Ohio State’s 2025 offensive line could be bookended by a pair of offensive tackles who transferred to Ohio State this offseason.
Ethan Onianwa was Rice’s starting left tackle last season while Phillip Daniels finished last season as Minnesota’s starting right tackle. Now, they’re the frontrunners to start at those positions this year for Ohio State.
Ohio State offensive line coach Tyler Bowen isn’t ready to say yet who any of his starters will be this year, but he’s pleased with what he’s seen from Onianwa and Daniels through their first 10 practices as Buckeyes.
“He's done a great job. Very coachable, working his tail off, I've been impressed with Ethan,” Bowen said of Onianwa. “He obviously is an impressive size guy from size, length, but it's his smarts, it's his work ethic, the way he approaches it every day, that's been the most impressive to me.”
“Phil comes out and works hard every day,” Bowen said of Daniels. “He's a consistent worker, he keeps his head down and goes about it.”
Onianwa, who was described by ESPN’s Tom Luginbill in December as “the best offensive lineman in the portal and it’s not even close,” could have entered this year’s NFL draft but instead decided to use his final year of eligibility to transfer to Ohio State. He made that decision because he felt like he still had more room to grow at the collegiate level.
“I ultimately realized that I wanted to continue to develop and continue to get better, which is why I wanted to find a good school where I could have a good O-line coach that’s going to help and mentor me, and Coach Bowen is it,” Onianwa said Thursday in his first interview session as a Buckeye. “I've already noticed myself getting better and improving at things that were big discrepancies in my game.”
While Onianwa drew interest from a host of premier programs, also including the likes of Florida State, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas A&M among others, he said he was hoping for an opportunity to play at Ohio State as soon as he entered the transfer portal. He was drawn to Ohio State’s team culture, viewing it as similar to that which he was previously a part of at Rice.
“You can just tell that the guys here are competitive, they want to be great, they want to be the best in the country, and they showed that last year,” Onianwa said. “It just really stood out because, I mean, back in my old school, there was like a really good family connection, and I was kind of afraid of like, whether I would find that at another school. But I mean here, like the guys were really close-knit, they’re all pushing each other and trying to be the best.”
Onianwa has already transformed his body since arriving at Ohio State, losing 30 pounds to slim down to 335 pounds. Still possessing plenty of size and strength at 6-foot-6, Onianwa says he feels “a lot better” in terms of his ability to move now that he’s shed the excess weight. And he’s working hard every day to try to become the best version of himself for the Buckeyes this season.
“I try to live by being the hardest-working person on the field,” Onianwa said. “I want to spend the most time watching film, spend the most time after practice getting in extra work.”
“I've already noticed myself getting better and improving at things that were big discrepancies in my game.”– Ethan Onianwa on his first 10 practices at Ohio State
Like Onianwa, Daniels has also worked to improve his body since arriving at Ohio State, slimming down five pounds to 315. While the 6-foot-5 Minnesota transfer initially resisted the request to lose five pounds, he said it’s made a big difference for him, too.
“I started running, they started putting me on the meal plan, they started doing all this, I'm like, ‘Oh, hold on, I see the vision now,’” Daniels said Thursday in his first interview session as a Buckeye. “I definitely transformed my body. My arms are definitely getting bigger. Weight room has been amazing. I'm growing every day. It's hard every day, but I love it, though. I'm getting work after practice, after the weight room; I'm cooked, but I can see the results and see the gains.”
Unlike Onianwa, Daniels didn’t enter the portal with a vision of going to Ohio State. But the Cincinnati native has been a Buckeye fan since he was a kid, so it wasn’t hard for Ohio State to ultimately sway him on donning the scarlet and gray.
“This was always the dream school to go here,” Daniels said. “Some days I wake up and I look down at my shirt, it says Buckeyes; I look around, walk in the facility, fingerprint working and I'm like, ‘I'm really here. It's time to work.’”
Daniels said he was initially wowed by the amount of talent around him in his first few practices as a Buckeye, mentioning Jeremiah Smith, Jelani Thurman and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. as a few players who caught his eye immediately. But he says practicing alongside and against that talent is accelerating his development as he enters his third year of college football.
“My run blocking is like my best thing about me, pretty good. But pass pro, working on that and going against the best pass-rushers in the country every day, I'm just getting better and better,” Daniels said.
“I'm growing every day. It's hard every day, but I love it, though.”– Phillip Daniels on his development at Ohio State this spring
Onianwa looks like the clear frontrunner to start at left tackle this season, replacing the NFL-bound duo of Josh Simmons and Donovan Jackson from last season, though Austin Siereveld has also taken some first-team reps at left tackle this spring while cross-training at both tackle and guard. Daniels, who still has three years of collegiate eligibility, is competing with Ian Moore to start at right tackle, though Daniels has the advantage of starting experience under his belt whereas Moore played just 31 offensive snaps for Ohio State last year as a true freshman.
As of Monday, Ryan Day indicated that Ohio State’s offensive tackles still had a way to go in their development to get to where the Buckeyes need them to be for their Aug. 30 season opener vs. Texas. With Onianwa and Daniels in the fold, though, Day is confident Ohio State has the talent it needs to ultimately get where it needs to be at OT.
“The development of the tackles is still something that's a work in progress,” Day said after Ohio State’s eighth practice of the spring. “I feel like we have what we need there, but there just needs to continue to get more and more reps and feel it. But there's definitely improvement there … we're building more and more depth with Phillip in there and with Ethan and Ian Moore.”
