Seth McLaughlin ‘gaining his voice,’ becoming leader on offensive line

INDIANAPOLIS — Ryan Day didn’t go as far to name Seth McLaughlin the starting center for Ohio State a week before training camp opens.

But Day did tip his hand enough, and the Buckeyes coach might as well have locked fifth-year center and Alabama transfer McLaughlin in as the apex of the offensive line at the team’s Big Ten Media Days appearance Tuesday afternoon. When asked about McLaughlin, who started 25 games throughout his career at Alabama and gave up just one sack in his time with the Crimson Tide, Day spoke highly of the transfer addition along the offensive line.

Ohio State believes McLaughlin will help elevate this unit — and win the Buckeyes a lot of games this upcoming season.

“He gives a veteran experience that is, I think, calming to the guys up front,” Day said. “I think [Seth’s] gaining his voice more and more every day. I said this before, you don’t just jump in at Ohio State and start barking at people, but he is, and we’re going to need him to.

“He’s the center.”

As our Andy Backstrom noted in his larger story about the offensive line on Wednesday, this is still a battle for the starting center job — in a technical sense. Third-year offensive lineman Carson Hinzman, who started all 12 Ohio State regular season games as a redshirt freshman, is still in the mix for the center job and might even be leading the battle to become the team’s starting right guard. Hinzman, who Day admitted Tuesday “probably was in there half a season too early,” was benched for the Cotton Bowl but followed it up with an impressive spring of work, carrying that into the summer.

But McLaughlin is close to officially wrapping up the starting center job.

Make no mistake: that’s not to say Carson Hinzman hasn’t pushed McLaughlin or taken a large step forward this offseason. No, quite the opposite. That’s why Day had such glowing praise for Hinzman on Tuesday — and why Hinzman is in the thick of that competition to play right guard alongside McLaughlin.

“Carson’s going to play some center as well,” Day said. “We’re still going to see how that all shakes out coming out of the preseason. But when Seth’s in there, he’s got to have a voice in there. And so does Carson, but Carson’s gonna play some guard as well. And that’s exciting to see. I think they both had really good offseasons.”

If Ohio State needs Hinzman at center, he’s certainly capable of doing that. McLaughlin struggled some snapping issues at Alabama last year, which have mostly been chalked up as an issue of communication between he and Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe.

The Buckeyes don’t see those problems causing any harm to the offense this year; McLaughlin has shown that he’s put the snapping woes behind him.

“We’ll have to see how the season goes,” Day said. “We have not seen anything like that in practice, and so we’ll kind of go from there.”

Day knows how important McLaughlin will be this fall. And he knows all-too-well how important the offensive line will be for team-wide success. The last drive of the Michigan loss last year, when then-starting quarterback Kyle McCord was pressured up the middle on his late interception, is the perfect example.

Given those factors, Day made clear how paramount it is to get offensive line right heading into this season.

“This team is going to go as the offensive line goes,” Day said.

And the Ohio State offensive line will go as the leader of it — the center — goes. That appears to be Seth McLaughlin’s job heading into training camp. The Buckeyes can build from the inside out with that taken care of.

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