Ohio State Fall Camp Opened With a Record 51 Newcomers

Ohio State opened preseason camp Thursday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center as the consensus best team in the country. That is pleasant right up until somebody counts how many players on the field had never taken a snap for the program. The number is 51. It is a program record, built through the transfer portal, high school recruiting and a handful of walk-ons. Ohio State fall camp doubles as an orientation program.

Ryan Day earned the churn honestly. The Buckeyes went 12-0 overall and 9-0 in the Big Ten, their first unbeaten regular season since 2019. Then they lost the Big Ten Championship Game to Indiana 13-10. Miami beat them 24-14 in a playoff quarterfinal. Those two teams went on to play each other for the national title, which reads as either terrible luck or a fairly direct message.

What Ohio State Fall Camp Has to Replace

The bill came due in January. Eleven Buckeyes went in the 2026 NFL Draft. More than 30 players entered the transfer portal. Between those two doors, Ohio State lost 12 starters, eight of them on defense. Day is replacing eight of the eleven players who lined up first on that side of the ball.

None of them were depth pieces. Safety Caleb Downs went early, along with linebackers Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese and tackle Kayden McDonald. Receiver Carnell Tate and tight end Max Klare took two of the offense’s most reliable targets. Ohio State lost the spine of a 12-0 team.

Day and general manager Mark Pantoni worked every route. The portal produced Florida State safety Earl Little Jr., a second-team All-ACC pick last season. Recruiting delivered five-star freshman Chris Henry Jr., who rotated in for receiver reps on the opening day. Newcomer Devin McCuin took first-team snaps at the Z spot opposite Jeremiah Smith. The new arrivals are being asked to matter immediately. (On3’s survey of coaches, administrators and agents put Ohio State’s roster north of $35 million. A class this size is what that budget makes possible.)

Day saw the scale of it in March. “We have more players this spring than we’ve ever had, so it was great to see some of those guys get out there and see how they respond,” Day said after the spring game. “And typically, what happens when they’re out there for the first time, you see some wild things.” Ohio State has been working this problem since winter.

The freshmen will not ease in. The NCAA replaced the redshirt this summer with a five-year eligibility window. A season on the bench now burns a year instead of preserving one. Day laid that out after the first practice. “Everybody is playing now. The whole redshirt idea doesn’t exist moving forward,” he said. “Everybody in the program should have the idea that they’re fighting for positions, fighting for playing time and want to get on the field.”

Why the Buckeyes Are Still the Pick

Turnover on this scale would flatten most programs. Ohio State absorbs it because the two hardest jobs on the field are filled. Julian Sayin threw for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns against eight interceptions as a redshirt freshman making his first career starts. He completed 77 percent of his passes to lead the country. That is the third-best single-season rate in FBS history. He finished fourth in the Heisman voting. Ohio State is not waiting on a quarterback to arrive.

Jeremiah Smith gives him somewhere to throw it. The unanimous All-American returns to an offense that lost both Tate and Klare. That leaves him as the one receiving threat every opponent already knows it must account for.

The coaching operation changed around Day rather than at the top of it. Arthur Smith takes over the offense. Matt Patricia returns for a second year running the defense. Two former NFL head coaches now work under a head coach who functions closer to a chief executive than a play caller. Day is 82-12 in Columbus, a record that earns the standing to delegate.

None of that settles the running backs. The loudest question of Ohio State fall camp came from Day. “To me, a position group that’s got to have a great preseason is the running back group,” Day said at Big Ten media days. “If we’re going to get to where we need to go, we need a high level of play at that running back position.” Bo Jackson leads the group while working back from offseason surgery. Ohio State has not sorted out who carries the load beside him. The Buckeyes open the year atop a conference that has produced the last three national champions, which our Big Ten preseason power rankings lay out in full.

Ohio State scored 10 points against Indiana in December and 14 against Miami in the quarterfinal. Neither number had much to do with a quarterback completing 77 percent of his throws. Day has never called the old roster the problem. Fifty-one new players is the clearest reading of what he concluded. He has about four weeks to find out whether he read it right.