Carson Hinzman

#75 · OL · 5th-year · Ohio State6′5″ · 301 lb · Hammond, WI · Saint Croix Central

via ohiostatebuckeyes.com ↗

Carson Hinzman is a four-star recruit from Hammond, WI, out of Saint Croix Central (No. 177 in the 2022 class) who has not played in Ohio State's 8 games this season.

Where Hinzman comes from

  • Hammond, WIHometown
  • Saint Croix CentralHigh school
  • About 600 miles from Ohio StadiumDistance
  • Four-star, No. 177 in the 2022 class.Recruiting profile
  • On the Ohio State roster since 2022Roster

Where Hinzman fits

The consensus depth chart of May 27 lists Hinzman at OL, No. 1.

Ohio State lists 20 offensive linemen this season.

Ohio State offensive linemen with a game this season

The team’s line is 34th in the country in passing-downs success rate this season (a team number).

Ohio State is 6-2, No. 11 in the AP poll (week 10). Next: vs Oregon, Sat Nov 7.

Similar players

Same class and position

What’s being said

4 stories in the last 30 days, from 2 outlets.

Oct 11: 1Oct 15: 1Oct 27: 2W 45-16 vs MarylandWW 19-15 at IndianaWL 18-30 at USCLOct 6Nov 4Most in a day: 2
Oct 11: 1Oct 15: 1Oct 27: 2W 45-16 vs MarylandWW 19-15 at IndianaWL 18-30 at USCLOct 6Nov 4Most in a day: 2
Stories per day. W and L: the team’s results.

Indiana Game Trailer: Ryan Day, Carson Hinzman, Matt Patricia and Mickey Marotti Set the Tone for Ohio State’s Top-Five Showdown in Bloomington

Eleven Warriors Oct 15

All 9 stories this season

The story

As of

The discourse around Hinzman has completely flipped, and he lived through both ends of it. In 2023 he started every regular-season game at center, drew heavy fan and media criticism, and then watched Matt Jones slide over to take his spot in the Cotton Bowl while Ryan Day talked publicly about him "having a tough time." He called 2023 a "developmental year," lost the starting job in 2024, and clawed back as a midseason fill-in. Then 2025 happened: 14 starts at center, first-team AFCA All-America honors, All-Big Ten, and a national title with the ball going through his hands every snap.

Read the rest of the story

The interesting wrinkle is why he stayed. Draft evaluators had him pegged as a likely undrafted free agent had he declared, so this fifth year is an explicit bet on himself, and the staff returns him as the "quarterback" of a line that brings back four starters. Beat writers have spent the offseason framing this exact unit as the swing variable, with Land-Grant Holy Land calling Ohio State's line "the difference between a playoff team and a championship team" and asking whether experience finally takes it "from competent to elite." Hinzman is also on the short list for the Rimington Award and landed on Athlon's preseason All-America team.

So the stake is unusually clean for an interior lineman. If the Buckeyes are going to chase another title, the room he runs has to play to a Joe Moore Award ceiling against elite fronts, and the guy who was a benching cautionary tale in 2023 is now the one expected to make it happen, in his last year, with .

The record

A falsifiable call from this player's outlook. Not yet gradeable.

What we said

lift his own draft stock from projected UDFA to drafted in the same season

Graded as: selected in the 2027 NFL Draft.

What happened

Resolves 2027-05-15.

PENDING

Sources

Style of play

Style of play

Play style

Hinzman is the interior-line archetype Ohio State trusts to make the calls: a 6-4, 300-plus pound center with 35 career starts (32 at center) who is valued less for highlight pancakes than for the unglamorous stuff, getting the front into the right protection, holding the pocket's anchor point, and surviving the bull-rush in the A-gaps. The book on him is a player who looked overmatched physically as a young starter in 2023, then added strength, confidence, and processing speed to become a steady, mistake-light pivot by 2025. With no play-by-play tracking available for him, the read is scouting-based: a high-floor, high-football-IQ center whose value shows up in continuity and communication more than in any single rep.