Ohio State cannot afford another bargain bin transfer portal class

In its quest to repeat as national champions, Ohio State added 11 players via the transfer portal prior to the 2025 season. Of that group, only three made any sort of impact on the field for the Buckeyes, and two (so far) are now back in the transfer portal again.

Really only two of last year’s additions can be considered any sort of a success, those being tight end Max Klare and offensive lineman Phillip Daniels.

Klare finished the season as Ohio State’s third-leading receiver, totaling 448 yards on 43 receptions with a pair of touchdowns. The Purdue transfer’s numbers suffered a bit as a result of quarterback Julian Sayin’s struggles seeing the middle of the field down the stretch, as Klare should’ve had an early game-tying touchdown against Miami — among the many other times the talented pass-catching tight end was open but not targeted.

Daniels was brought in as a depth piece along the offensive line with the hopes that he would develop into a starting-caliber player down the road, but was forced into the starting right tackle role in year one in Columbus. Daniels performed admirably given the situation, lacking from a consistency standpoint but ultimately holding his own when not matched up against the Rueben Bain Jr.’s of the world.

The aforementioned third player to make any bit of impact of this Buckeyes’ transfer class is C.J. Donaldson, who began the year as Ohio State’s starting running back but lost the job to true freshman Bo Jackson. Donaldson was brought in to be a power back, but after the ever-brilliant OSU strength and conditioning staff had him drop 20 pounds during the offseason, his biggest strength (quite literally) was negated.

The rest of the 2025 transfer class for Ohio State was nothing short of a disaster.

Chief among that group was Ethan Onianwa, who came to Columbus as one of the top transfer tackles in the country but was immediately one of the worst offensive linemen on the roster. A complete miss from a player evaluation standpoint, the Buckeyes attempted moving Onianwa to guard before giving up on him entirely, finishing the year having played less than 100 total snaps.

Onianwa was far from the only whiff for Mark Pantoni and the Ohio State player evaluation staff.

Beau Atkinson was another huge miss. Coming over from UNC having posted 7.5 sacks for the Tar Heels in 2024, Atkinson looked completely overmatched on the field for the Buckeyes. Playing a little more than 200 total snaps on the season, the edge rusher finished the year as the second-worst graded defensive player on the roster, per PFF, with his lone sack coming in garbage time against Ohio.

Ohio State also brought in Jackson Courville at kicker, but never actually let him attempt a single field goal in a real game.

The Buckeyes instead trotted out Jayden Fielding, who having not once in his career shown he was capable of making important kicks, proceeded to help lose them the Big Ten title game against Indiana with a 27-yard shank.

Courville, meanwhile, has never in his career missed a field goal under 30 yards, and he is now back in the transfer portal.

There were a handful of other lower-tier additions, including offensive lineman Justin Terry from West Virginia and quarterback Eli Brickhandler from UConn, both of which were basically emergency backups at their respective positions.

There were also the FCS up-transfers, including defensive end Logan George and linebacker Ty Howard. George played 19 total snaps and was injured most of the season, having since re-entered the transfer portal. Howard never saw the field as likely the seventh or eighth linebacker on the depth chart.

All in all, it’s hard to look at Ohio State’s 2025 transfer portal class as anything but a failure. Klare was a nice addition, and if used properly could’ve made an even bigger impact, while Daniels was thrust into a starting gig probably a year too early. Besides them, though, it was nothing but miss after miss.

With the transfer portal opening once again this past Friday, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes will not have the added benefit this time around of being the defending national champs. It is now another important offseason for the program after the coaching failure that was the Cotton Bowl, and the roster is going to have some glaring holes that need to be filled with high quality talent.

It seems as though there are some huge names out there that would instantly put Ohio State right back atop the national championship favorites in 2026 should they find a way to land them.

The biggest and most obvious name on the board for the Buckeyes is Chaz Coleman, a former five-star defensive end from Ohio who spent his freshman season at Penn State. There is also safety Koi Perich, who played his first two seasons at Minnesota with the Buckeyes having finished second in his initial recruitment, as well as linebacker Rasheem Biles, a Columbus kid and former All-ACC linebacker.

There are also some key targets that Ohio State is already actively pursuing. The Buckeyes have offered star Illinois kicker David Olana, are set to host cornerback Kayin Lee from Auburn and wide receiver DeAndre Moore from Texas, and have seen their name connected to LSU offensive lineman Tyree Adams and Rutgers cornerback Bo Mascoe.

All of that sounds well and good, but the key question remains: Will Ohio State actually be willing to spend in the transfer portal to land any of these players?

The Buckeyes have made big splashes in the portal before. Caleb Downs, Quinshon Judkins, Davison Igbinosun and Julian Sayin all came from other programs, and none of them came to Columbus for free. When Ohio State has gone out and spent the big bucks, it resulted in a national championship.

However, it feels like Ross Bjork and the administration have pumped the breaks on NIL for fear of breaking rules that don’t exist. While teams like Oregon, Indiana, USC and Michigan have no problem shelling out cash — teams that Ohio State competes against directly — the Buckeyes are playing things close to the vest.

What good is having all that Big Ten TV money if you aren’t going to spend it?

After bargain shopping the portal last offseason, the team suffered the consequences. If Bjork and the powers that be aren’t willing to compete financially with the rest of the top of the sport, then Ohio State will be left fighting for scraps to fill what are going to be some pretty huge holes heading into 2026.

With a lot of talent on the way out and a tough schedule on tap, a lack of aggression in the transfer portal this time around could spell a lot worse consequences than just an early exit from the College Football Playoff.