Ohio State has been more active in the transfer portal this offseason than ever before.
Since the end of the regular season, Ohio State has added five scholarship players to its roster via the transfer portal: Former Oregon State quarterback Tristan Gebbia, Louisiana-Monroe offensive lineman Victor Cutler, Syracuse safety Ja’Had Carter, Ole Miss cornerback Davison Igbinosun and Arizona State long snapper John Ferlmann.
Before this year, Ryan Day’s Buckeyes had never added more than three scholarship transfers in a single season. Ohio State has added as many scholarship transfers (along with one walk-on transfer, former Kent State kicker Casey Magyar) for the 2023 season as it did over the past two years combined. And the Buckeyes may not yet be done adding transfers this year.
Is that an indication Ohio State is getting more aggressive in the transfer portal than it’s been in the past, or did the Buckeyes simply have more needs to fill through the portal this year? Day said it’s a combination of both.
“We wanted to fill some holes with some more experienced guys,” Day said last week. “When you have a need, like for instance at safety, where you need to have some guys step in; the offensive line, because you lose a guy because he leaves early; you want to maybe fill that in with a more experienced guy. When that fits, you do it. And that's what we've done.”
| Year | Number | Players |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 3 | Justin Fields, Jonah Jackson, Gunnar Hoak |
| 2020 | 1 | Trey Sermon |
| 2021 | 2 | Noah Ruggles, Palaie Gaoteote IV |
| 2022 | 3 | Tanner McCalister, Chip Trayanum, Parker Lewis |
| 2023 | 5 | John Ferlmann, Ja’Had Carter, Victor Cutler, Tristan Gebbia, Davison Igbinosun |
As transfers have become increasingly commonplace since Day became Ohio State’s head coach in 2019, Day’s messaging regarding transfers has been consistent: The Buckeyes only want to add transfers at positions where they have needs to fill, and they only want to add players who they’re confident will be good fits for their established team culture.
Day says that applies to all five transfers Ohio State has added this year.
The Buckeyes lost six defensive backs from last season either to the NFL draft (Ronnie Hickman, Cameron Brown, Tanner McCalister) or to outgoing transfers (Jantzen Dunn, JK Johnson, Jaylen Johnson), so they brought in Carter and Igbinosun to compete for vacant starting spots and bolster their secondary depth.
Luke Wypler’s early departure opened a hole at center, so Ohio State added Cutler to compete for the starting job there. Bradley Robinson exhausting his eligibility left the Buckeyes without a scholarship long snapper, so they brought in Ferlmann to replace him. Gebbia provides insurance in the quarterback room as he brings the Buckeyes back to Day’s desired number of four scholarship quarterbacks.
Even though Ohio State has added more transfers this year than in previous offseasons, Day says his general philosophy on the portal hasn’t changed.
“I think there's been times where there's been prospects available in the portal that we didn't feel it was appropriate just to bring in another guy,” Day said. “What we've done is we filled holes. When you look at Justin (Fields) and Trey (Sermon) and Jonah (Jackson) and Noah Ruggles, these have been situations where we've had a hole and we've addressed that issue. My concern is that when you start bringing in too many guys just to bring new guys in from different programs, that culture in that locker room can start to get affected.
“And I'm very sensitive to that. I'm sensitive of the guys that we have that have put a lot of work into the program. Our offseason program is the backbone of our program, and so just to start throwing guys in like that, I think that's a little risky for us. Everybody does their business differently, but I want to make sure that we keep that solid.”
It’s no coincidence, though, that Ohio State has added more transfers this offseason while simultaneously signing only 20 high school players, its smallest class since 2019, in the recruiting class of 2023. While Ohio State is still prioritizing high school recruiting over transfer recruiting, and Day acknowledged the Buckeyes missed out on some other high school recruits they wanted, both he and general manager Mark Pantoni indicated Ohio State made a conscious decision to add a transfer rather than another high school recruit at some positions of need.
“We signed 20 guys. The number may not be as high but I think that's mostly because we had a lot of guys return back, whether it was Cade Stover, Xavier Johnson, Tommy Eichenberg,” Pantoni said. “So those are like recruiting wins for us when we can get those caliber of players back. And so that's why we're on the lesser side overall. And then with the mindset of, hey, we know we're gonna have to take a couple portal guys to just get some experience and you know, veteran guys who've kind of played some ball as well.”
Ohio State could still add more transfers after spring practice when the second transfer window opens in April. The Buckeyes have added at least one post-spring transfer in every year of Day’s tenure – Parker Lewis last year, Noah Ruggles and Palaie Gaoteote in 2021, Trey Sermon in 2020 and Gunnar Hoak in 2019 – and he didn’t shut the door on the possibility of doing so again when asked last week.
Specifically, Ohio State could make another effort to land one or even two transfer offensive tackles after missing out on several targets during the first transfer window. Day and offensive line coach Justin Frye said they will determine whether that’s still a need after spring practices based on how their current offensive tackles perform this spring, but the Buckeyes have reason to continue looking for veteran help at that position after losing both Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones to the NFL draft.
At a minimum, Ohio State will vet the possibility of adding anyone who enters the portal in the second window who could provide an upgrade to the Buckeyes at OT or any other position of need. Ohio State has a full-time staffer, former NFL scout Billy Homer, whose primary responsibility as college scouting coordinator is to evaluate players in the portal. And Pantoni says the Buckeyes aren’t going to avoid bringing in transfers solely because they’re afraid of losing players who are already on the roster.
But while the Buckeyes are showing a willingness to add more transfers than they have in previous years, Pantoni says they will continue to be selective about who they bring in.
“We do want competition,” Pantoni said. “But we do want to make sure it's going to be an upgrade. We don't want to just bring guys in to bring guys in. The worst thing you can do is bring in a guy and they expect to start and that doesn't happen, because that can ruin a locker room as well. So the guys we've brought in in the past have been home runs, and hopefully, we continue to hit on those.”
