The Ohio State offense will have a very different look next fall. For the first time since 2014, the Buckeyes will break in a new starter at quarterback. They will have a new first-string tight end, and after the NFL Draft deadline passes on January 15, they could have several starting spots open at the skill positions as well.
While those positional battles will likely draw most of the attention during spring football and fall camp, the Buckeyes will also have to replace two cornerstones up front.
LT Jamarco Jones and C Billy Price both graduated and will be going pro in sports after they hear an NFL team call their names in late April. That leaves two major holes, both in terms of production and leadership, on one of the most crucial units on the team.
It’s not clear yet what the Buckeyes plan to do with the vacant tackle spot. RT Isaiah Price could move across the line to protect the blind side of Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow, Tate Martell, and Matthew Baldwin. That would answer one question, while creating another.
Josh Alabi backed up Jones at LT in 2017, and made a few appearances when Jones left with injuries. He’s certainly a candidate to earn the open job, whichever side of the formation it’s on.
One of the other leading candidates is Thayer Munford, who backed up Prince as a true freshman this fall. Munford isn’t the first Buckeye to wear no. 75 and play a tackle spot as a true freshman. But while any comparison to Orlando Pace should end there, Munford did earn high praise from teammates during bowl practices.
“I already know he’s going to be a hell of a player by the time he’s done playing here,” Jones said about Munford. “He had really good bowl practices. He’s improved a lot.”
Munford played in eight games on offense during his freshman season, seeing the most action in blowout wins over UNLV and Illinois. It’s not all that common to see a true freshman playing on the line for the Buckeyes, as most players take a redshirt year to develop both physically and mentally. For Munford, the early playing time seemed a little overwhelming.
“This year at the beginning of the season I really didn’t think I was ready because I was still getting used to everything else,” he said after the Cotton Bowl.
“As a freshman you’re like ‘okay, I’m second team. I can’t wait.’ But since Branden (Bowen) went down in the Maryland game, I was like ‘Wow, somebody has to go in,'” Munford said. “It was like really real.”
Jones also played as a true freshman back in 2014, and could sympathize with what Munford was going through.
“It’s hard picking up the offense,” Jones said. “Especially at tackle, we’ve got a lot of different stuff we do with our tackles.”
Jones said the game was still a little overwhelming when he was in Munford’s place, wrapping up his own freshman season.
“My sophomore year, like him going into next year, that first spring ball you learn a lot. Stuff slows down,” Jones said. “When you first get here everything moves so fast at the snap of the ball. There’s a lot you’ve got to learn. Once you get that first spring ball in, I think a lot of things slowed down for me. And I think this bowl season it happened for him.
“He busted his tail this summer when he first got here. He didn’t ask any questions, he would just go and do what you’d tell him to do. Guys like that usually have very good careers here, and Thayer is going to have a really good career here too.”