Is Ohio State football preparing an offensive line contingency plan for Michigan?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Matt Jones’ tenure as an important Ohio State football backup and multi-year starter at guard came with another perpetual identity.

Every time the starting center job changed over, Jones’ name came up as a possible replacement. He came out of Brooklyn’s Erasmus Hall High School in 2018 as the nation’s top prospect as the position, per the 247Sports composite.

Yet, until last Saturday, Jones had never played the position in a game for Ohio State. For one series in the second half of an already in-hand 38-3 victory over Michigan State, Jones moved one spot to his left to replace Carson Hinzman at center. Another veteran, Enokk Vimahi, stepped in at right guard.

If OSU wanted to simply give Viamhi run with the 1s to reward his five-year commitment to the program, it could have kept Hinzman in the game or slotted in backups Vic Cutler or Jakob James. Those 10 snaps Jones played at center seemed quite intentional — especially with the challenge looming on the near horizon.

“We had a pretty comfortable lead at that point, and felt like it was good to do,” OSU coach Ryan Day said. “We evaluated it, and there was some good snaps there. It’s always good to kind of, in an opportunity like that, go see, if we needed to make a change, what that would look like.”

Michigan’s rotation of Cam Goode, Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant and Kris Jenkins represent four of the top 10 rated interior defensive linemen in the Big Ten Conference, per Pro Football Focus. They anchor a defense that ranks in the top 20 nationally in limiting runs (3.23 yards per carry) and ranks second to only OSU in defensive quarterback efficiency rating (94.96).

In early October, when OSU came out of its idle week with another inconsistent offensive performance against Maryland, both Day and offensive line coach Justin Frye were asked if lineup changes would be considered.

Both said at the time they felt the personnel was correct, but the execution needed to improve. That has by and large happened, with Jones, Josh Fryar, Donovan Jackson and Josh Simmons all playing with more consistency in the past month.

The exception has been Hinzman, whose 17 pressures allowed lead the team. The redshirt freshman arguably had the toughest adjustment job this season, after not playing center — and not having attempted a shotgun snap in a competitive environment —until arriving at OSU in winter 2022.

“From where he started to where he is now, he’s made certainly a bunch of progress,” Day said. “But he’s also the youngest. He’s in here every day, he’s busting his tail to get better. And he’s handled some difficult environments so far this year as a redshirt freshman.

“So we think that he’s got a very bright future ahead of him. And he’s going to continue to get stronger and better across the board — in communication, all of those things. So every time he’s out there, it’s an investment in his future.”

Ohio State made an offensive line shift in The Game a year ago. Jones could not play due to injury. Vimahi started at right guard, but early on, Josh Fryar replaced him. That attempt to stabilize things was not enough to help the offense score more than three second-half points.

Hinzman still projects as a the Buckeyes’ long-term center. He provides a chance to get old and stay old at a position of fairly frequent turnover.

Jones’ in-game experience at center might simply mean OSU wanted him to get in-game snaps because he is the first option behind Hinzman. Regardless, it is the most certain sign of a long-speculated truth — that the former high school center can be the Buckeyes’ current one, if needed.