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Ryan Day shares positive impression of Ohio State’s new-look o-line after Penn State win
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Ryan Day was glowing with pride after Saturday’s mammoth victory at Penn State, which was one of the biggest wins in recent Ohio State football history.
But there was one specific area of his team that had the Buckeyes head coach really proud, and that was his offensive line. The OSU o-line has undergone many changes recently, and there were major questions about how the line would perform against a defense the caliber of Penn State’s, especially in a hostile environment.
Well, the o-line wasn’t perfect, because how could it be? But it was as good as one could’ve hoped, helping Ohio State rush for 176 yards and, incredibly, paving the way as the Buckeyes finished the game by running the ball 11 straight times after the heroic defensive stand gave Ohio State the ball back with about 5 minutes left. Penn State never saw the ball again, and a lot of that was due to the Buckeyes’ o-line, which had a new left tackle in Donovan Jackson and a new left guard in Carson Hinzman.
“Both (Jackson and Hinzman) graded out champions. I thought they played their best down the stretch, in particular on that last drive,” said Day during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. “That’s good. Again, (I) keep saying this, (I have) confidence we can move forward with both of those guys in that spot. New challenge this week. That game’s behind us, time to focus on Purdue.”
Yes, Day wants the focus now on Purdue, which visits Ohio State in Week 11 for a noon ET kickoff on FOX. But he was still glowing about that o-line 3 days after the Penn State performance, and he had more glowing words about Jackson.
“Any time you’re making a move like that in a big game and going against a high-end player like (Abdul) Carter, there’s a lot to process there, and he never flinched. At all,” said Day. “He never thought twice about it, he embraced it. …
“We really did tailor the game as best we could around that. There were a couple third downs when we just had to call it and play it. We helped him with the cadence that one time, and then Carter got us on the other one, but I thought (Donovan) just fought his tail off and played physical the entire time. … I think he can be a very good tackle.”