The Ohio State football program is done with changes as they head into the Spring. They have their roster set and they now have all of their coaching staff set. After a flurry of moves yesterday, everything is finally stable for the Buckeyes. Now that all the movement and change are done, it’s time to assess what how good these moves were.
Change isn’t always good, but some of it was needed for the Buckeyes. Fans have reacted with positive things to say about the change so far and that should continue in the Spring. There are three main areas of offseason moves Ohio State made; recruiting, the transfer portal, and coaching changes. We will grade them all now.
Ohio State football recruiting grade: B+
The 2024 recruiting class is solid. They have the best overall player in the country in Jeremiah Smith, adding another stud to the receiver room. They also have another five-star receiver coming in with Mylan Graham getting on campus in the Summer. The rest of the class has solid players, but they don’t quite have enough depth on the offensive line.
Landing Eddrick Houston was big for the defensive tackle position, but defensive line depth is a concern after next season. A lot of Buckeye defensive linemen leave after 2024, putting the depth into question. This recruiting class did a decent, but not great, job with that. Still, a top-five class is very solid.
Ohio State football transfer portal grade: A+
It’s hard for the Buckeyes to have done any better in the transfer portal. They got a slight upgrade at the quarterback position, a stud running back, one of the best safeties in the country, a great offensive lineman, and a potential starting tight end. That’s all in the span of a couple of weeks after the season too.
NIL money definitely helped the Buckeyes land some of these great players, and that’s perfectly fine. I know Ryan Day is doing whatever is necessary to win next season because it could be his last. I can’t criticize his effort in the portal. Maybe they could have gotten one of the other portal quarterbacks, but Will Howard should do just fine.
Ohio State football coaching changes: A
One of the reasons Howard will do fine is because Day brought in Chip Kelly right after Bill O’Brien left for Boston College. Kelly is an upgrade at the offensive coordinator position and will put Howard in spots to succeed. The running game should also be much better under Kelly’s direction.
Day also finally got rid of Parker Fleming as the special teams coordinator which opened up room for James Laurinaitis to be a full-time linebackers coach. The one other coaching change I would’ve liked to have seen is Justin Frye getting fired, but perhaps Kelly can make him coach the offensive line better.
It’s hard for Ohio State to have much more momentum heading into the offseason. It’s great to see as they head into a crucial year with a new playoff format.
