Ohio State reporters and students got their first opportunity to watch the 2025 Buckeyes scrimmage in 11-on-11 drills this spring as Ohio State held its Student Appreciation Day at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Saturday.
The final hour and 15 minutes of Saturday’s practice was open to media members and Ohio State students, and that entire window of practice consisted of the Buckeyes’ offense and defense going head-to-head in team drills, giving us our first real chance to evaluate the team’s development on both sides of the ball this spring, as the previous windows of practice that were open to the media did not include any scrimmaging.
That gave us our first real opportunity to evaluate Ohio State’s starting quarterback competition in action, and the winner of the day was redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz. While Kienholz and Julian Sayin alternated drives with the first-team offense, Kienholz demonstrated sharper command than his redshirt freshman counterpart and had the best throw of the day when he completed a perfectly placed deep ball to Carnell Tate for a 45-yard touchdown. Sayin, on the other hand, struggled with his accuracy under pressure, which included throwing the scrimmage’s only interception to Jermaine Mathews Jr. on a deep heave into coverage.
Saturday’s Student Appreciation Day was just one practice of 40 the Buckeyes will have before their season opener against Texas, and there’s still plenty of time for Sayin to potentially win Ohio State’s starting quarterback job. After all, Devin Brown outperformed Will Howard during last year’s Student Appreciation Day amid a shaky spring for Howard, yet Howard went on to start every game for the Buckeyes and lead Ohio State to a national championship. But it was apparent on Saturday that Sayin’s development remains a work in progress, though he’ll have another opportunity to build some momentum for himself in scrimmage action at Ohio State’s spring game next Saturday.
The starting quarterback competition does appear to be a two-man race as of now, as true freshman Tavien St. Clair didn’t take any first-team reps on Saturday. That said, the five-star recruit from Bellefontaine’s athleticism and ability to extend plays stood out against the second- and third-team defense as he made multiple impressive throws on the move, including one play on which he evaded a pass-rusher with a spin move before connecting with David Adolph in stride downfield.
Mixing and Matching
Just as with Kienholz and Sayin at quarterback, Ohio State rotated players at virtually every position during Saturday’s scrimmage, giving a wide variety of players the opportunity to take first-team reps on both sides of the ball.
James Peoples and CJ Donaldson split most of the first-team work at running back. Bo Jackson also occasionally mixed in with the first-team offense on a day where he broke off multiple impressive runs.
Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss shared first-team wide receiver reps with Mylan Graham and Bryson Rodgers. Freshman wide receivers Quincy Porter, Phillip Bell and De’zie Jones all worked primarily with the backups, but each of them made multiple catches during the scrimmage, including a diving catch by Porter, who ended the day by becoming the first of this year’s freshmen to lose his black stripe.
A wide variety of tight ends split reps with the first-team offense, including Max Klare, Jelani Thurman and Max LeBlanc, as freshman Nate Roberts saw plenty of work with the second- and third-team units.
Along the offensive line, multiple players saw first-team reps at each spot including Ethan Onianwa and Ian Moore at left tackle; Luke Montgomery and Austin Siereveld at left guard; Carson Hinzman and Joshua Padilla at center; Tegra Tshabola and Siereveld at right guard; and Phillip Daniels, Siereveld and Moore at right tackle.
On the other side of the trenches, first-team defensive end reps were split by Kenyatta Jackson Jr., Caden Curry, C.J. Hicks and Logan George while Zion Grady and Dominic Kirks – who took down Sayin for a sack during red-zone drills – saw extensive work with the backups. Kayden McDonald, Eddrick Houston, Will Smith Jr., Tywone Malone and Jason Moore all split first-team reps at defensive tackle; McDonald stood out among that group as he blew up multiple plays around the line of scrimmage.
With Sonny Styles coming off a season in which he played nearly 900 snaps, Arvell Reese and Payton Pierce took most of the first-team reps at linebacker on Student Appreciation Day, though freshmen TJ Alford and Riley Pettijohn also mixed in with the starters. Pierce was another standout on the day as he broke up multiple passes.
Aaron Scott Jr. and Devin Sanchez each saw extensive work with the first-team defense at cornerback and made the most of it – each of them broke up passes intended for Smith, though Sanchez was on the wrong end of the 45-yard touchdown pass to Tate – in rotation with Mathews and Davison Igbinosun. Lorenzo Styles Jr., Bryce West and Miles Lockhart split reps at nickel cornerback, with Styles coming up with a near-interception on a Kienholz pass intended for Inniss.
Malik Hartford and Jaylen McClain took many of the first-team reps at safety on Saturday as Caleb Downs is taking limited reps this spring due to what Ryan Day described Monday as a “nagging injury.” Faheem Delane and Leroy Roker III took most of the safety reps behind them.
Plenty of Visitors
In addition to media and students, a multitude of former Ohio State players and top recruiting targets were on hand for Student Appreciation Day.
Former Ohio State players in attendance included several of the senior standouts from last season’s national championship team, including Will Howard, Donovan Jackson, Seth McLaughlin, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams and Ty Hamilton. Tuimoloau competed against a pair of students in a challenge where they attempted to throw footballs into a net downfield.
Notable recruits in attendance included Ohio State wide receiver commit Chris Henry Jr., fellow 2026 five-star prospects Bralan Womack and Darius Gray, top targets Jordan Thomas and Favour Akih and highly touted 2028 wide receiver Eric McFarland, among many others.
