Ohio State's close matchup against Nebraska revealed a weakness that could end their title hopes

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Just three weeks ago, Ohio State dominated Iowa with a physical performance against one of the best defenses in the country. The Buckeyes looked like they were doing well up front and could win games in the trenches.

Things can change quickly in college football. Now, after a 21-17 victory over Nebraska, an inability to dominate in the trenches could prove to be the Buckeyes' undoing.

Ohio State ran for just 64 yards and averaged a season-low 2.1 yards per carry against the Huskers. According to TruMedia, the average was just 0.79 yards per rush before contact, the fourth-worst mark since 2019. There were two sacks and six pressures on quarterback Will Howard while the offense struggled to find its rhythm and the entire third Quarter without a first goal remained down.

There have been some changes at the top as left tackle Josh Simmons is out for the season with a knee injury. Zen Michalski filled in for him on Saturday, but he struggled a lot until he was sidelined with an injury in the fourth quarter. Michalski, sitting on crutches on the sideline, wasn't the answer, and Ohio State doesn't yet have an answer as to who will start at left tackle next Saturday in a potential top-five matchup against Penn State, which competes here Week ranked third in the FBS in pressure rate.

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Who will replace Michalski? Can this person be good enough to avoid a dropout elsewhere on the line? Given its recruiting difficulties on offense, Ohio State isn't really prepared to even face these questions. Now Ryan Day, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and offensive line coach Justin Frye must find answers quickly because their Big Ten and national championship hopes depend on it.

During preseason camp, Ohio State's offensive linemen were struck by an illness that impacted the entire position group. Coaches spent weeks rotating players in and out of the lineup, keeping others at home sick and giving some replacements replacements for the defensive starters.

Day, as any coach would, turned this into a positive, saying it gave the Buckeyes more depth than they originally expected.

“Guys were forced into early camp and had to respond,” Day said Tuesday.

Ohio State is 6-1, but Nebraska has taken it to the limit. (Joseph Maiorana / Imagn Images)

Midway through the season, that depth will be tested in ways no one expected.

Starting left guard Donovan Jackson missed the first two games of the season, forcing Austin Siereveld into the lineup. He now rotates with right-back Tegra Tshabola. Ohio State finally got healthy before the Oregon game, then watched as Simmons was sidelined with a season-ending knee injury.

That gave redshirt junior Michalski his first career start. Despite his struggles, which included allowing a sack on the first drive and resulting in a fumble later in the game, Day didn't consider pulling it.

“I felt like he had to hang in there in his first start,” Day said. “We didn’t want to panic and just pull him out. It's your first start, so there are some things you're going through. … We wanted him to play through it and see how it went.”

That's an understandable reaction from a coach, although there was no other answer when it came to tackling unless Ohio State moved players. It didn't want to do that in the middle of the game unless Michalski got injured, which he ultimately did. That forced Jackson to move to the tackle.

The “next man up” mentality is a coaching cliché that sounds good until you hit so many players that the next man up isn’t ready to play. Healthy scholarship offensive tackles still on the roster include redshirt sophomore George Fitzpatrick, freshman Ian Moore and freshman Deontae Armstrong. None of them are ready.

The next best scenario is to move Jackson to tackle and Luke Montgomery to guard, as was the case against Nebraska. Ohio State will consider further decisions this week.

Ohio State has no one to blame but itself for making its depth problems down the stretch so bad. Because of the recruiting failures along the offensive line, something like this was a worst-case scenario throughout the offseason.

On the high school front, recruiting talented tackles has failed for years. Ohio State University faced Jackson, a five-star, and Tshabola, a four-star, but both have moved inward since arriving in Columbus. After that, Fitzpatrick and Michalski were the two best tackles since 2021, who didn't seem ready to play despite his fourth season. That's not good enough.

Then there is the transfer portal. Ohio State did a good job adding Simmons from San Diego State ahead of the 2023 season and turning him into a potential first-round pick. They also did a good job getting Seth McLaughlin from Alabama to play center this year. And yet it still lacks depth.

All of that has put Ohio State in the situation it finds itself in right now, with an abysmal performance in which neither TreVeyon Henderson nor Quinshon Judkins — two of the most talented running backs in the country — ran for more than 30 yards against a Nebraska team had given up 215 yards and five touchdowns on the ground to Indiana a week earlier.

Day said he believes it is an execution issue and that Nebraska is doing some new things.

“It’s not good enough,” Day said. “We have to be able to play football and we weren’t able to do that today.”

Regardless of the reasoning, Ohio State needs to fix the problem.

Ohio State is 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, losing by just one point to Oregon. All goals are still on the table: the Big Ten title, the College Football Playoff and the national title. But the question remains: Does Ohio State have the wherewithal to achieve those goals by beating Penn State, Indiana, Michigan – and perhaps Oregon in the Big Ten title game – and anyone else it would play in the playoffs? beats?

The Buckeyes seemed to have addressed those concerns not long ago, but suddenly Day is once again under pressure to find answers.