Bray Lynch Has Adjusted to Playing Center as the Indiana Offensive Line Continues to Gel

Bray Lynch has been a Hoosier for five seasons now. Coming into this season, he had 29 starts in a row at the right guard position. With the departure of Pat Coogan, Lynch stepped into a new role this year as Indiana’s center.

He now has eight starts at center under his belt, as the Indiana offensive line continues to improve each week.

Obviously, the largest change from guard to center is that Lynch now has to snap the ball. But looking past that, he also has to take a step up in his efforts as a communicator.

“As an O lineman, you’re always communicating no matter what position you’re at,” Lynch said. “But at center, you got to be much louder so that everyone can hear you, even the backside tight end”.

Lynch has now successfully been the team’s center as they went into tough road environments such as Nebraska and this past week in Michigan. Lynch being a vocal leader was vital to Indiana’s success in those games.

Lynch has been with this program for five years now, so he naturally has taken a leadership role, but this season, being the team’s center, he has had to increase his presence in the locker room.

“I definitely had to work on it,” Lynch said. “Just being more vocal with all the guys, especially newer guys that I might not know as well”.

This leadership role that he has stepped into is something that it seems like Lynch has been preparing himself for his whole life. He has always been around sports, and with that, has never shied away from being vocal.

“Even as a young kid, I always enjoyed sports,” Lynch said. “I wasn’t afraid to speak up in certain situations, so I feel like that has certainly helped. It’s not necessarily coming easy, but all the sports and moments in my life leading up to this year playing center have definitely helped”.

His life has set him up to excel in this new role, and Indiana football needs it. The running game has been a point of emphasis as it slowed down the past few weeks, but last week in Michigan, it was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak offensive performance. The offensive line appears to be consistently improving every week. Lynch was asked about this steady improvement.

“I think tempo,” Lynch said. “Being up pace and getting upset fast as we can and really eliminating the mistakes, eliminating the clutter, to play full speed out there and be fully decisive on the field”.

The offensive line has gotten better at eliminating mistakes in the pace of a football game. They just feel more comfortable out on the field than they did earlier in the year, and on the film, this is clear.

Next week Indiana takes on Minnesota, who has been great at limiting the passing game this year.

“I know as an O-line, we’re focused on protecting Hoover (Josh Hoover) and then running the football,” Lynch said.

The offense has struggled these past few weeks, but against Minnesota, Lynch knows what his unit has to do. The message is clear within the offensive line room: protect your quarterback, and then help the running backs have holes to run through. As the center and vocal leader, Lynch will need to help set the tone for the Hoosiers this Saturday at 3 p.m. when they take on the Golden Gophers.