COLUMBUS — On Thursday, Ryan Day came to the podium inside the Ohio State team room at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, ready to name a starting quarterback. As such, Will Howard was front of mind. But there was seemingly another name not far behind as Day rolled around in his head some thoughts from the practice he had just watched.

It was that of third-year offensive lineman Tegra Tshabola.

“I felt him on the last couple of drives,” Day said of Tshabola. “I think he’s taken a step forward for sure.”

Ohio State’s offensive line has been in a weird spot as the Buckeyes sit two weeks from the season opener against Akron. Some key contributors have been in and out of the lineup over the last week or so as an illness has worked its way through the room — a virus that Day said Thursday was finally starting to clear out. He pointed to this weekend’s scrimmage as perhaps the best information-gathering opportunity the staff will have had thus far to figure out how to proceed with the offensive line.

The situation has left the coaching staff without many opportunities to see the presumed starting offensive line play together. However, it’s opened doors for other players to develop more rapidly and shore up depth. So, the offensive line seems to be making the best of unideal circumstances.

The good news is that there weren’t many jobs up for grabs. Both tackles, Josh Fryar and Josh Simmons, return (though Simmons is one of the players impacted by the illness). Same for returning starting left guard Donovan Jackson. All three are locked in. According to Day, Alabama transfer Seth McLaughlin has been “our most consistent offensive lineman” and seems locked in as the starting center.

That leaves right guard, where Tshabola has taken advantage of expanded opportunities in light of some inconsistent availability for others in the room, most notably Carson Hinzman.

“Tegra has been there the whole time,” Day said, ”and has really shown improvement … Tegra is a starting-level player with the quality he’s showing right now.”

Coming into camp, the thought was that Tshabola, Hinzman and perhaps sophomore Luke Montgomery would be locked in a three-man battle for the lone available starting spot. Instead, Hinzman has missed a few practices, Montgomery has been bouncing between guard and center and Tshabola has benefitted from logging more snaps than he would have otherwise next to Fryar on the right side with the starting offense.

Credit to Tshabola, the redshirt sophomore is capitalizing on the chance.

It’s a carryover from the end of spring practice when the staff zeroed in on Tshabola playing guard after time spent there and at tackle. In the spring game, Tshabola rotated at right guard with Hinzman and Montgomery but had arguably the best sequence of snaps among the three with the starting group.

Despite Tshabola's ability to play tackle and Ohio State’s need for tackle help during the last week with players out of the lineup, Tshabola has remained at guard, a sign that the staff believes that’s what’s best for Tshabola and his future. It’s yielded the best possible results for the player, who’s now making his most decisive push yet to earn a starting job.

“We’re trying to keep Tegra at guard right now and let him master that,” Day said. “It is hard, especially for someone who hasn’t played a ton of football, when you’re bouncing back and forth … We really want to keep him at guard to solidify that. Sometimes you move a guy, and now you have two positions where you don’t feel great, as opposed to solidifying guard and trying to figure out tackle.”

It helps that Tshabola isn’t the only player who’s stepped up during the last week.

Second-year guard Austin Siereveld has played some tackle and taken to it well — well enough that Day thinks Siereveld could potentially play either position in the future. Fourth-year tackle Zen Michalski has shown some progress with expanded reps. True freshman Ian Moore has shown enough lately to lose his black stripe after Thursday's practice.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the offense had glowing reports from last weekend’s scrimmage despite working with a patchwork offensive line. That’s a sign that the depth is starting to come together while starters work their way back into the lineup.

Day certainly didn’t draw it up playing out this way, but if the team can get two weeks of good work in moving forward with the starters back in the lineup, then the Buckeyes can lean on the silver lining of maximizing a somewhat chaotic situation.

And in the process, they may have found their answer at right guard.

“I think Tegra is really athletic and can really sink his hips, and he’s long,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. “He’s really long. If you can play long on the offensive line, then you’re going to keep defensive linemen away from people. That’s a really big deal for us. We like offensive linemen who are big because big people beat up little people. So we like Tegra a lot.”