Spring practice is a crucial time for college football players who are looking to earn more playing time to prove they’re ready to play bigger roles than they have in previous seasons.
With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of 10 Ohio State veterans who most need to perform well this spring if they’re going to climb the depth chart and play consistent roles for the Buckeyes for the first time.
The following list only includes players who are entering at least their third year with the Buckeyes; while plenty of first- and second-year players will be competing for playing time this spring, too, they’ll have more opportunities to earn bigger roles in future seasons if it doesn’t happen this year. For some of the players listed below, however, whether they can earn roles this season could determine whether they ever play a big role for the Buckeyes.
The list does not include any players who played consistent roles on offense or defense during Ohio State’s national championship run last season. While many of those players still have things they need to improve on in 2025, all of them are already well-positioned to play significant roles this season based on how they helped the Buckeyes win a title in 2024.
All of the following 10 Buckeye veterans have the potential to play bigger roles for Ohio State in 2025 than they have in previous seasons, but that will be contingent on how they perform this offseason, starting Monday when the Buckeyes begin their four-week slate of 15 spring practices.
DE C.J. Hicks
We’ll start with the most obvious player who fits this category. With just one year of collegiate eligibility remaining, 2025 will be Hicks’ final chance to live up to the five-star recruiting rating he brought to Ohio State – and he’ll be trying to do so at a new position as he moves from linebacker to edge rusher.
Hicks and his coaches both believe he can be a dynamic pass-rusher off the edge, and he projects as the top candidate to play a hybrid outside linebacker/standup defensive end role if new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia makes that a part of his defense, which he likely will given his history of utilizing multiple fronts on his NFL defenses.
Playing on the edge full-time will be new to Hicks this spring, however, and defensive line coach Larry Johnson indicated last week that Hicks will have to prove he can stop the run effectively to earn consistent playing time, as Johnson wants his rotational defensive ends to be every-down players and not just situational pass-rushers.
Hicks has the potential to provide some much-needed playmaking ability on the edge as Ohio State replaces last season’s star defensive end tandem of Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau, but he still needs to earn his place in the rotation alongside Kenyatta Jackson Jr., Caden Curry and Logan George. How he develops and performs over the next four weeks will go a long way toward determining how big role Hicks’ role will be this fall.
QB Lincoln Kienholz
While redshirt freshman Julian Sayin has just as much to prove as Kienholz as they compete for Ohio State’s starting quarterback job this spring, it’s Kienholz who finds himself in a now-or-never position. If the redshirt sophomore can’t beat out the one-year-younger Sayin and two-years-younger Tavien St. Clair this spring, he’ll face long odds of ever becoming Ohio State’s full-time starting quarterback.
Kienholz enters the spring with at least a little ground to make up on Sayin, given that Sayin was the No. 3 quarterback while Kienholz was the fourth-string QB on Ohio State’s depth chart last season. Even with an additional year of experience, he’ll need to clearly outperform Sayin this offseason to beat out the five-star second-year for Ohio State’s starting job.
That said, Ohio State quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler said he’s excited by the growth he’s seen from Kienholz entering his third year with the Buckeyes, setting up what Fessler expects to “be a really good competition” between Kienholz and Sayin.
“I think really, when you've been in an offense for two years already and you're going into that third year, you've got a really good feel of the scheme. You've got a better feel of college defenses and where our schemes are susceptible and where the issues lie, and what we're trying to attack. And so I think that's something that over time, I can feel Lincoln getting a better and better feel for it,” Fessler said. “Lincoln has definitely stepped up from a leadership perspective, and you can see the way that he attacks workouts, and this winter is so big for all three of them, just really to set the standard and to understand the intangibles that playing quarterback is all about, right? Because there's so much more than just picking up a football and throwing it when it comes to succeeding on Saturdays. So I've seen that growth in Lincoln, and that's really exciting.”
CB Lorenzo Styles Jr.
Styles enters the spring as a projected starter at nickel cornerback after seeing occasional playing time with the first-team defense in dime packages last season, but he still has plenty to prove this spring if he’s going to ultimately secure a starting job in his final season of college football.
While he was solid in limited action last season, recording 16 tackles and four pass breakups while giving up just nine catches for 79 yards on 18 targets against his coverage (per Pro Football Focus), he has to demonstrate he can be consistently trusted in coverage on an every-down basis. If Styles doesn’t prove he’s one of Ohio State’s 11 best defenders, the Buckeyes have other options for replacing Jordan Hancock, such as moving Jermaine Mathews Jr. inside (especially if Devin Sanchez proves ready to play immediately on the outside) or using more three-safety packages.
Ohio State would ideally like to have another nickelback like Hancock who can play both cornerback and safety in different personnel alignments, and Styles looks like the likeliest candidate to potentially play that role. But he still has to prove he’s ready for that responsibility.
“We’ve got to see how he does on it. We're excited about it, has a big upside as well, but we have to see it play because Jordan played a lot of snaps the past several years. So Lorenzo, we got to see, because he doesn't have as much experience with that,” Ohio State secondary coach Tim Walton said last week. “But really works hard, really sharp, detailed, puts in the time. This will be a good spring for him also to see in a new role how that has applied and how he handles those things and the versatility that he can do with us.”
Lorenzo Styles Jr. enters his final spring as a college football player looking to earn Ohio State’s starting nickel job.
S Malik Hartford
Another Buckeye competing to be a new starter in Ohio State’s secondary this season, Hartford could theoretically be competing with both Styles and Jaylen McClain for playing time this season. With Caleb Downs locked into the starting free safety job that Hartford would otherwise be a candidate for, Hartford will be battling McClain for Ohio State’s starting strong safety job but could also see plenty of playing time in three-safety packages even if OSU turns to McClain to replace Lathan Ransom.
Hartford flashed promising potential when he made two starts at free safety as a true freshman in 2023, but his trajectory was slowed a bit last year when he missed spring practices due to shoulder surgery. This spring, however, the rangy 6-foot-3 safety should see plenty of reps with the first-team defense, especially since Ohio State is likely to limit Downs’ reps this spring after he played 910 snaps last season.
The departures of Ransom and Hancock open the door for Hartford to earn much more playing time as a junior than he did as a sophomore, but he’ll face plenty of competition this offseason from younger safeties like McClain, true freshman Faheem Delane and redshirt freshman Leroy Roker III. That said, it sounds like Hartford will enter spring on the right track toward earning a role in Ohio State’s 2025 defense.
“I've seen a big jump from Malik. You're gonna see a different kind of guy when he takes the field this spring,” Ohio State safeties coach Matt Guerrieri said. “It’s all mentality. It's all mentality. So physically, it's why you saw the flashes of him as a true freshman, and he's always had that piece right there. But the mentality, the toughness, the grit that he has, that's showing up big-time right now. So I’ve got big expectations for him.”
DTs Jason Moore, Will Smith Jr. and Tywone Malone
How these three defensive tackles perform this spring could determine how aggressively Ohio State looks for another defensive tackle during the post-spring transfer portal window.
While Eddrick Houston and Kayden McDonald look like the frontrunners to start at DT this year, the depth chart behind them is wide open, giving all of Malone, Moore and Smith opportunities to carve out roles in the defensive line rotation. Moore and Malone will likely compete to be Ohio State’s second 3-technique behind Houston while Smith might be the top candidate to be OSU’s No. 2 nose tackle behind McDonald.
They’ll need to prove this spring that they’re up to the task, however, as none of them have played regularly in their first two years at Ohio State. Malone started one September game against Marshall in place of an injured Tyleik Williams last season, but his role faded from there; Moore saw some action in OSU’s DT rotation in the first half of last season but appeared in just two of the Buckeyes’ final eight games, while Smith has yet to play more than seven snaps in any game.
Malone will have particular urgency to earn a role this year, as he’s in his final year of eligibility after transferring from Ole Miss, but the clock will also be ticking on Moore and Smith’s chances to establish themselves in Ohio State’s defensive line rotation if they don’t do so this year. That makes this spring an important one for all three of them to prove they’re Ohio State-caliber defensive tackles, and it’s important for the Buckeyes that at least a couple of them step up to help Houston and McDonald replace Williams and Ty Hamilton.
TE Jelani Thurman
Thurman has been hyped up as a potential breakout weapon at tight end entering each of his first two seasons at Ohio State, but that hasn’t materialized yet as he’s caught just six passes for 60 yards and one touchdown in two years. Ohio State has typically relied heavily on upperclassmen at tight end in recent years, though, making the third year a frequent breakout year for Buckeye TEs.
The problem for Thurman entering his third year at Ohio State is that his path to climb the depth chart might still be blocked, as the Buckeyes added Purdue transfer Max Klare to lead a depth chart that also returns Will Kacmarek and Bennett Christian as their top blocking tight ends from last season. With Klare’s proven playmaking ability as a receiver, having caught 51 passes for 685 yards and four touchdowns in 2024, there’s no obvious role for Thurman to step into.
But Thurman still has too much upside as an athletic 6-foot-6, 258-pound tight end to overlook him as someone who could make an impact for the Buckeyes’ offense. Ohio State tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator Keenan Bailey has said the Buckeyes will look to create roles for every tight end who earns one, and he said Thurman is taking the right steps so far this offseason toward proving he belongs on the field.
“Him in the weight room with Coach Mick this offseason is like nothing I've seen yet, so I'm super encouraged and I cannot wait to watch it translate to the football field,” Thurman said.
WR Bryson Rodgers
Rodgers has done enough in practice in his first two years at Ohio State to keep his name in the conversation in a loaded wide receiver room, but that’s only led to occasional playing time so far and five catches for 46 yards in 2024. While he’ll have a chance to earn a bigger role in OSU’s receiver rotation in 2025, the competition isn’t any easier than it’s been.
Rodgers will look to push fellow third-year receiver Brandon Inniss for Ohio State’s starting slot receiver job this season, but Inniss is the frontrunner for that job. With Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate locking down two starting jobs, Rodgers will also face competition for position on the depth chart from five-star redshirt freshman Mylan Graham as well as a quartet of true freshmen who enrolled in January, led by another five-star prospect in Quincy Porter.
For Rodgers to position himself to earn regular playing time this year or next year in a receiver room that’s going to remain stocked with elite talent as long as Brian Hartline is coaching OSU’s wideouts, he needs to prove this offseason that he’s good enough to take some snaps away from the highly touted playmakers around him.
“Take the next step and be everything he's capable of being,” Hartline said of what Rodgers needs to do to earn more playing time this year. “I think the guys that are out there are very consistent in all job phases. I think he wants to be a full-rounded receiver … it's a very competitive room, and you chose that because of this room, now you've got to beat your peer to play more and do more and all that stuff. So I think that he's got to continue to build where he's at.”
DE Joshua Mickens
We started this article with one edge defender who’s looking to earn regular playing time on defense for the first time in his Ohio State career, and we’ll end it with another.
Mickens didn’t arrive at Ohio State with the same fanfare as Hicks and this isn’t quite a now-or-never spring for Mickens, as he’s a redshirt sophomore who still has three years of eligibility. Like Hicks, though, Mickens possesses a skill set to play as a standup edge rusher that could be utilized more by Ohio State this season.
He’ll have to beat someone out if he’s going to earn a spot on a defensive end two-deep that’s expected to feature Jackson, Curry, Hicks and George. If he can at least earn some playing time in the rotation, though, he could set himself up to be one of Ohio State’s top players on the edge next year with Curry and Hicks entering their final year of eligibility. Most of all, Mickens needs to keep himself in front of younger players like redshirt freshman Dominic Kirks and true freshmen Zion Grady and Epi Sitanilei if he’s going to have a chance to play a bigger role for the Buckeyes going forward.
“I think as we move forward, I think he has to factor in,” Johnson said of Mickens.
