Ohio State adds Mike Sollenne, SEC experience in offensive support role
COLUMBUS — The staff restructuring is nearly complete at Ohio State, and it now includes some high-profile SEC experience to help on the offensive line.
Mike Sollenne, a former graduate assistant at Florida who earned an in-season promotion to lead the offensive line, will join the Buckeyes in a support role alongside newly-hired position coach Justin Frye. Lettermen Row sources confirmed the addition, and Sollenne has already publicly updated his social-media bio to reflect the move.
The Buckeyes were the highest-scoring offense in the country last season, and the blockers up front were obviously key cogs in that success. But Ohio State also occasionally got bogged down in the rushing attack, dealt with some red-zone and short-yardage breakdowns and overall didn’t quite meet the program standard despite having one of the most talented lineups in the nation.
That all came to a head in the upset loss at rival Michigan to close the regular season, and it ultimately led to the firing of offensive line coach Greg Studrawa. Now the Buckeyes have the veteran Frye in place to work with a graduate assistant considered to be a rising star in the profession in Sollenne.
“When you work this game 365 days out of the year and you come up short, it’s a failure and it hurts,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said in November. “It hurts a lot. You know, I think we didn’t run the ball very well on offense and we hurt ourselves with penalties.
” … I’ve got to get on the film and figure out why that was on our side of the ball.”
That process is well underway for the Buckeyes at this point, even if spring camp is still more than a month away.
The addition of Justin Frye sent a clear message about how seriously Ohio State is taking the challenge ahead of it on the offensive line heading into next season.
And bringing in another reinforcement in Mike Sollenne with a taste of full-time experience at the SEC level is another aggressive move by Day and the Buckeyes as the staff shuffling winds down.
