Replacing Seth McLaughlin: What's New May Be Old Again

This is the 13th in a series looking at how the Buckeyes will be replacing their departed starters in 2025. Up next is the center spot vacated by graduate senior Seth McLaughlin.

For the second year in a row, Ohio State went into the transfer portal looking for a starting center. In 2023, it was Louisiana-Monroe right tackle Victor Cutler, and things didn’t work out. In 2024, however, the Buckeyes signed Seth McLaughlin out of Alabama, and things couldn’t have worked out better — other than a season-ending Achilles tear following the 10th game of the season.

McLaughlin was a two-year starter for the Crimson Tide as a redshirt sophomore and redshirt junior. His transfer was not met with much fanfare, but it sure should have been. In his one season with the Buckeyes, McLaughlin ended up being a Consensus All-American and won the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s best center.

The Candidates

There is a legitimate question of if this piece even needed to be written given that Carson Hinzman replaced Seth McLaughlin for the final six games of the the 2024 season, and that was after starting 12 games at center as a redshirt freshman in 2023.

Redshirt sophomore Joshua Padilla was in the two-deep for long stretches of last season. He received a good amount of first-team practice reps and also practiced against the first-team defense throughout the season. Junior Luke Montgomery worked at center in camp last year, but has emerged as a possible starter at guard this year.

New offensive line coach Tyler Bowen will need to identify a true third candidate for the job. Not for the competition but just for the third-team practice reps. Can a redshirt freshman like Devontae Armstrong or Gabe VanSickle get into the mix? Or one of the true freshmen like Carter Lowe or Jake Cook?

Spring Outlook

Expect Carson Hinzman and Joshua Padilla to handle the bulk of the spring snaps. Even with the experience that Hinzman has, taking ownership and command of the offensive line is going to be key for the fourth-year junior. Padilla also needs to continue preparing himself for the unforeseen. He needs to be ready to come in at any given time, so spring will be important for him to continue to build toward that possibility.

It was typical under former offensive line coach Justin Frye to have four or five offensive linemen working on snapping throughout the course of a practice. That will almost certainly continue under Tyler Bowen, but as to who those extra two or three guys will be, we won’t know for sure until spring ball starts.

Best Bet

If Carson Hinzman isn’t Ohio State’s starting center this year, then one of a few things has happened: A) Joshua Padilla played himself into being one of the top five offensive linemen, so Hinzman moves to guard — or tackle; B) another team comes in with an NIL package that Hinzman can’t say no to; C) injury; or D) Hinzman is needed elsewhere.

All things being equal, go ahead and start the center with 18 career starts at center. It doesn’t need to be much more complicated than that.