Before running back Ja’Kobi Jackson reached the end zone on Ohio State’s opening drive against Kent State, he found a hole off the left side of the line.
He followed left tackle Ian Moore and Jake Cook, an extra blocker who had lined up outside Moore, as they pulled inside and opened a crease.
It was among several sequences in the Buckeyes’ rout of the Golden Flashes last weekend in which they lined up with six offensive linemen, a so-called “Bison” package that adds more size up front.
“I love it so much,” Moore said. “I love seeing an extra big guy in there.”
The Buckeyes leaned on Cook as their sixth man on the offensive line when they debuted the personnel grouping in their final nonconference game.
Cook had only appeared in a handful of games
over two years at Ohio State before seizing the role with his toughness in the trenches.
“Jake just brings physicality,” Moore said. “If he messes up, I know he's running hard, and I know he's going to knock somebody out. It might not be the right person, but I know he's knocking somebody out. So that juice, that energy, it's always amazing.”
The addition of Cook offered more blocking support as the Buckeyes look for more movement at the line of scrimmage.
“It’s not like he's not going to start motioning out into a slot set and going out for a route,” Moore said. “He knows his job. He knows what he's doing. It's, ‘(expletive) it, I’m going to run.’”
While the Buckeyes operated out of the package as three running backs ran for touchdowns during the first half against Kent State, they also sought to keep the Golden Flashes from anticipating the run.
Ohio State used a play-action fake out of the look to keep linebackers from dropping back into pass coverage on a second down near midfield in the first quarter. It left wide receiver Devin McCuin wide open in the middle of the zone, and quarterback Julian Sayin found him for a pickup of 22 yards.
The Buckeyes have used six offensive linemen at times in short-yardage situations in previous years, but it appeared as more of a frequent look with new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Coach Ryan Day said the six linemen needed to work together better when in the formation, but seemed to find the early results largely encouraging and remarked Cook did “good things” alongside their tackles.
“It’s something that we're not going to major in,” Day said, “but I do think that there was enough on film to lead us to believe that we should continue to build on it and be an option for us personnel-wise.”
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com and follow him on @joeyrkaufman on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What is Ohio State's ‘Bison’ package? Why it’s exploring heavy personnel wrinkle
