Nine games into Ohio State’s 2025 season, the biggest question on the team remains the offensive line.
Quarterback Julian Sayin has come under more frequent pressure of late than he did to start the year. The Buckeyes have found inconsistency trying to establish their running game throughout the year, even in recent weeks against weaker run defenses. But Ryan Day remains encouraged by the progress of the group, and no changes seem to be forthcoming at right guard.
“Where we stand right now, we're going to kind of split the duty up there (between Tegra Tshabola and Joshua Padilla),” Day said. “But who knows, that might change later today. Josh has got to get healthy. We'll see how even Ethan (Onianwa) does today. But that's kind of where we kind of feel like we are right now. And we feel like splitting the reps can help them, all those guys become more efficient. But we're going to keep evaluating, keep pushing on it and see where we go.”
Tshabola has his moments. One of the more veteran pieces of Ohio State’s offensive line, he’s started 25 games already in his career as a Buckeye, including all 16 during the 2024 national championship run.
But the lapses in technique that appear every game are still happening too often. He was Ohio State’s lowest-graded offensive lineman on Pro Football Focus against Purdue, at 52.3 in pass blocking and 62.8 in run blocking. He had some pancakes and some highlights to point out, but then there are plays like these where he still looks a bit lost.
This is a TD if Tegra lands his block. Watch the sideline reaction by Day and Bowen pic.twitter.com/3S7nk3y3kv
— Buckeye HQ (@RealisticBuck) November 8, 2025
Padilla had emerged as the bona fide backup to Tshabola and rotated in with him starting in Ohio State’s fifth game against Minnesota. He’s played 87 snaps, including a career-high 26 against Penn State two games ago. The following week, however, Padilla went down with an injury, which caused him to miss the Purdue game. There’s a good chance he returns this week, alongside right tackle Phillip Daniels.
“We're expecting a full week from Josh. We'll see how today goes,” Day said. “But he and Phil both, we'll kind of see as the week goes on, but we're expecting a full week of work out of those guys.”
Onianwa could contribute at right guard after rolling with Tshabola the first four games this season. He played right tackle in relief of starter Ian Moore, who was filling in for Daniels, at Purdue, though Gabe VanSickle got reps before he did at right guard behind Tshabola.
“He's an option,” Day said of Onianwa. “He played in the game. I thought he had some good movement in the run game and did some good things. So we'll see how this week goes. But we're going to keep pushing the envelope on it and keep grinding on it. But he did have some good snaps in that game. And, hopefully, we can get him to play at a certain level that we need him to play in order to finish the season the way we want to.”
The run game generally has been an issue to get going. Ohio State averaged just 2.9 yards per carry at Illinois in Week 7 and 3.5 the following week at Wisconsin. The Buckeyes were pedestrian again against a Purdue defense that entered the contest ranked 92nd nationally against the run, finishing with 4 yards per carry.
The bigger indictment comes when diving into the numbers at running back. The Buckeyes’ rushers picked up an average of 3.1 yards after contact, which means 67.4% of Ohio State’s sack-adjusted 189 rushing yards were beyond what the offensive line provided.
“We're just going to keep swinging on it,” Day said. “And it comes down to fundamentals. That's it. So we'll keep trying to figure out ways to be creative and create space and create explosion. But, like, when it all comes down to the end, it's gonna come down to fundamentals. But, yeah, I think there's positives, but there's also things we've got to get better at.”
Day said Ohio State’s running troubles haven’t all been on the offensive line, either. Running back Bo Jackson faced free rushers on two third-down conversion attempts that he had to evade to pick up a first down, but that’s on scheme and not technique, per the coach.
“I thought we did, overall, handle some of that. There was a lot of movement up there,” Day said. Early on, we ran a stretch play that Austin (Siereveld) didn't quite get to the second level. The next time we ran the same one, he got to the second level on the same blitz, got to the backer, and it turned into an explosive run. So one of the things about the run game is, it does take time to take effect. We certainly wish that the first play would have been part of our day, but it wasn't.”
Bo Jacksons run at the start of the game was great, but this is a grown man run: pic.twitter.com/zyaGXgJdVb
— Stephen Means (@Stephen_Means) November 9, 2025
Overall, Day is optimistic about his offensive line. It was about this time last year – though with different circumstances after some injuries – that concerns about the front five were running wild too, and they ended up being a primary catalyst to the College Football Playoff run.
“I can't sit here and say I'm disappointed right now,” Day said. “I'm encouraged with a lot of things that are going on up there. And if I thought it was a real problem or a mess, I would address it. I know that we're going to get a lot more challenges here, and we're challenging these guys every day. And the backs need to continue to run better, and we need to continue to figure out ways to put them in a situation to be successful. And the angles of the blocks, we've got to keep working on that.
“But, no, I think they're grinding on it. They're working hard. Two of the guys graded out a champion. The other guys didn't. We upped our ante on being a champion. It used to be over 80 this past week, now we're at 83% because we feel like we need to increase our efficiency and execution. But, yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of good there, but certainly we know what we need to get in terms of winning a championship. So we want all those guys to grade out over 83%.”
