Ohio State O-Line Room No Longer Feels Out of Place

In June of 2024 the NCAA Division 1 council voted to remove countable limitations for on field coaches. This raised the limit from ten assistant coaches to essentially as many as you wanted. It certainly seemed like an advantage for Ohio State and the other behemoths of college football who can afford not just extra coaches, but better extra coaches.

Being that it was implemented right before the season, we didn’t see much change in Ryan Day’s staff. After the National Championship run, offensive line coach Justin Frye triumphantly moved on to the NFL. The guy did a heck of a job with piecing together a unit that suffered multiple season ending injuries and he had them playing well against the best teams in the country. He deserves, and gets, a tremendous amount of credit for what he did. 

As good as Justin Frye appears to have been at developing offensive linemen, roster construction was not his strongest suit. The offensive line had to sign two higher quality offensive tackles in Ethan Onianwa and Philip Daniels.

Ohio State has been successful with their transfer portal strategy of patching up holes and upgrading talent when an opportunity presents itself. Needing two tackles out of the portal was not quite in line with that strategy. There was no doubt about the type of guy Ryan Day was going to pursue to replace Frye, a coach with a reputation of having the type of recruiting chops that he loves.

Day somehow has a reputation with many as not being as rabid about recruiting as his predecessor. His results and actions tell us something different. That works well with the Ohio State fanbase. I can’t prove that but I really believe there is no other fanbase that is as in tune to recruiting as the Buckeye faithful. Maybe I just interact with too many maniacs like myself but it sure shows up in the YouTube numbers as well.

What I hadn’t considered is that Day wasn’t hiring an offensive line coach, he would be hiring an entire offensive line Staff. Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen was the selection to run the offensive line. For a guy under 40, the resume was excellent from recruiting director at Penn State to tight ends in the NFL before his role with the Hokies.

It was a really interesting hire (though there would be a more interesting one coming up at DC). Then in February, Day added grizzled veteran offensive line coach Charlie Dickey who was most recently coaching the Oklahoma State offensive line.

Also in February, Ohio State hired Marcus Johnson. Marcus Johnson had his own room of offensive linemen at Purdue in 2024. That’s three respected, veteran, Power Four offensive line coaches. There are but a few programs in the country that have the allure and budget to pull something like this off.

They still weren’t done as they added in Bowen’s assistant from Virginia Tech, Austin Fields, completing Tyler Bowen’s year one staff.

The obvious potential issue here is too many cooks in the kitchen, but they immediately got to work and got on the same page with how they were going to teach every single technique so they were all on the same page. Throughout spring, every single offensive lineman who was asked about the new setup raved about the situation. They all had a guy who’s style resonated most with them.

The amount of individual coaching each offensive lineman is getting accelerates their development quite a bit. As for recruiting, Tyler Bowen lived up to the billing and fast. The two main orders from headquarters were to secure the commitments of soon to be five-star Sam Greer out of Akron (Ohio) Hoban and Top 100 overall interior lineman Max Riley out of Avon Lake (Ohio).

Not only was Bowen able to secure the commitments from Greer and Riley, they actually both committed to him before they were planning on committing. A new offensive line coach walked in and these guys accelerated their process.

Ohio State then got the commitment of Tucker Smith, a rising 3 star guard from Arizona. Ohio State fans place a real premium on young men who want to be Buckeyes, and Smith really wanted to be a Buckeye. He told me on my show he was committing  the moment the Smith family arrived in Columbus for his first visit. Before leaving they headed to the bookstore to load the family up on the best looking gear one can sport.

Tackle Aaron Thomas was a little bit more of a difficult recruit. Also a three star, but a mammoth athlete and a true tackle body. Aaron converted from the defensive line last year so they’ve only had one year of film on him playing on the offensive line. I suspect we see him get a bump with his senior year film. Not that it matters much. We can all see what Tyler Bowen sees in him. Thomas, like Smith, is another Arizona kid who really wanted to be a Buckeye. His grandmother and one side of his family are Clevelanders. Bowen and Ohio State beat back Texas A&M and Aaron’s parents alma mater, Florida State.

This was a very consequential win for Ohio State. In addition to the extremely solid class of 2026. Bowen may not be done yet but I give him a B+ in his first abbreviated class. Yes, Greer and Riley are Ohio Boys but we’ve seen way too many leave in the last few cycles to dismiss those as layups anymore. 

As for his predecessor, Frye appears to have really hit on a few gems. Luke Montgomery and Ian Moore are looking really good but they were no-brainers. Austin Siereveld has turned out to be a huge score who had Alabama and Notre Dame after him as well but there were definitely some doubters at the time. 

True freshman Jake Cook was the recruiting story of 2025. Jake was a Louisville commit from Westerville who earned his offer through multiple camps. He’s looking like the most advanced of the three freshmen linemen. Cook was running with the 2 deep toward the end of Spring and in the Spring game was holding his own against fourth year defensive lineman Tywone Malone.

On the other side of the center was second-year Northwestern flip Gabe VanSickle. VanSickle had a few plays against 6-foot-6, 307-pound Jason Moore where he looked like the top 100 player instead of the 3 star. I’m a big believer in freshman Jayvon McFadden.

Frye beat Colorado and Maryland for McFadden. Not the typical opponents we are used to seeing the Buckeyes tangle with, but I really believe he nailed it on this one too.

Toledo’s Carter Lowe is the third Freshman and very obvious future stud Tackle but there wasn’t much evaluation needed there. 

Is it ridiculous that I feel so great about this room moving forward before we have even seen Tyler Bowen’s unit on the field? 

Maybe, perhaps, probably, but who cares, I’m running with it. The Ohio State offensive line is no longer going to be a constant talking point and source of stress for Buckeye fans. Frye left the room in better shape than I gave him credit for and Ryan Day has nailed yet another hire (or four). The man just keeps getting better.

I used to dismiss the “he’s still learning how to be a head coach” arguments. I didn’t want to hear that. People only said it when something bad happens. I want to say it when something good is happening.

Something good is happening with the Big Bucks.