COLUMBUS — Ohio State’s warmups before Saturday’s game against Maryland looked like a fact-finding mission. Several players took reps with the first team on the right side of the offensive line as the Buckeyes searched for the best answer to suddenly being without starting right tackle Austin Siereveld, who was ruled out earlier that morning.
The staff decided to move Gabe VanSickle from guard to tackle, which meant putting him in that position for the first time. They backfilled right guard by giving sophomore Jake Cook his first start. The results were unsurprisingly mixed. Julian Sayin was sacked twice. Pro Football Focus said he was pressured on 35 percent of his dropbacks. The starting offense surrendered three tackles for loss on run plays.
That’s not all on VanSickle and Cook.
But offensive line continuity matters, and Ohio State’s got nuked on game day.
“It was hours before the game,” Ryan Day said when asked to detail the timeline of finding out Siereveld would miss the game. “They did a test. That’ll be day-to-day right now, as far as I know.”
Siereveld’s return timeline is uncertain. Day’s description of what happened makes it seem like an illness-related absence. Siereveld was not in Ohio Stadium on Saturday. Ohio State has a monster game against Indiana next Saturday, and it’s unclear what shape the offensive line will be in against a defensive front that have the Buckeyes fits last year.