I’m going to be honest with you, the first seven weeks of the Ohio State football season went even better than I could have anticipated (and I predicted them to go 16-0 and repeat as national champions).
But with two off weeks worked into the season, it allows Ryan Day and his staff to be patient in working the team into peak condition. After all, there’s no reason to be in mid-season form before you get to mid-season. And since the Buckeyes are planning on playing 16 games, today would mark the final game in the first half of the season.
So, as OSU heads into its 12 noon ET kickoff against Penn State, here are the things that I am hoping we see coming out of the team’s final bye week. While there is still plenty of time to continue to grow and develop, and hopefully the Buckeyes have a nice, long break between winning the Big Ten Championship Game and kicking off the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, seeing a more cohesive and fully formed version of the team heading into November would be nice.
Figure out the right side of the offensive line
For the past handful of years, coming into the season, the Ohio State offensive line has been one of the biggest areas of concern (if not the biggest) every fall. However, that did not appear to be the case in 2025. Not only did the Buckeyes have a tremendous amount of experience returning, but they also brought in a pair of transfers that were expected to start and/or add significant depth to the lineup.
Through seven games, the line has not been awful, by any means, but the running game (more on that in a minute) has struggled to find its footing, and a not insignificant amount of the reason for that has been inconsistency from the offensive line.
Admittedly, playing offensive line is one of the most difficult things to do in football, and anytime you add in new pieces or move guys to different positions, there is an unavoidable feeling-out process that takes time for the newly formed or reformed unit to gel. Unfortunately, it feels like the right side of the offensive line has done the opposite of gel.
Against Wisconsin, right guard Tegra Tshabola and right tackle Phillip Daniels struggled mightily. And while their issues didn’t come back to bite the Bucks in the butt, when OSU eventually faces a team with a pulse, they very well might. Our Xs and Os guru, Justin Whitlatch, broke down the offensive line’s issues in a great video that you should really watch to get a better grip on what’s going on.
While Pro Football Focus grades always need to be taken with a grain of salt, especially along the offensive line, Tshabola is the second-lowest graded offensive Buckeye with more than 20 snaps this season, and Daniels is the seventh. If Ohio State is going to be able to maintain a balanced offensive attack against Michigan and in the postseason, it will need to shore up the right side of the line.
The first name that would likely have come to mind as a possible replacement at either position before the season is Ethan Onianwa. When he transferred in from Rice, he was initially believed to be the de facto left tackle, but during preseason camp, Austin Siereveld snatched that position away from him. Then, the assumption was that Onianwa would be the right tackle, but Minnesota transfer (and Paris Jackson Jr.’s cousin) Phillip Daniels took that spot.
However, after seeing 15, 26, and 14 snaps in OSU’s first three games of the season, Onianwa has only logged 11 snaps in the four games since; 10 against Minnesota, one against Wisconsin.
Instead, when both Tshabola and Daniels struggled in Madison, it was Joshua Padilla who stepped in. While the assumed heir apparent at center, like all offensive linemen, Padilla crosstrains at multiple positions, and so far this year has excelled when called upon.
While he has only played 79 snaps compared to Tshabola’s 318 and Daniels’ 401, Padilla has graded out significantly higher, according to PFF. In fact, at 78.7, Padilla is the second-highest graded offensive lineman behind only Siereveld (82.2). In his 26 plays against Wisconsin, Padilla graded at 70.6 while both Tshabola and Daniels were in the low 40s.
Although he didn’t grade out super well in pass blocking vs. the Badgers, on the season, Padilla is at a 73.3 in pass blocking and 76.3 in run blocking, in relatively evenly distributed snaps against Grambling, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin; the former two being at center, the latter two at right guard.
Ultimately, I have no idea what the best configuration of offensive linemen is for Ohio State, but I do know that something needs to change if OSU is going to reach its potential, and Day seems to agree with me.
Day has said that the two weeks before Saturday’s game against Penn State would be used as an evaluation period, and many assumed that Padilla would earn the starting spot. However, this week, Day referred to Padilla as the sixth offensive lineman, so it appears that he will continue to rotate in, rather than start. While I believe that very well might change in the future, for now, it appears that the Buckeyes are holding steady.
I have no preference or specific rooting interest as to who is playing on the right side of the line; I just want Day and offensive line coach Tyler Bowen to figure out which guys give the team the best option to succeed, and go with them.
Tailor offense to who and what works best
I understand the desire to be balanced on offense. Back in the Urban Meyer days, he would preach having 250 yards rushing and 250 yards passing. But those days are long gone, not only in Columbus, but across all of big-boy college football. Ryan Day seems to have aimed for more of a 150/350 split, but sometimes the insistence on running the ball has actually slowed down the offense.
From a theoretical standpoint, you obviously have to have an effective running game in order to keep defenses honest when defending the pass. If you can’t (or just don’t) run the ball at all, then the defensive coordinator can focus all of his personnel on covering wide receivers and tight ends. So, having a competent running game is absolutely essential, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be a slave attempting to run between the tackles.
I am hopeful that the RPO-heavy, pass-focused offensive attack that we saw against Wisconsin will be the blueprint for what Day and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline do down the stretch. Quarterback Julian Sayin has been preternaturally gifted in delivering the ball accurately and on time, so take advantage of that.
The RPO game was effective against an admittedly bad Badger defense, but if the far more dynamic true freshmen running backs Bo Jackson and Isaiah West are allowed to get into space, that seems like a solid recipe for success.
Too much in the first half of the season, Ohio State would have two or three tight ends on the field on running plays. And while I understand the concept of getting big in those situations, what it also did was draw even more defenders toward the line of scrimmage. Urban Meyer’s teams were able to rush for 250 yards because, in his patented spread format, there was just more room for the backs to run.
While I am not suggesting that the Buckeyes go back to that now-outdated offense, taking advantage of the reputation of your uber-talented wide receivers and drawing more focus away from the box could really help give the running game the opportunity to flourish.
This offense is built around its ability to move the ball through the air: the wide receivers are second to none, and the quarterback is the most efficient in the game. Absolutely keep some semblance of run game balance, but any Buckeye team coached by Ryan Day should throw to set up the run, not the other way around.
Fix literally everything about special teams
I have written about this before, so I will not beat a dead horse… or dead position group, but there is nothing special about Ohio State’s special teams. Punting has to be better. Punt returning has to be better. Punt coverage has to be better. Field goals have to be better. Thanks to the new kickoff rules, not a whole lot goes on on kickoffs anymore, so that’s been fine.
But, in talent equated games in the postseason, you just can’t afford to give up hidden yardage or miss out on scoring opportunities. So, whether that is changing personnel, focusing on it more in practice, coming up with an alternate philosophy, whatever, the Buckeyes simply cannot allow special teams to be an Achilles heel down the stretch.
