When Ryan Day said Tuesday that Austin Siereveld could be Ohio State’s starting left tackle this season, the reporter who asked the question initially thought Day misspoke.
Understandably so. In Ohio State’s first three practices of preseason camp that were open to reporters and fans, Siereveld took all of his reps at right tackle, with Ethan Onianwa taking the first-team reps at left tackle. Until Tuesday, the expectation all offseason had been that Onianwa would be OSU’s starting left tackle, with Siereveld emerging this spring as the frontrunner to start at RT.
As the Buckeyes get into their second week of preseason camp, however, Ohio State is taking a close look at Siereveld at left tackle.
“He's getting work at left right now. Now primary positions, secondary positions, these things are all in play, but we believe that he can do that, he can play left tackle for us,” Day said of Siereveld. “We certainly know he can play guard. Ethan, (Philip Daniels), those guys are all playing, Ian Moore. So those guys are rolling and getting a lot of reps. You guys saw in the first three days, we've been getting a ton of reps. Now we're on one field, going ones, twos, and threes. So kind of like with the quarterbacks, we'll let this thing play out and see where we're at. But I will say that Austin's shown that he can do it. He can play tackle.”
Siereveld’s emergence as the potential blind-side protector for whoever wins the quarterback competition between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz speaks to how substantially his stock has risen this offseason.
Last year, Siereveld was a rotational guard for the Buckeyes, making six spot starts at left guard over the course of the season but ultimately finishing the year as a backup to Luke Montgomery and Tegra Tshabola, who are expected to be Ohio State’s starting guards this season. This offseason, however, Siereveld has emerged as a top leader on Ohio State’s offensive line while earning Iron Buckeye honors twice – one of just three players to do that along with two of the team’s biggest stars, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and linebacker Sonny Styles.
Entering spring practice, Ohio State was expected to have two transfer starters at offensive tackle this season, with Rice transfer Onianwa manning the left side and Minnesota transplant Phillip Daniels manning the right side. Siereveld ended up taking first-team reps ahead of Daniels for most of the spring, however, and Day declared in his post-spring press conference that Siereveld would be a starter for the Buckeyes this season.
Day’s praise for Siereveld has only increased through Ohio State’s first week of preseason camp.
“First off, when you look at his size compared to the guys we've had in the past, he has plenty of size. When you look at his athleticism, he's athletic enough and his strength is that way. So I've gone through it with (director of sports performance Mickey Marotti) and with (offensive line coach Tyler Bowen) to see, does he have enough length, does he have enough size to play the position? The answer is yes. And he was very comfortable there in the spring,” Day said of Siereveld playing tackle. “We're seeing some things out of him this offseason in terms of leadership, just taking on a great voice in that room. He was an Iron Buckeye. So all these things are leading us to believe that he can be our left tackle moving forward.”
As great as Siereveld has been this offseason, he’s still entirely unproven as an offensive tackle at the collegiate level. Recruited to Ohio State as a guard, Siereveld has seen no game action at tackle in his first two seasons as a Buckeye. Assuming he is one of Ohio State’s starting tackles against Texas, his first start will come against one of the talented defenses in the country, led by one of the nation’s premier edge rushers in Colin Simmons (who controversially won the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award over Jeremiah Smith last season).
The bigger concern raised by Siereveld’s move to the left side, however, is it suggests Ohio State hasn’t seen enough from Onianwa to lock down the position he was brought in to play.
Onianwa’s had some struggles in pass protection in practices dating back to the spring, particularly during the last open practice on Saturday, when Caden Curry and C.J. Hicks each blew by him to get to the quarterback. And while Siereveld’s move to the left side could simply mean flipping the 6-foot-7, 331-pound Rice transfer to the right side – which is often the position massive tackles like Onianwa play – Day hedged when asked whether Siereveld’s move to the left side would mean Onianwa playing right tackle.
“He's also got a little work at guard, too,” Day said. “Because as we know, it's a long year. We have to be able to do that. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but we certainly learned a lot coming off of last year. So we'll continue to cross-train. But as time goes on, it's more like 80-20 than more like 60-40 maybe in the spring.”
Ethan Onianwa was expected to be Ohio State’s starting left tackle this season, but could now end up on the right side.
The good news, especially coming off a season in which Ohio State had to shuffle its offensive line multiple times following season-ending injuries to Josh Simmons and Seth McLaughlin, is the Buckeyes have plenty of versatility among their top offensive linemen. Tshabola and Montgomery both have experience playing tackle, Montgomery has also repped at center in practice and starting center Carson Hinzman played well at guard last season before moving to center after McLaughlin’s injury.
Day also feels good about the Buckeyes’ depth on the offensive line, believing Ohio State has more than enough offensive linemen who can play this season with the likes of Daniels, Ian Moore, Joshua Padilla and Gabe VanSickle pushing for playing time.
But while it looked as though the starting offensive line was fairly set when Onianwa, Montgomery, Hinzman, Tshabola and Siereveld took all the first-team reps in that order at Saturday’s open practice, Day’s comments Tuesday indicated the Buckeyes still need to see more before they’ll be comfortable settling on their top front five.
“I would say we're still developing the starters,” Day said. “Depth, I feel good. I feel like we have guys for the first time in a while where you get into like the eighth or ninth or 10th guy and you're like, ‘I feel like he's going to play for us this year.’ Maybe in the past we didn't quite feel that way. But the question is, all right, how is this going to play out in terms of the starting five? Who's the sixth guy in? That's where all the competitions are right now. But the good news is we've got a lot of guys to work with.”
