Carson Hinzman A More Confident Center This Time Around

It is pretty rare for a redshirt freshman to start on the offensive line for the Buckeyes, but that’s the situation everyone found themselves in last year when Carson Hinzman won the starting job at center a year ago.

Hinzman started all 12 regular season games last year before missing the Cotton Bowl against Missouri. His absence in that game was felt throughout the contest as the Tiger defense relentlessly attacked the Buckeyes’ revamped offensive line.

The 2023 season was a learning process for Hinzman, who had his ups and downs. Following the season, the Buckeyes went into the transfer portal and signed Alabama starting center Seth McLaughlin. This could have been an invitation for Hinzman to hit the portal himself, but he stuck it out. Now with McLaughlin out for the season with an Achilles tendon tear, Hinzman is right back where he started a year ago.

Along the way, of course, the year has been an adventurous one. Hinzman had a terrific offseason, earning Iron Buckeye honors for his commitment and consistency in the weight room over the Summer. A fall camp illness cost him the opportunity to fully compete for a starting job at right guard. He spent the bulk of the season as the backup center to McLaughlin until about a month ago when he moved to left guard to start in place of Donovan Jackson, who had to move to left tackle following injuries to starter Josh Simmons and backup Zen Michalski.

It’s not every team that can replace this year’s starting center with last year’s starting center, but that’s where the Buckeyes are at the moment. The good news for them, however, is that Hinzman is not the same player he was a year ago.

“Well, I just, I see some confidence in him,” head coach Ryan Day said on Wednesday. “I think he’s learned a lot from Seth this year. I think they’ve been great together. I think he gained a lot of confidence coming out of the Penn State game. He’s playing with a lot of confidence, had a very good practice today. So has experience there at center, so he’s done it.”

Having played next to him all season last year at left guard and then for the past three games once again at left tackle, Donovan Jackson echoed his head coach’s sentiments.

“Yeah, he’s always been physically gifted. Weight room numbers through the roof. Zebra numbers, fast, everything like that,” he said. “I feel like mentally he’s matured and his confidence level’s a lot higher than last year. He’s always had the intangibles and now he just has confidence in himself and we have confidence in him to go out and do what he needs to do, so I feel like he’s grown as a player and as a man.”

The offensive line is a developmental position and it takes time. The experience last year in helping Ohio State to an 11-1 record in the regular season has paid off already in Hinzman’s stint at left guard. Now it will show itself once again at center as the No. 2 Buckeyes get set to host the No. 5 Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday.

“I feel like he’s just played in tough environments and at high levels,” Jackson said. “He’s already played in a lot of tough matchup games last year, and then this year he played in other tough games already this season, so we have confidence in what he can do in executing the game plan.”

Carson Hinzman has already made his mark on this year’s team with the way he stepped in and stepped up at guard. Now he has the opportunity to finish what he started a year ago.

“He’s much better than what he was last year, and his reps at guard that he already has were already impressive,” Jackson said. “Now he’s just gotta do it at center.”

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