COLUMBUS, Ohio –– With the return of starting tackles Thayer Munford and Nicholas Petit-Frere, it seemed unlikely that five-star talent Paris Johnson Jr. would boot either Buckeye veteran off of their posts in just his second season.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day confirmed Wednesday what many had already expected, that Johnson will begin the spring at guard, even if tackle is where the Cincinnati, Ohio, native will inevitably end up sooner or later.
“He has some position flexibility. He’s so talented, and really our tackles and guards are interchangeable when you look at them,” Day said. “They can kind of do both, which really helps. He’s gonna probably start at guard this spring, but he can easily move to tackle quickly, and we’ll try to find that right combination.”
Johnson, who was the No. 21 overall prospect in the class of 2020, and the No. 3 tackle, was simply too good to keep off the field by the end of last season, even in a significantly shortened slate of games.
Injuries and COVID-19 absences may have helped his cause as well, but Johnson notched key snaps in both of Ohio State’s College Football Playoff games to end the season. However, all of those came at guard, and not the tackle position at which he was recruited.
Some thought Munford, who had his finest season as a Buckeye in his third year starting at LT, and his fourth overall at Ohio State, would leave for the NFL following the national championship loss. Munford’s absence may have allowed Johnson to slide in at either starting tackle position in 2021.
But instead, Munford opted to return for a fifth go-around in Columbus. Still, the returning talent at tackle might not cost Johnson a starting job, if OL coach Greg Studrawa is seeking to put his best five players on the field.
“The idea always in the offensive line is how do you find the right five? You want to make sure you have your best five linemen in the game and then go from there,” Day said. “Somebody like Paris, who has some position flexibility, is that much more valuable.”
With starting center Josh Myers off to the NFL, it’s likely that soon-to-be junior Harry Miller could slide back over from guard to the middle of the line, where he backed up Myers as a freshman, which would create two vacancies at either guard spot with Wyatt Davis also turning pro.
Day said it would be healthy for the potential NFL futures of Munford and Petit-Frere to be comfortable at guard as well though, and said that he and the Buckeye coaching staff won’t be “locked into one thought process” when it comes to deciding who will slide where on the line.
“I can see either thing happening,” Day said. “We’re gonna start with Paris inside and see how that goes, he did some really good things for us last year at guard, even in the short body of work he had, but he’s still young and there’s still a lot to learn as an offensive lineman.”
If Johnson does wind up at guard, rather than his natural tackle spot, it is far from a discredit to his skillset. By many metrics, Munford and Petit-Frere may have been the best tackles in the conference a season ago, and they’ll have another offseason under their belts by the time the season begins.
Just to be in contention for a starting spot at all as a sophomore defies the norm, although few would have expected otherwise given Johnson’s pedigree.
“Not very many guys in their first and second years have played a lot of football here in the offensive line, so that’s unique, and it’s a developmental position, so it’s gonna take time,” Day said. “But we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll have a better idea as we get through the spring.”
