'Nobody cares': Why Ryan Day and Ohio State can't let the Seth McLaughlin injury derail season

When Ohio State lost left tackle Josh Simmons to a season-ending injury in the second half of its loss at Oregon earlier this season, you could have made a real case that the injury was more detrimental to the Buckeyes’ national title hopes than the loss itself. Seriously.

Coming into the season, this Ohio State team felt like the last of a dying breed in this era of college football, where maintaining depth is a near impossibility for everyone. The Buckeyes managed to do it. They had it at just about every position on the field. They have first-round NFL Draft selections in the secondary, their defensive line returned players who should be in The League already, and their offense has more explosive firepower than anyone else in the country. The lone spot for concern? The offensive line.

It’s funny how cruel this game can be. Your weaknesses always tend to get exposed, which is exactly what happened when Simmons suffered his serious knee injury.

Things got worse for Ohio State’s offensive line Tuesday, when center Seth McLaughlin — a transfer from Alabama who had been playing like an All-American this season — suffered a season-ending achilles injury during practice.

That’s bad for Ohio State. Really, really bad.

And guess what? If Ohio State’s season comes off the rails, there are no excuses. Ryan Day will be judged by wins and losses this year, regardless of the circumstances. No more mulligans. No more excuses. The Buckeyes need to win.

“Certainly, nobody cares,” Day said. “So we’ll make adjustments. You wake up the next day, and you move on. But, yeah, it’s tough. But that’s why you recruit depth, and that’s why you work to get those guys in the game. That’s why you work in the offseason to build depth.

“We knew things like this can happen. It’s not the NFL. You can’t just sign guys off of waivers. You have to have guys ready to go because, again, at the end of the day, nobody cares. We’ve got to move on and we’ve got to win games.”

To understand why an offensive line injury feels like it could torpedo a season with this much promise, we have to go back to what happened after Simmons got hurt against Oregon. The Buckeyes had a bye week before hosting Nebraska, then fielded what may have been the worst offensive line performance for an Ohio State team in the last 20 years.

Ohio State turned to Zen Michalski at left tackle and the entire line was dysfunctional. The Buckeyes literally almost lost to the Cornhuskers. They couldn’t run the football for what felt like the entire half before it took control of the game in a tense Ohio Stadium in the fourth quarter. To make matters worse, Michalski was injured at the end of the game, hitting Ohio State’s depth deeper.

Teams take a step back when they lose a player. That’s natural. But with two weeks to prepare for life without Simmons, the Buckeyes couldn’t field a competitive offensive line. It felt like a personnel issue, which isn’t something Ryan Day and his staff face all that often.

Ohio State figured it out, though. They kicked elite-level guard Donovan Jackson out to tackle and slid last year’s starting center — Carson Hinzman — into his place at guard. Then Ohio State went on the road and beat Penn State, icing the game on the final drive by pounding the ball down the Nittany Lions’ throat.

Now Ohio State is here, having to do it all over again. If there were questions about the Buckeyes’ offensive line depth two weeks ago, imagine how it must feel in Columbus now.

The layup play here seems to be to move Hinzman from guard back to center and slide Austin Siereveld or Luke Montgomery into the guard spot. At least Hinzman has experience at center, and with more action under his belt this year, he should be more equipped to handle that role now. But then there is a weakness at guard, as either choice to start is deeply inexperienced.

Ohio State could also just move backup center Josh Padilla into the starting five without changing the alignment of the other four players. But center is an extremely difficult position — both physically and and in terms of IQ — and Padilla may not be ready to keep the ship afloat as the Buckeyes try to win the national title.

This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, either. Ohio State is hosting No. 5 Indiana on Saturday. It’s the biggest game in Indiana football history and the Buckeyes are trying to reassert themselves as one of the powers of the sport. Day got a top-five win over Penn State a few weeks ago. Now he has to do it again with a rebuilt offensive line.

How did Ohio State get here? The truth is, it hasn’t recruited well enough up front. This is a $20 million roster, but it barely had seven offensive lineman that can play. Part of the reason is Ohio State – which dominates in recruiting on an annual basis — signed only one top-100 player nationally on the offensive line in any of the previous three recruiting classes.

That’s not going to cut it for offensive line coach Justin Frye. That’s particularly true in today’s game, where players expect to play early and leave when they don’t. In the old days, Ohio State could have a five-star tackle on its roster for two years before he ever played. Now? He’s gone if there is no path to the field. Ohio State can no longer afford to take so many developmental pieces on the offensive front, which was something the Buckeyes did quite a bit during the Urban Meyer era.

They need elite-level prospects ready to play because those players immediately jump into the two-deep and keep teams afloat after injuries like the ones Ohio State has sustained this year.

Yes, Ohio State got McLaughlin from Alabama in the portal in the offseason. It also failed to land other targets like Chase Bisontis (Texas A&M), Derrick Graham (Texas A&M/Tulane) and Fernando Carmona (Arkansas). Any of those players may have been crucial.

So Ohio State had three days to figure it out before tomorrow’s game against Indiana. And if the Buckeyes beat the Hoosiers? Well, the following week is against Michigan — a flawed team that has an elite defensive line — and onto the College Football Playoff, where those teams will completely tee off on any weak link on the offensive front.

Ohio State has Will Howard, Carnell Tate, Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith, Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson and Gee Scott Jr. on offense.

Day has to make sure all of that firepower is still effective behind yet another offensive line shuffle.

Because if Ohio State fails as a result of this?

Nobody cares.