More Buckeyes will be playing in the USFL.
Two former Ohio State football players were selected in the third round of the USFL’s supplemental draft on Thursday night.
Former Ohio State tight end Marcus Baugh, who played for the Buckeyes from 2013-17, will be heading to the state up north after being drafted by the Michigan Panthers with the 20th overall pick in Thursday’s supplemental draft.
Marcus Baugh is a Panther. pic.twitter.com/m5gDTuzHE0
— Michigan Panthers (@USFLPanthers) March 11, 2022
The USFL will be the second upstart professional football league Baugh plays in, as he previously played for the San Diego Fleet in the short-lived Alliance of American Football in 2019. Since then, Baugh has spent time with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, Washington Commanders and Pittsburgh Steelers, but went unsigned during the 2021 regular season after being waived by the Steelers in August.
Three picks before Baugh was selected, another former Buckeye was drafted with the first pick of the third round as the Tampa Bay Bandits selected Matthew Burrell Jr., who played for Ohio State from 2015-17 before transferring to Sam Houston State.
Welcome to Tampa Bay, Matthew! #USFLDraft pic.twitter.com/aO7Y7Zin7H
— Tampa Bay Bandits (@USFLBandits) March 11, 2022
Burrell, who played on the offensive line in college but is listed as both a guard/center and a nose tackle by the Bandits, most recently played for the Indoor Football League’s Tucson Sugar Skulls in 2021.
Baugh and Burrell join two of their former Ohio State teammates, Johnnie Dixon and Mike Weber, in the USFL. Dixon was selected by the New Orleans Breakers and Weber was selected by the New Jersey Generals in the first USFL draft in February. Former Ohio State linebacker/defensive end Jonathan Newsome, who finished his college football career at Ball State, was selected by the Birmingham Stallions in the February draft.
The new USFL’s inaugural season will begin on April 15, when Weber and the Generals will play Newsome and the Stallions in a game that will be nationally televised on both NBC and FOX.
