentation continues
After Ian Moore started at left tackle and Austin Siereveld started at right guard in Ohio State’s first practice of preseason camp on Thursday, Ryan Day said the Buckeyes would continue to experiment with different offensive line combinations before settling on a starting five. Those words rang true on Friday.
Siereveld returned to left tackle, the position he played last season, for the duration of Friday’s practice, while Joshua Padilla got his chance to run with the top unit at right guard. Moore flipped to the other side of the line to play right tackle, where he split first-team reps with incumbent starter Phillip Daniels over the course of practice.
Based on what we’ve seen through two days of practice and what we’ve heard from Day over the last two weeks, it’s become apparent that there's three offensive linemen competing for two starting spots between Daniels, Moore and Padilla. Depending on who performs best between them through the first couple of weeks of camp, we could see Ohio State settle on any of the following three combinations up front:
- LT Ian Moore, LG Luke Montgomery, C Carson Hinzman, RG Austin Siereveld, RT Phillip Daniels
- LT Austin Siereveld, LG Luke Montgomery, C Carson Hinzman, RG Joshua Padilla, RT Phillip Daniels
- LT Austin Siereveld, LG Luke Montgomery, C Carson Hinzman, RG Joshua Padilla, RT Ian Moore
Ohio State’s second-team offensive line for Friday’s practice consisted of Carter Lowe at left tackle, Jake Cook at left guard, Maxwell Riley at center, Gabe VanSickle at right guard and either Moore or Daniels at right tackle. While Padilla will likely be the next man up at center this season if anything happens to Hinzman, his work at right guard on Friday opened the door for Riley, a true freshman, to get an extended look snapping the ball.