Carson Hinzman to start at center for Buckeyes after breakthrough offseason
COLUMBUS — Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced Tuesday that redshirt freshman Carson Hinzman will start at center for the Buckeyes.
Hinzman, a redshirt freshman who didn’t play an offensive snap last season, beat out Louisiana-Monroe grad transfer Victor Cutler Jr. for the role.
He will be replacing Luke Wypler, a two-year starter that surprisingly declared for the NFL Draft this past offseason.
With Ohio State veteran Jakob James sidelined, Hinzman was the frontrunner for the starting job during the spring season. He shouldered the bulk of first-team reps. And, when it came to the spring game, Hinzman was running with the ones, and Cutler was running with the twos.
Cutler, though, had a resurgent summer and made it a battle in training camp. Ultimately, Hinzman still pulled out the competition.
The Spring Valley, Wisconsin, native has made significant strides since he arrived as a freshman last year.
“He’s learning how to be physical,” Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye said earlier this month. “He’s just playing more physical. Early on, it was ‘don’t be a line on a page,’ meaning ‘Well, I have that guy but now how do I block that guy?’ He’s doing a good job of his physicality.”
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Hinzman has always had grit.
He grew up grew up on a dairy farm that’s been tended to be his family for generations. That work ethic helped him become the No. 3 Wisconsin prospect in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking.
Despite Hinzman’s intangibles and his raw strength, he had room to grow on the field at Ohio State, especially in regard to that physicality Frye spoke of.
Hinzman explained: “I think that has a lot to do with the transition and kind of growing up from high school. A lot of people think they know how hard they can go, or think they know how hard like that needs to be gone. But when you come up to the level like this in a place like this, it’s an exponential gap. So to be able to understand and learn what it takes to be one of the guys around here, like the real guys around here, you really got to buckle down and learn how to be physical, how to be mentally tough, just as well as physically tough.
“So we’ve been working on both that mental and physical aspect to kind of get that toughness, get that physicality.”
With Hinzman’s starting role solidified, the Week 1 Ohio State offensive line will consist of left tackle Josh Simmons, left guard Donovan Jackson, Hinzman at center, right guard Matthew Jones and right tackle Josh Fryar.
