At this point, with Josh Simmons declaring for the draft, the possibility of getting Sanders is the only thing keeping Justin Frye in Columbus, right? The unreliability of his lines has been atrocious, robbing us of multiple opportunities to beat scUM, win the B1G, and even win a Natty (2022). The only thing worse than his development has been his recruiting, as the only bright spots in the trenches have been transfers. Hartline only brings in Cadillacs out wide, Day has kept his pipeline of five-star quarterbacks rolling, and we've had All-American level running backs (I'll save my criticism of the tight end room for another time). There's one glaring weakness.
Next season looks to be a step back (if that's even possible at this point) with our two transfers (Simmons, McLaughlin) headed to the league and our other two somewhat-competent linemen (Fryar and Jackson) exhausting eligibility. That will leave Carson Hinzman, who is clearly more comfortable as a guard than a center, and a pair of underperforming guards in Siereveld and Tshabola. We didn't even have the tackle depth for a two-deep worth putting on the field as the Michalski experiment flamed out fantastically, and we didn't even dare put Fitzpatrick or Montgomery out there for a single starting snap on the edges. The only path forward is to completely blow up the OL room with a boatload of transfers, which will further destroy depth and kill recruiting.
I can tilt some rose (or Scarlet) colored glasses at the edge of my nose and see a world where we bring in a quality transfer tackle and center, Hinzman returns to the comfort of the LG spot, and Siereveld and Tshabola push each other to field some borderline-competent play at RG, but this fantasyland scenario still involves Frye landing Sanders and him magically being as good as advertised on day one to hold down a starting tackle spot. It also leaves us razor thin at OT depth again, unless Carter Lowe can make a similar leap in year one to be ready to play if someone goes down or doesn't pan out.
tl;dr: Unless Frye can bring in Sanders, I don't see how there's even the remote possibility of us fielding a competent OL next year. Prove me wrong, please!
