The 6-foot-6, 327-pound Tshabola is entering his third preseason with the Buckeyes after graduating from Lakota West in 2022.
He competed for a starting position in the spring of 2023 but ultimately played in all 13 games as a backup last season.
That was mostly special teams action, but Tshabola did get snaps on offense in five games, including 10 against Western Kentucky before rejoining the battle for a spot on the No. 1 offensive line this spring.
These days a player entering the transfer portal after such an experience as Tshabola had last year is not unusual, but Day expressed appreciation for his sticking it out with the Buckeyes.
“Yeah, I mean, he wants to be here,” Day said. “He wants to be a contributor to Ohio State, and it does matter. There are other places he could have gone and tried different avenues, but he stuck with it, and it’s going to pay off for him. It will if he just continues to get better and continue to show the discipline and consistency, but we’re excited about what he did this offseason.”
Coach Justin Frye returns four starters from last season, and Tshabola appears to be the co-favorite with second-year sophomore Luke Montgomery to claim the open spot in a competition that figures to continue into preseason.
“The first two practices, we’re not in pads anyway so it’s really hard to identify what’s going on with the offensive line when you’re not in pads,” Day said. “I mean, you can go in the right direction, but there’s very little contact. It’s all hands and feet.”
With both Tshabola and Montgomery being four-star recruits from Ohio, the staff has expressed much optimism about both since they arrived on campus, but the road to playing time can be long for offensive linemen.
Given how much a player can mature in two years in a college strength and conditioning program, that is not a bad thing.
Life in the trenches can be difficult for most players who have yet to reach their 20th birthday, but this year the battle at right guard could be especially crucial because the Ohio State offensive line enters the 2024 season under the microscope following three seasons of being one of the team’s weaker links.
While Day accomplished with flying colors his job of fixing a sagging passing game when he was hired as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016, the Buckeyes have gone from one of the best rushing teams in the country to one of the worst.
Even before his team dropped to 87th in the country in rushing yards last season, the head coach of the Buckeyes seems to have been chasing a better ground game going back to the end of 2021 when his team was soundly beaten at Michigan.
So far the results have not met his expectations, Day did not sound ready to back down as another season got underway.
“We know we’re going to wear teams down this year, win games in the fourth quarter,” Day said. “If that’s our goal, then we have to be able to do that, especially up front with the offensive line.”
That’s an effort that starts this month.
“The first thing is you have to practice that way, and that means in preseason we’ve got to wear each other down,” Day said. “We’ve got to force it. We’ve got to make sure that we’re pounding the ball in practice and sustaining throughout the entire practice and just holding guys accountable. And we’re going to script the right opportunities to do that in practice.”
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