Ohio State Offensive Line Named Joe Moore Award Semifinalist

The Ohio State offensive line was named a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award, which honors the best group in college football annually. 

The Buckeyes’ starting group of left tackle Thayer Munford, left guard Harry Miller, center Josh Myers, right guard Wyatt Davis, and right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere have performed well under offensive line coach Greg Studrawa. Reserves Dawand Jones, Matthew Jones, and Max Wray proved to be more-than-capable fill-ins when Munford, Myers, and Petit-Frere missed the Michigan State matchup due to COVID.

“Sure wish we could’ve seen more from this Buckeyes unit, but it still is typical for what we’ve come to expect from OSU,” wrote the Joe Moore Award Committee. “Look for work. (Davis) is a junkyard dog and could be (the) best guard in the country. He served up a rib sandwich out of the gate on the 1Q INT versus IU. Unit carries and identifies stunts well, stays square and on same level. Run and lift and pads pop in run game with sustained leg drive across the board. Stud [Studrawa] has himself another good one.”

Ohio State’s offensive line paves the way for the No. 4 scoring offense in the country (46.6 points per game) and the No. 6 offense in terms of yardage (532.4 yards per game).

The bruising Buckeye line leads the way for the seventh-best rushing attack in the nation at 251.0 yards per game.

Although Munford, Myers, and Petit-Frere missed Ohio State’s game at Michigan State, the makeshift line with four players starting at different positions guided the offense to a season-high 322 rushing yards in a 52-12 victory.

After the semifinalists and finalists have been selected for the Joe Moore Award, a vote will be held by a voting body of 200-plus members to choose the winner. The voting body includes all of the current offensive line coaches at the Division I/FBS level, as well as former players, coaches, colleagues of Moore, and a few media members.

In addition to reviewing game tape weekly throughout the season, the Joe Moore Award voting committee will later go through each of the finalists’ season-long highlight reels provided by their respective offensive line coaches as well as multiple back-to-back quarters of game film.

The 11 semifinalists include No. 1 Alabama, No. 23 Buffalo, No. 14 BYU, No. 9 Coastal Carolina, No. 18 Iowa, No. 8 Iowa State, Kentucky, No. 17 Louisiana, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Ohio State, and No. 5 Texas A&M (listed alphabetically).

The Joe Moore Award finalists will be named next Monday, Dec. 21. The eventual winner will be recognized in the ensuing weeks during a surprise, on-campus visit to the winning unit’s school (TBD as per the winning school’s schedule). 

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