Upheaval In The Pits

OHIO STATE OFFENSIVE LINE

Justin Boren’s injury has the Buckeyes wondering who’s going to play where against Navy

COLUMBUS (AP) — The hours to Ohio State’s 120th season opener in football are melting away — and still the Buckeyes aren’t set on the offensive line.

Transfer Justin Boren has missed August workouts with a mild knee sprain, tipping over a series of dominoes. With him out of the picture at guard, it has thrown much of the line into confusion as a succession of players have moved around to fill that vacancy.

“That really messes things up a little bit,” right tackle Jim Cordle said.

Meanwhile, Andrew Miller and J.B. Shugarts are locked in a tight battle to start at left tackle and there are several candidates still fighting it out at right guard.

With the opener against Navy just more than a week away, coach Jim Tressel said he’s not shook up by the shakeup on the front wall.

“I’d rather have eight offensive line starters back, but we don’t,” he said. Referring to the delay in getting five established starters together he added, “Every once in a while that happens. It’s not really unsettling. It’s something we evaluate every day.”

In the meantime, lots of players are getting playing time with the first unit.

Despite so many positions being up in the air, the rotations have led to a lot of players getting playing time with the top offense. That’s a good thing.

“It’s never bad,” said Andrew Moses, in the mix to start at one of a couple of spots up front. “It’s also good to know you’ve got some depth. Guys are getting experience against a great defensive line every day in practice and people are only getting better. So it’s good.”

Boren is a 6-foot-3, 315-pound junior from suburban Columbus (Pickerington) who was honorable mention All-Big Ten in 2007 while playing center and left guard at Michigan. In a recent scrimmage, Miller, Andrew Moses and freshmen Corey Linsley and Jack Mewhort split time at left guard.

Tressel believes Boren should be back and ready to go before the opening kickoff against the Midshipmen.

“He’ll do some individual things and get some running in,” said Tressel, who was so displeased with the line’s passive play a year ago that he challenged them in practice for several weeks.

Just about everybody in camp has been talking about Miller’s battle with Shugarts at left tackle. It’s a particularly vital spot because the left tackle protects quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s blind side on those rare instances when he’s standing still in the pocket.

In the spring, the job was expected to be filled by the highly touted Mike Adams, a 6-8, 322-pound behemoth who played in four games a year ago. But he has fallen off the charts after sustaining a shoulder injury last season and not recovering quickly enough.

Miller, a tight end in high school, converted to lineman two years ago but then sank on the depth chart. But the 6-7, 295-pound Washington, Pa., native has surprised everybody with his play in the spring and again when practices resumed in the dog days of summer.

Shugarts, 6-8 and 298, said it’s good to have a lot of people involved on the line, but it’s also good to have five set starters.

“A rotation could help to have fresh linemen in the game, but sometimes in a game you want to keep that solid five because you pick up things in a game and you learn what players like to do,” he said. “Sometimes when you’re flipping players in and out you might slow down the offense.”

Tressel said the offensive coaches list Miller and Shugarts as “slashed” — sharing the job.

“So there’s a battle going on,” he said. “There’s a whole bunch of battles.”

The picture is somewhat muddled elsewhere, with Cordle holding down the right tackle spot, Mike Brewster the top guy at center and Bryant Browning the starter at the right guard position. Several other possibilities exist, with different combinations at different positions.