Ohio State football: Offensive line coach Greg Studrawa won’t be back

FootballScoop.com first reported the news, which comes after an odd year for the Ohio State offensive front.

In terms of traditional stats, the Buckeyes averaged 180.6 yards per game on the ground, 47th in the country and fifth in the Big Ten, but the running game seemingly got less reliable throughout the season.

The Buckeyes were 14th nationally and second in the Big Ten in sacks allowed (1.3 per game), a big improvement from 2020 when they allowed 2.6 sacks per game (90th nationally) but also averaged almost 80 more yards per game on the ground.

The Buckeyes ranked seventh in the country in average line yards, a metric from FootballOutsiders.com that measures how often a team’s runs gain 0-3 yards or 4-8 yards. The line gets credit for 100 percent of the former and 50 percent of the latter while the rest is credited to the running back in an attempt to measure only the effectiveness of the blocking on a given play.

They were 51st in power success, another FO stat that measures ability to convert on third- and fourth-and-short, and fourth in sack rate, which measures sacks per dropback.

Better pass protection was likely the result of a preseason decision to start four players who are natural tackles — Thayer Munford, Paris Johnson Jr., Nicholas Petit-Frere and Dawand Jones — around center Luke Wypler, but it appeared to hurt the Buckeyes in getting push when they needed to run the ball.

Oregon (128 yards), Utah (1110) and Nebraska (90) all controlled the Ohio State running game while Michigan (64) shut it down in the biggest game of the year.

The pass protection also collapsed in Ann Arbor as the Wolverines sacked C.J. Stroud four times and pressured him on nearly every dropback while snapping an eight-game losing streak in The Game.

Studrawa undoubtedly had his share of successes at Ohio State. He coached two players — Pat Efllein and Billy Price — who won the Rimington Trophy as the top center in the nation, and seven Buckeyes were named first-team All-Americans.

News of his exit broke less than a day after Ohio State got a verbal commitment from Carson Hinzman, a four-star offensive line prospect from Wisconsin, but he told ElevenWarriors.com it did not impact his decision.

Recruiting was at times a source of criticism of Studrawa, who helped reel in five-star prospects such as Petit-Frere in 2018, Harry Miller in ‘19, Johnson in ‘20 and Donovan Jackson last year, but missed out on some high-profile prospects along the way both in-state and out.

Ohio had four four-star offensive line prospects in 2022, and Tegra Tshabola of Lakota West was the only one to sign with Ohio State.

Wayne’s Aamil Wagner signed with Notre Dame, Blake Miller of Strongsville is headed to Clemson and Pitt scooped up Ryan Baer of Eastlake North.

Studrawa was among the holdovers from the staff of Urban Meyer, who retired after the 2018 season and was replaced by Ryan Day, his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

The new offensive line coach will inherit a group that returns three starters — Johnson, Wypler and Jones — with ready-made replacements available in Jackson and senior Matt Jones.

Miller could also vie for a starting role or provide veteran insurance if he is able to successfully return from a season-ending injury.

A big rebuilding job could be in the offing for 2023, though, which raised the need for a home-run offensive line recruiting class in ‘22 that did not materialize.