JK Johnson’s Ohio State career is over after two years.
Three days after his redshirt freshman year at Ohio State concluded in the Peach Bowl, Johnson entered the transfer portal on Tuesday.
After playing in just one game as a true freshman before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, Johnson played the second-most snaps of any Ohio State cornerback this season, starting five games at cornerback as Denzel Burke and Cameron Brown battled injuries. He was the No. 3 cornerback on the depth chart behind Burke and Brown for most of the season, but did not play any defensive snaps in the season finale against Georgia.
A four-star recruit ranked as the No. 3 cornerback and No. 50 overall prospect in the 2021 class, Johnson likely would have competed with Jordan Hancock and Jyaire Brown for a starting job opposite Burke next season had he stayed at Ohio State. Instead, he’ll look to continue his college football career elsewhere.
His departure leaves Ohio State with six scholarship cornerbacks for 2023 – Burke, Hancock, Jyaire Brown, redshirt freshman Ryan Turner and true freshmen Calvin Simpson-Hunt and Jermaine Mathews – which gives the Buckeyes reason to explore transfer portal options for additional depth and starting competition. Ohio State had been in contact with former Virginia cornerback Fentrell Cypress, one of the top cornerbacks in the transfer portal this year, but he announced a commitment to Florida State over the weekend.
Johnson becomes Ohio State’s fifth scholarship player to enter the transfer portal since the end of the regular season, joining fifth-year senior defenders Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Teradja Mitchell and fellow second-year defensive backs Jantzen Dunn and Jaylen Johnson.
