Ohio State loses an irreplaceable piece of its loaded offense for the season

After losing to Michigan in three consecutive seasons, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day went all-in this offseason, loading up his offense with talent and convincing his former boss Chip Kelly to leave UCLA to become his offensive coordinator in Columbus. Day added Ole Miss running back QuinShon Judkins through the transfer portal, got true freshman phenom wide receiver Jeremiah Smith up to speed immediately, and flipped quarterback Kyle McCord for Kansas State transfer Will Howard. Day even added former Alabama center Seth McLaughlin to bolster his offensive line, but the Buckeyes don’t have much of a contingency plan for losing their star left tackle. 

Josh Simmons suffered a left knee injury in the first half of Ohio State’s 32-31 loss to the Oregon Ducks in Eugene and on Tuesday, it was announced that Simmons will miss the rest of the season. The former San Diego State transfer had not allowed a sack this season and is considered a fringe-first-round NFL draft prospect. 

With Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson at running back and Smith, Emeka Egbuka, and Carnell Tate, Ohio State had crucial redundancy across its offense, but Simmons has no equal on this roster. His replacement will be senior and 2021 four-star recruit Zen Michalski. The 6-foot-6 319-pound tackle has played 207 career snaps across his four seasons in Columbus and Ohio State’s Week 9 matchup with Nebraska will be his first career start. In about a third of Simmon’s pass-blocking snaps this season, Michalski has allowed the same number of quarterback pressures (2), both after replacing Simmons against Oregon. 

Ohio State has one week to evaluate its offensive line without Simmons before heading to Happy Valley to deal with one of the best defensive lines in the country. Abdul Carter has thrived since transitioning from linebacker to defensive end with 20 pressures and a 17.4% pass-rush win rate which ranks 11th in the Big Ten among players with at least 50 pass-rushing snaps. Dani Dennis-Sutton has 21 total pressures and a 14.8% win rate. 

Nebraska’s James Williams is third in the Big Ten with 23 quarterback pressures, so Penn State will get a nice preview of how Michalski handles a tough assignment and the ways that Day and Kelly counter a dominant pass rusher with chips, double-teams or any other tricks they have up their sleeve. 

Penn State is still a home underdog against Ohio State, and it’s too early to look ahead to that matchup before the No. 3 Nittany Lions get to 7-0 with a win in Madison over the red-hot Wisconsin Badgers, but with the unfortunate loss of Simmons the Buckeyes offense looks a lot less bulletproof.