2024 Season Preview: A By-the-Numbers Look at Ohio State’s Loaded Roster

Ohio State’s roster for the upcoming season ahead is well-stocked with players who were highly touted recruits; 14 five-stars and 54 four-stars, to be exact. Even more importantly, Ohio State’s roster is full of players who have already proven they can play at a high level for the Buckeyes or other power-conference schools as their roster includes 23 players who have played more than 500 snaps at the collegiate level.

To quantify just how stacked Ohio State’s roster is for the upcoming season, we kick off our annual Eleven Warriors Season Preview with a by-the-numbers look at the 2024 Buckeyes. Below, we look at how Ohio State’s roster stacks up in terms of how many five-, four- and three-star recruits it has and how many players it has who have already played extensively at the collegiate level, as well as several other categories like how many players the Buckeyes have at each position and from each state and which high schools produced multiple players on OSU’s current team.

All recruiting ratings referenced come from 247Sports’ composite rankings. Career snap counts were compiled through a combination of Pro Football Focus’ premium statistics and our own charting for Ohio State players. Each player’s home state was determined by their listed hometown on Ohio State’s roster.

14 Five-Stars

Ohio State has four more five-star recruits on its 2024 roster than it did last season, when the Buckeyes had 10 players who were five-star prospects out of high school. Among those 10, the only ones who did not return for the 2024 season are Kyle McCord and Julian Fleming, who transferred to Syracuse and Penn State, respectively.

The Buckeyes added five five-stars from the 2024 recruiting class – Jeremiah Smith, Julian Sayin, Eddrick Houston, Mylan Graham and Aaron Scott Jr. – while it also added a five-star from the 2023 class in Alabama transfer safety Caleb Downs, who more than lived up to his recruiting pedigree by earning national freshman of the year honors a year ago.

With Smith battling Brandon Inniss for a starting spot at wide receiver and Sonny Styles battling C.J. Hicks for a starting spot at Will linebacker, Ohio State is set to have eight five-star recruits in its starting lineup this year as the winners of those competitions – likely Smith and Styles, though Inniss and Hicks are also expected to see regular playing time – will join Downs, JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Emeka Egbuka, Donovan Jackson and TreVeyon Henderson.

54 Four-Stars

The core of Ohio State’s roster is built on its four-and-a-half-dozen four-star recruits, which will make up most of the rest of the Buckeyes’ lineup this season.

Ohio State actually has 10 fewer four-star recruits on its 2024 roster than it did in 2023, but there’s no shortage of quality players within the Buckeyes’ four-star contingent. 

Denzel Burke and Tyleik Williams would certainly be five-stars now if the 2021 recruiting class was re-rated after three years. Jordan Hancock, Davison Igbinosun, Cody Simon and Lathan Ransom have also become crucial players on Ohio State’s defense, while Josh Simmons is entering his second season as the Buckeyes’ starting left tackle. Carnell Tate could quickly prove he should have been a five-star as he becomes a starting wide receiver this season while Jermaine Mathews Jr. has flashed star potential when he’s gotten into games at cornerback.

Nine Three-Stars

The nine five-star prospects on the Buckeyes’ roster are far from filler as five of them are in line to play major roles for Ohio State this season. 

Three of those five – former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard, Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins and Alabama center Seth McLaughlin – transferred to Ohio State after proving to be much better than their three-star recruiting ratings at their previous schools, and all of them are in line to play major roles for the Buckeyes’ offense this season. Josh Fryar enters his second season as Ohio State’s starting right tackle while Ty Hamilton is set to start at nose tackle after developing into a rock-solid player in the defensive trenches.

Sam Williams-Dixon has also flashed plenty of ability in his first offseason as a Buckeye to potentially be an early contributor at running back despite his three-star recruiting ranking.

The only three Ohio State players who started their Buckeye careers as scholarship players that did not receive at least three stars as recruits were tight end Will Kacmarek, who transferred to Ohio State this offseason after starting his career at Ohio; long snapper John Ferlmann, who transferred to OSU last offseason from Arizona State; and punter Nick McLarty, who did not receive a composite recruiting rating as he joined the Buckeyes by way of ProKick Australia.

23 Players with 550+ Snaps Played

If it wanted to, Ohio State could field an entire starting lineup on both offense and defense of players who have already played more than 550 snaps in their collegiate careers.

All 11 of Ohio State’s projected defensive starters have already played at least 600 snaps in their collegiate careers. At least eight of Ohio State’s offensive starters will fit into that category too, with the potential for Carson Hinzman to make it nine if he beats out Tegra Tshabola for the starting right guard job. If that happens, the only two starters who haven’t played much at the collegiate level will be the two wide receivers who join Egbuka in the starting lineup – and Carnell Tate isn’t entirely inexperienced after playing 292 snaps off the bench last season.

There is a drop-off in experience from the Buckeyes’ 23 most experienced players and everyone else, as the 23 Buckeyes who have played 550 or more snaps on offense or defense are also the only 23 players on the roster who have played more than 300 offensive or defensive snaps. But the majority of those 23 players already have multiple years of significant playing time under their belt, giving the Buckeyes an excellent core of veterans they can lean on to lead them in 2024.

20 Transfers

Ohio State’s transfer contingent continues to grow by the year as nearly one-sixth of the Buckeyes’ current roster started their college careers elsewhere. In total, the Buckeyes’ 20 transfers include 11 scholarship players; by comparison, Ohio State had nine scholarship players among 16 total transfers in 2023.

All 20 transfers on the roster have joined the Buckeyes within the last two years, including 11 – seven scholarship transfers and four walk-ons – who joined the team this offseason.

Transfers who are expected to play major roles for Ohio State this season include Downs and Igbinosun, who will both start in the secondary; Howard and McLaughlin, who are looking to lock down the starting quarterback and center jobs; Judkins and Kacmarek, who are expected to see regular playing time at running back and tight end regardless of whether they start; and Ferlmann, the Buckeyes’ top long snapper. Anthony Venneri is also competing to be the Buckeyes’ top punter this season.

Players by Position

Ohio State currently has 122 players on its roster, though two of those players are unavailable to play this season. TC Caffey tore his ACL during summer workouts while Zak Herbstreit remains sidelined after he was diagnosed with a heart condition last summer.

Forty-two of those players walked on with the Buckeyes; Ohio State has awarded scholarships to five of those walk-ons for the 2024 season to get to the 85-man scholarship limit, though it’s declined to confirm which players received those scholarships.

In terms of confirmed scholarship players, Ohio State is slightly thinner than it would like to be at running back (four), wide receiver (nine), linebacker (seven) and safety (seven), but the Buckeyes don’t have a dire lack of numbers at any position. They have rare depth at quarterback with five QBs on scholarship, giving them more high-level signal-callers than nearly every other top team in college football this year.

Players by High School Class

Although there are still plenty of players from the 2019 recruiting class playing college football this year thanks to the extra year of eligibility all players received in 2020, Ohio State doesn’t have any sixth-year seniors on its roster this season. Some of Ohio State’s fifth-year seniors, including scholarship players Josh Fryar, Ty Hamilton and Mitchell Melton, still have their extra year available to return for a sixth year in 2025 should they choose to do so.

The rest of Ohio State’s roster is well-balanced between first-, second-, third- and fourth-year players as the Buckeyes have at least 26 players – including at least 15 scholarship players – in all four of those classes. 

While it’s common for the freshman and sophomore classes to be larger due to early departures via transfer and the NFL draft, Ohio State will have a wealth of veterans to lean on this season with 65 players (39 scholarship recruits) who are in at least their third year of college football, including 39 fourth- or fifth-year seniors (23 of whom were scholarship recruits).

21 States and Four Countries

Ohio State’s roster features a healthy mix of in-state products and talent from not only all over the country but all over the world. Just under half of the Buckeyes’ roster is from the Buckeye State, but Ohio State also has players from 20 other states and three other countries.

Georgia is the second-most-represented state on Ohio State’s 2024 roster after the Buckeyes added four Peach State natives to their roster this offseason: Caleb Downs, Eddrick Houston, Seth McLaughlin and Air Noland. Indiana and Texas are now the third-most-represented states on Ohio State’s roster after the Buckeyes added two Hoosier State products (Mylan Graham and Ian Moore) and three Lone Star State products (James Peoples, Payton Pierce and Morrow Evans) in the 2024 recruiting class.

Freshman offensive lineman Gabe VanSickle and walk-on transfer punter Hadi Jawad are Ohio State’s only current players from Michigan.

The only U.S. state represented on this year’s roster that wasn’t on last year’s roster is Alabama, the home state of Quinshon Judkins. Five states that had players on last year’s roster are no longer represented on this year’s roster: North Carolina (Jaden McKenzie, Evan Pryor and Noah Rogers), Louisiana (Jyaire Brown and Victor Cutler Jr.), Hawaii (Enokk Vimahi), New York (Matt Jones) and Oklahoma (Josh Proctor).

RELATED Ohio State’s Best Players from Every State

Perhaps most interestingly, Ohio State has more international players on its roster than it’s ever had before. The Buckeyes now have two players from Canada (Max LeBlanc and Anthony Venneri) and two punters from Australia (Nick McLarty and Joe McGuire) as well as a defensive tackle from Germany (Hero Kanu).

18 High Schools with Multiple Buckeyes

Pickerington Central stands alone as the most-represented high school on Ohio State’s roster for the second year in a row as the Styles brothers, Ty Hamilton and Max Lomonico all remain with the Buckeyes. Well-known pipeline Glenville and three-time defending Division I state champion St. Edward are among four other Ohio high schools with three players on the roster as the Buckeyes added Glenville’s Bryce West and Damarion Witten and St. Edward’s Deontae and Devontae Armstrong in the 2024 recruiting class.

The 13 other high schools with two players on Ohio State’s 2024 roster include eight high schools from outside Ohio. Those schools include some of the nation’s top high school football programs such as Florida’s Chaminade-Madonna Prep and IMG Academy, which were both ranked among the top five teams in high school football in 2023, and Georgia’s Buford High School, where Houston was one of three five-star seniors last season (along with Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola and Georgia safety KJ Bolden).