The aura surrounding Ohio State’s roster is much different entering 2025 spring practice than it was entering spring of 2024.
With a swath of starters returning and clear transfer replacements at key positions like center Seth McLaughlin and safety Caleb Downs, last offseason was more about tracking the Buckeyes’ chase for a championship during an all-in push. This year, most of those starters are gone following a national title run, and the Buckeyes are trying to reload at numerous positions.
Those inexperienced players fighting to win spots will get extra reps in spring practice as Ryan Day intends to limit reps for veterans like Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, Carson Hinzman and Davison Igbinosun.
“We know with 16 games what can happen is, you can play a 16-game season. If you really just jump right in and have a normal spring practice, then you come back and play another 16-game season, that's a lot of football in one year,” Day said on March 7. “And we have to be smart on that. So that's our approach to it. I think when you look at our biggest concerns, it's replacing the guys that walked out the door.”
As the Buckeyes’ first spring practice awaits on Monday, we’re looking at the biggest position battles Ohio State has to settle to replace those guys who walked out the door.
Quarterback
The most important position in the sport will always lead off an article like this when it’s up for grabs.
Redshirt freshman Julian Sayin, redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz and incoming freshman Tavien St. Clair will each make their bid to be Ohio State’s starting quarterback in 2025. The Buckeyes have tended to wait until preseason camp to decide on a new starting signal-caller under Day, as they did last year in the competition between Will Howard and Devin Brown or in 2023 when Kyle McCord beat out Brown.
Sayin might enter as the frontrunner, the No. 1 composite quarterback prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, but nothing will be handed to him based on that pedigree. Kienholz is a dynamic athlete who was named the USA TODAY High School Boys Athlete of the Year in his senior year of high school. He was an All-State athlete in three sports at T.F. Riggs High School in South Dakota.
Then there’s St. Clair, an in-state product who arrives as a five-star prospect to Columbus. Newly promoted quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler will be breaking him in while trying to build up Sayin and Kienholz and make progress toward a final decision between the three of them this spring.
“We're going to let those guys compete, and we're going to let those guys go have equal opportunities,” Fessler said. “We are really far away from the start of fall camp and getting into the season. So more than anything, I'm just excited to watch them compete. I'm excited to watch them grow.”
The weapons surrounding Ohio State’s quarterback are known commodities, with Brandon Inniss set to step up as No. 3 receiver alongside Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, Max Klare providing a receiving threat at tight end and James Peoples set to run in tandem with CJ Donaldson at running back.
Offensive Guard and Right Tackle
Ohio State lost four of its original starters from its 2024 offensive line but still somehow returns four players with multiple College Football Playoff starts.
Tegra Tshabola, Luke Montgomery and Austin Siereveld each made at least two starts at guard during the Buckeyes’ four-game national title run, while center Carson Hinzman started the final nine games of Ohio State’s campaign. Of the quartet, the only one who seems locked in for a job in 2025 is Hinzman, however.
Montgomery, a junior, is the presumptive favorite to start at left guard after his rise through the CFP. Getting his first extended playing time of the year, he rotated at left guard with Siereveld, who also rolled at right guard with Tshabola throughout the CFP. But Montgomery overtook the duo to start at left guard and play the entirety of the Cotton Bowl and CFP national championship game.
I’ve already shown this clip in multiple stories, but I’m running it back once again:
Luke Montgomery HOLY COW pic.twitter.com/xS86qYc4O9
— Anand Nanduri (@NanduriNFL) December 22, 2024
There’s still work to do for Montgomery to lock down his job, but there’s a good chance the redshirt sophomore Siereveld and redshirt junior Tshabola end up battling it out to start opposite Montgomery at right guard. One fringe possibility is that redshirt sophomore Joshua Padilla makes a push to start at center as part of the team’s best five while Hinzman moves over to a guard spot.
With Ethan Onianwa brought in from Rice to start at left tackle for Ohio State, right tackle will be a bout between Minnesota transfer Phillip Daniels and redshirt freshman Ian Moore. Daniels enters as the frontrunner but started only four games for the Golden Gophers. He’ll have to prove he’s up to Ohio State standards this spring as Moore, a composite top-200 prospect, nips at his heels.
New offensive line coach Tyler Bowen will have five months to determine his best starting five up front.
Defensive End and Three-Technique Defensive Tackle
Ohio State is replacing all four of its defensive line starters, and while there’s a favorite at each position, there are contenders for starting or rotational roles on both the edges and the interior.
Defensive line coach Larry Johnson has been calling for redshirt junior defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. to step up as leader of the position room, and it appears likely he will anchor the team’s efforts off the edge. He and senior Caden Curry have appeared to be next in line the past three seasons playing behind JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, but a challenger has charged into the fray after a position change.
Spring Position Previews
C.J. Hicks, an in-state five-star prospect from the recruiting class of 2022, has slid down from linebacker to an edge rushing role as he tries to make an impact in his final season. Hicks, the experts and coaches – both Johnson and linebackers coach James Laurinaitis said it in so many words on March 7 – all will tell you the switch is best for his skillset.
Johnson also expressed an openness to deviate from a defensive front with four down linemen to three guys with a hand in the dirt and a fourth standup edge rusher. New defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has plenty of experience with such schemes.
“C.J.'s with me right now trying to learn how to play the position, and I want him to learn how to play the position as a defensive end standup and not as a linebacker,” Johnson said. “I think that's the transition he's mentally got to go through. He's done an outstanding job thus far. He's bought into what we're doing, and I think that's the key when a guy buys in is like, ‘This is what I want to do.’
“And he has a really good skill set, so we can use him in a lot of ways, but we don't want to use him just third down, right? We want to use him first and second down. So my job is to get him ready to play the run from on the line of scrimmage as opposed to being in space. That's different, and once we accomplish that as we go, then I think he'll have a chance to give us some great depth and really do some good things for us. I'm excited about him, because he's really excited about the position change.”
Kayden McDonald enters his redshirt sophomore year as the heir apparent to Ty Hamilton at nose guard, possessing the scarce combination of a 325-pound frame and quick first step. He made several key plays in goal-line situations last year, playing either head-up on the opposing center or offset on his shoulder.
Eddrick Houston slid over from defensive end and overtook the group of veterans in front of him to be Tyleik Williams’ backup at three-technique defensive tackle as a freshman in 2024. This is a battle that could be settled by the end of spring with the five-star prospect sticking at the spot full-time in 2025, but redshirt sophomore Jason Moore and redshirt senior Tywone Malone Jr. will both be hungry to make impacts as they enter the later stages of their careers.
Nickel
Of all the veterans that have waited for their shot behind last year’s senior class, 2025 might be the most now-or-never proposition for redshirt senior Lorenzo Styles Jr.
His transfer from Notre Dame to Ohio State in 2023 came with a position change from wide receiver to cornerback. Entering his third season as a defensive back, he’ll be the first man evaluated to replace Jordan Hancock at nickel. Styles played 161 snaps in 2024, the fifth-most of the Buckeyes’ cornerbacks, getting most of his meaningful reps as a sixth DB in OSU’s dime package. He collected 16 tackles and four pass breakups.
Now, he’ll attempt to take one final step in his progression and hold off challengers from two position groups for a starting job and reps at nickel. Junior Jermaine Mathews Jr. is a near-guarantee to be part of Ohio State’s starting secondary after he was a major bench contributor in 2023 and 2024, but the question is whether he’ll take over at nickel to make room for sophomore Aaron Scott Jr. or incoming freshman Devin Sanchez on the outside.
Scott passed second-year corner Calvin Simpson-Hunt on the depth chart last season, prompting his transfer to Baylor, while Sanchez could be too good to keep off the field in year one given his freakish athleticism and polish playing in the highest classification of Texas high school football.
Whether it’s Styles or Mathews or someone else in the slot, they’re likely to have some safety responsibilities as Hancock did in the second half of last season. It’s what opened up Downs to play his best role, 10-12 yards off the line of scrimmage in the middle of the field. And Patricia wants to design his defense around Downs this year.
“Lorenzo Styles has done a bunch of awesome things at that position,” safeties coach Matt Guerrieri said. “When you look at Jermaine Matthews and what he's been able to do playing on the outside but also the toughness he brings in the slot from that position. So there's a number of guys that have those traits, and it's a unique guy to be able to do that because you're not just a corner. You're not just a safety. You’re kind of like a linebacker sometimes, too, you know? So that interchangeable piece has been really important.”
Given some of those requested safety tools, it’s also possible an athlete from the safety room gets in contention at nickel. Sophomore Jaylen McClain has a great skill set for the spot. Speaking of him:
Strong Safety
McClain and junior Malik Hartford will battle this season to see who starts at strong safety alongside Downs, replacing Lathan Ransom.
After recording an interception in Ohio State’s spring game, McClain made waves as a freshman in preseason camp and saw the third-most snaps among Buckeye safeties (106), scooping up 15 tackles, a tackle for loss and a PBU. His game is more in the mold of a strong safety than Hartford’s, with a natural downhill playing style reminiscent of Ransom’s.
But Hartford has been building for this opportunity since his freshman year. He saw his share of meaningful snaps off Ohio State’s bench in 2023, grabbing 10 tackles and two PBUs before posting eight tackles and one PBU in 2024. Hartford and McClain could see playing time together, too, whether that’s because one of them gets involved at nickel or through Patricia’s subpackaging.
Incoming freshman Faheem Delane, the No. 5 composite safety in the recruiting class of 2025, also can’t be written off for early playing time and fits the mold of a strong safety.
