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Football
Adams Battling Competition at Key Spot
By Brandon Castel

CHICAGO — For Buckeye fans, it has been too long since their beloved Ohio State offense had a dominant left tackle to call its own.

Too many years have passed since Orlando Pace was flattening defensive linemen in Columbus, and one of the most important positions in football has been one of the hardest to fill for Jim Tressel and his staff over the last decade.

Alex Boone established himself as a four-year starter on the offensive line—three of them exclusively at left tackle—but even he never lived up to the enormous hype as a former five-star prospect.

In 10 years, the Buckeyes have had six different starters at left tackle to begin the season. Last year they had three different players play the position throughout the course of the season. It’s no wonder Tressel and his offensive coordinator, Jim Bollman, are taking their time in picking someone to protect quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s blindside.

“I think you will see at the beginning of our preseason that you will see a lot of guys,” Tressel said Monday at the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago.

Mike Adams
Photo by Jim Davidson

The Buckeyes opened spring camp with a two-way battle between junior Mike Adams and senior Andrew Miller, much like they did the previous spring. And in much the same manner, the battle continues into the fall with neither player establishing himself as the clear-cut starter on an offensive line that returns four starters from a year ago.

“Probably Mike Adams (would be with the first team on the first day),” Tressel said.

“But I'll say this, the second practice it will probably be somebody different.”

That’s how it was in the spring, with Adams on the first team one day and Miller the next, but Tressel isn’t stopping there in his search for the fifth and final starter on the offensive line.

“You'll even see (J.B. Shugarts) go over there a little bit, Marcus Hall perhaps, and Andrew Norwell,” Tressel said of his options on the left side.

“It will be interesting to see what he can do.”

Norwell is a highly-touted freshman out of Cincinnati Anderson. At 6-foot-7, he seems to have all the tools and the right demeanor to play the position, but he has never stepped foot on a college practice field. He is also coming off a serious injury that cut his senior season short.

Marcus Hall
Photo by Dan Harker

Hall and Shugarts are slated to battle for the starting right tackle spot with Shugarts returning as the incumbent after starting 10 games on the offensive line last season. The one game he missed came against Iowa, and Hall played exceedingly well in his only start as a freshman.

Both players seem better suited for the right side of the line, but they could also be the two most talented tackles on the team. If that’s the case, the Buckeyes won’t have much of a choice but to figure out which guy—Shugarts or Hall—is better suited for playing the left side.

Tressel is hoping it never comes to that, but neither Adams nor Miller has been able to lock down the left side in the last two years. With senior Justin Boren and Bryant Browning cemented as the starting guard and junior Michael Brewster in his third season as the starting center, the Buckeyes could be in a position to have their best offensive line in years…if they can figure out the tackle position.

Two Guys Staying Put

While Shugarts and Hall could be shuffling around this fall, it appears two guys have found permanent homes. They won’t be in the starting lineup this fall, but if they do make it someday they will be lining up next to each other on the interior of the line.

“Probably the biggest change you’ll see is that Mewhort and Linsley will probably stay put where they’ve been, where they were playing both center and guard,” Tressel said.

After starting out playing left guard during the spring, Linsley ended up rotating with Mewhort between center and right guard during the latter half of spring camp. As things came to a close, it looked like Linsley (6-2) may have settled in at center with Mewhort (6-6) finding his niche at right guard.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that Corey’s going to be a very good center, and it takes a little while to get good at that,” Tressel said.

“And Mewhort, his best world is guard.”

Both are redshirt freshmen from the class of 2009, the same class that produced Marcus Hall and third-string left tackle Sam Longo. It’s possible that both Mewhort and Hall could be in the starting lineup as early as next season with Linsley following them in 2011, assuming Brewster stays all four years.

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