The Ohio State Buckeyes' offensive line might be taking final form as Phillip Daniels is questionable to miss his third straight football game.
The prospect of losing your job thanks to injury is a frustrating reality that might be taking place inside the Ohio State program. Right tackle Phillip Daniels showed up on today's injury report as questionable for their game against Iowa, and he is now in danger of missing his fourth straight football game.
Unfortunately, his being out has opened the door for what might end up being a total changeover on the Buckeyes' offensive line. IN his absence, the Buckeyes have inserted Ian Moore at left tackle, Gabe Van Sickle at right guard, and then Austin Siereveld moves back to right tackle.
These guys filled in around the two stalwarts inside of Luke Montgomery and Carson Hinzman, who have been rock solid all year long.
Now, the forced result of Daniels' injury is the development of these young players up front. They have been required to get better and haven't had any other option.
Now, the Buckeyes as a team are faced with what Ryan Day refers to as a good problem, that they now have great depth up front.
The other result, more specifically for Daniels, is that as each week goes by, he loses reps and the guys up front build on the chemistry that they have been developing.
That's never a good way to potentially lose a job or even find yourself in a competition for the position. Ever hear of Wally Pip?
Back to what this means for the Buckeyes. I couldn't agree more with Ryan Day on this: the Buckeyes now have six or seven guys that they trust to put in. Furthermore, Austin Siereveld has now shown that he can play quite literally every single position on the offensive line.
This is great insurance for injury; this is great insurance for poor play. We have seen plenty of that over the past two seasons, and now Day and offensive line coach Tyler Bowen will have something to combat that.
The final injury report will come out closer to game time, but it is more than likely that Daniels is going to be down. If that does end up being the case, pay close attention to the performance up front and what the Buckeyes are able to do against what will be the second-best DL that they will face.
Best case scenario for the Buckeyes is that Daniels is back soon. If he isn't, they will have plenty of solutions to patchwork that group together.
