Ohio State didn’t replace Justin Frye with just one – or two or three – offensive line coaches.
The Buckeyes have a four-man staff of offensive line coaches for the 2025 season. Tyler Bowen, the Buckeyes’ new primary offensive line coach, is being assisted by three support staffers: Marcus Johnson and Charlie Dickey, who have both been primary offensive line coaches at numerous Power 4 programs, along with Austin Fields, who worked alongside Bowen for the last three years at Virginia Tech.
Ohio State’s offensive linemen are happy to have so many coaches they can turn to as they continue their development entering the 2025 season.
“Having four guys is amazing because it's almost like you have four offensive line coaches,” said left guard Luke Montgomery. “Because at the end of the day, you have five people on the line every time, and for one guy to be able to watch every play in and out of the huddle and stuff like that, that's hard to do. You're never going to be able to just look at all five and critique them and stuff like that. It's just good having all four of them here because there's a set of eyes on one or two guys every time from each guy, and they're able to critique each and every play.”
Having four offensive line coaches means more feedback for individual offensive linemen between reps in practice.
“You're getting feedback from everyone, so it's great because you'll have Coach Bowen and Coach Johnson still coaching the ones or the threes or the twos and then when you're running off the field, you got Coach Dickey or someone else coaching you up telling you what to do,” said freshman guard Jake Cook. “So I mean, I think it's really awesome that we are capable to have four coaches in the room with us.
“A lot of eyes, and it's awesome, because everyone is watching something,” tackle/guard Austin Siereveld said. “They tell you everything, because they know, like, what the left side had with Coach Johnson and Coach Dickey's watching the left and Coach Bowen and Coach Fields are watching the right. So, like, you really know what's going on each play.”
Redshirt freshman offensive tackle Ian Moore said he learned different things from each of his new offensive line coaches this spring.
“They all notice different things about you,” Moore said. “Coach Johnson has talked to me about my hands. Coach Dickey’s talked to me about my set. Coach Johnson's talked to me about my pad level. Especially in one-on-ones when it's just you going, you've got four different guys seeing so many different things, and you just get all this information back to you, you can just tweak different things to try and get better. So I mean, it's really helped out a lot.”
The linemen say all four coaches have made themselves regularly accessible to the players for additional coaching and meetings after practice, allowing the players to get hands-on instruction from numerous coaches.
“I can go to Coach Bowen, I can go to Coach Dickey, I can go to Coach Johnson, I can go to Coach Fields, and they all are going to tell me the same thing. And they all are there to just help. Like, I can meet with Coach Fields, Coach Johnson, Coach Dickey every day. They will always make time for me,” said freshman guard Jayvon McFadden. “Any time I pick up my phone and call them and ask for a meeting, they're there. So it’s amazing.”
“The fact that we got these coaches, you know, we got a lot more hands-on coaching. You get more one-on-one reps, just getting the information that you need to execute. It's really on us to go ask them questions after practice,” added redshirt freshman offensive tackle Deontae Armstrong. “Can we work after practice on this drill? It's really up to you to put the tools in your toolbox, because we have all the resources we need.”
“You've got four different guys seeing so many different things, and you just get all this information back to you, you can just tweak different things to try and get better.”– Ian Moore on having four offensive line coaches
It will be important for Ohio State’s four offensive line coaches to be on the same page to ensure that players don’t receive contradictory messages from different coaches. Bowen said consistent messaging between the quartet has been a point of emphasis in their first offseason working together.
“That's been very important to us to make sure that we have one voice. I think what Coach Day has structured here, we have a chance to have the best offensive line resources in the country for those guys. But it all starts with myself making sure that we meet, we install,” Bowen said this spring. “So we meet, install from under the direction of (offenive coordinator Brian) Hartline, right? We get on the same page: This is exactly how we teach a down block, this is exactly how we teach a gap drive, this is exactly how we're teaching a combo in the backside and inside zone, whatever the case may be. But we get on the same page. We make sure that gets messaged.
“In the meeting room, it's one voice first. Before we ever meet on the side, meet extra, it's one voice first. And I think what makes it work is we’ve got three guys with not big egos. Our goal is to serve the players and to make sure that they're the best versions of themselves. And I think you've got that group in that room that has that mentality. So it's been awesome. I think the guys would say that it's been a huge resource for them. The amount of reps we're able to get in the practice setting, and also detailed reps, right? I've got one set of eyes. So having multiple sets of eyes, we're able to coach a lot at a time, try to make corrections at practice. So that part's been fun, and I think it's been better than we expected.”
The linemen who met with the media this spring said they thought the four new offensive line coaches did a great job of meshing together quickly and keeping things consistent for the players.
“They're all from different places. So at first, I think it was a little hard for them to mesh in on their lingo. But now they've got it down pat,” said freshman offensive tackle Carter Lowe. “They're all telling us the same exact thing. So that's been helping a lot. I mean, obviously, they can explain stuff a little different if you like them to. But they've been doing a good job of keeping everything together.”
It’s not brand new for Ohio State to have multiple coaches working with the offensive line, as the Buckeyes had three last year: Frye (who’s now the offensive line coach for the Arizona Cardinals), graduate assistant coach Mike Sollenne (offensive line coach at UNLV) and quality control coach Tim Drevno. The Buckeyes now have multiple coaches working with every position group thanks to the rule change last offseason that removed the limit on the number of coaches who can provide on-field instruction during practices and games.
By hiring veteran offensive line coaches like Dickey, who has 32 years of experience coaching offensive lines at major college football programs (most recently at Oklahoma State), and Johnson, who played in the NFL for five seasons and was a Power 4 offensive line coach for the last nine years (most recently at Purdue), to pair with Bowen, Ohio State is taking full advantage of that rule change to support Bowen in his first year as the Buckeyes’ offensive line coach and most importantly, give the Buckeyes’ offensive line coach as many resources as possible to succeed.
Even former offensive linemen who no longer play for the Buckeyes took notice of that when attending practices this spring.
“Because I'm rehabbing, I will come out to practice most days and see how everybody's doing. It's been fun to see the new coaching style of Coach Bowen and all the offensive line coaches. There's like four of them, each play, after a play's run, you see four offensive line coaches go and coach up an individual guy. And I know it's gonna pay dividends for those people in those rooms,” Seth McLaughlin, who won the Rimington Trophy as Ohio State’s starting center last year, said after the Buckeyes’ pro day.
