Offensive lineman hyped for every OSU touchdown
Thayer MunCOLUMBUS — ford does all the heavy lift- ing for the Ohio State Buck- eyes offensive line. Almost every time running backs or wide receivers score, he races to the end zone to pick them up and lift them into the air for a brief second.
The moments make for good photos. Munford, a sophomore who’s a firstyear starter at left tackle, admitted he’s not the fastest lineman in the unit, but he has filled an important role in a celebration that has become a tradition for Ohio State.
“To be honest, I’m so hyped, I just go down there and run to them,” Munford said. “I’m just so happy we got touchdowns.”
Munford and the No. 4 Buckeyes (4-0, 1-0) play at No. 9 Penn State (4-0, 1-0) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Two years ago, the Buckeyes lost at Penn State with Munford, a Cincinnati native who fin- ished his career at Massillon Washington, in the stands as a recruit.
Munford expects t he same atmosphere in Ohio State’s return trip to State College, Pa.
“The first time I stepped into that stadium, it was ridiculous,” Munford said. “Everyone had on white. I was like, ‘Wow, it’s crazy.’ At the same time, my focus was on Ohio State.”
Low snaps: Ohio State center Michael Jordan talked to reporters Tuesday for the first time since he had an issue with low snaps in the Texas Christian game. He said he worked on the problem all week before the Tulane game and doesn’t expect to have any more trouble.
“I think I just made TCU a much bigger game in my head instead of calming myself down,” Jordan said. “I was able to calm myself down last week and get the snaps back up.”
Best quote: Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson had the quote of the night Tuesday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Asked about the play of quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who has won the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week award twice in his first four career starts, Wilson said, “He’s very accurate. If he went to the county fair, he’d win a lot of prizes.”
Schedule update: Ohio State announced its home game Oct. 6 against Indiana will start at 4 p.m. Fox will televise the game.
Smith’s response: Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith issued a statement Sunday in response to a report by The Athletic that Ohio State is considering making offensive coordi- nator Ryan Day a coach-inwaiting as a replacement down the line for Urban Meyer.
“We obviously are appreciative of coach Day’s great work,” Smith said, “and hope he continues to be one of our offensive coor- dinators for a long time, but we are more than confident coach Meyer will be our head coach for quite some time.”
Opposing viewpoint: Penn State coach James Franklin remembers recruit- ing Haskins and also recalled seeing the video of a young Haskins in the Ohio State locker room talking about wanting to play for the Buck- eyes one day.
“We probably weren’t going to win that battle after seeing that video,” Frank- lin said, “but obviously a very, very talented guy. I’m happy for him and the success that he’s having. It’s probably an ideal situation for a first-time starter. The talent that he is surrounded with is impressive: the run- ning backs, the wide receivers and probably the best offensive line that we’ve seen at Ohio State in the last four years.”