2025 Season Preview: How Ohio State’s Roster Stacks Up By the Numbers

Sixty-seven of the 120 players on the Buckeyes’ roster entering the 2025 season were at least four-star recruits, including a dozen players who were five-star prospects. Using both high school recruiting and the transfer portal, the Buckeyes have built a roster full of talent from not just the entire nation but across the globe, as the Buckeyes have players from 20 different states as well as Canada and Australia.

With less than three weeks to go until Ohio State’s season opener against Texas, we kick off our annual Eleven Warriors Season Preview with a by-the-numbers look at the 2025 Buckeyes. Below, we take a look at how Ohio State’s roster stacks up in the following areas:

• Five-star, four-star and three-star recruits
• Players who have played 300+ collegiate snaps
• Players and transfers by position
• Players by high school class
• Players by state
• The Buckeyes’ top high school pipelines

All recruiting rankings referenced are from 247Sports’ composite rankings. Career snap counts are courtesy of Pro Football Focus’ premium statistics. Each player’s home state or country is based on their listed hometown on Ohio State’s roster.

12 Five-Stars

Recruiting ratings don’t mean everything, but in this case, the two highest-rated recruits are also the two best players on the roster. Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs have lived up to their lofty recruiting pedigrees and then some, establishing themselves as college football’s top offensive and defensive player, respectively.

They’ll be joined in the starting lineup this season by at least two other five-star recruits: Eddrick Houston and Brandon Inniss. Ohio State could have five five-star starters if Julian Sayin wins the staring quarterback job. C.J. Hicks and Mylan Graham are both expected to contribute in rotational roles while Aaron Scott Jr. and Devin Sanchez are competing to be Ohio State’s top backup cornerback.

Ohio State has two fewer five-star recruits on its 2025 roster than it did last season, when the Buckeyes had 14 players who were five-star prospects out of high school. Among those 14, JT Tuimioloau, Jack Sawyer, Emeka Egbuka, Donovan Jackson and TreVeyon Henderson are in the NFL and are not returning for the 2025 season.

The Buckeyes added three five-stars from the 2025 recruiting class: Tavien St. Clair, Devin Sanchez and Quincy Porter.

55 Four-Stars

The core of Ohio State’s roster is built around its four-star recruits, which make up nearly half of the team’s 120-man roster.

A majority of the Buckeyes’ starters this season will be four-star recruits. Running back James Peoples, wide receiver Carnell Tate, offensive linemen Carson Hinzman, Luke Montgomery, Austin Siereveld and Tegra Tshabola, defensive ends Kenyatta Jackson Jr., Caden Curry and Beau Atkinson, defensive tackle Kayden McDonald, linebackers Arvell Reese and Payton Pierce, cornerbacks Jermaine Mathews Jr., Davison Igbinosun and Lorenzo Styles Jr. and safeties Malik Hartford and Jaylen McClain are among the many four-star prospects expected to play major roles for Ohio State this season.

The highest-rated four-star prospect on the Buckeyes' roster is linebacker Riley Pettijohn, a freshman from McKinney, Texas, with a 0.9793 rating, just missing out on five-star status.

Ohio State has one more four-star recruit on its 2025 roster than it did in 2024.

15 Three-Stars

Given that Ohio State primarily recruits five- and four-star prospects from the high school ranks, it’s no surprise that the three-star recruits who are expected to play big roles for the Buckeyes this season are all transfers who have already proven elsewhere that they were underrated out of high school.

CJ Donaldson, Max Klare, Ethan Onianwa and Phillip Daniels didn’t receive offers from Ohio State in high school, but all of them were recruited to the Buckeyes this offseason after proving themselves as starters at other schools. Justin Terry, who will be a reserve offensive lineman this year, also joined the Buckeyes as a transfer this offseason after one year at West Virginia, where Donaldson also transferred from.

Ohio State has 10 scholarship players who did not receive composite recruiting ratings out of high school: Quarterback Eli Brickhandler, wide receiver David Adolph, tight end Will Kacmarek, defensive end Logan George, linebacker Ty Howard, kickers Jackson Courville and Jayden Fielding, punters Joe McGuire and Nick McLarty and long snapper John Ferlmann. Except for McLarty, all of them either transferred to Ohio State or began their careers at OSU as walk-ons.

23 Players with 300+ Snaps Played

Last year, Ohio State entered the season with 23 players who had more than 550 snaps at the collegiate level. The Buckeyes don’t have quite that many, but they still have 23 players who have played at least 300 collegiate snaps on offense or defense – the same number they had a year ago.

Ohio State utilized the transfer portal to bolster its experience, as 12 of its 23 most experienced players started their careers at other schools. Of the seven Buckeyes who have played more than 1,000 collegiate snaps, the only two who have spent their entire careers at Ohio State are linebacker Sonny Styles and center Carson Hinzman.

Among returning starters, cornerback Davison Igbinosun leads Ohio State with 2,098 career snaps, while All-American safety Caleb Downs brings 1,800 snaps into the 2025 season.

The Buckeyes’ most experienced position groups include the offensive line, where they have six players with 300+ career snaps, and the secondary, where four of their five projected starters have played more than 500 snaps. At defensive end, the transfer additions of Logan George from Idaho State and Beau Atkinson from North Carolina give Ohio State four DEs who have played at least 483 collegiate snaps.

Notable positions where the Buckeyes lack experience include quarterback, where fourth-string quarterback Eli Brickhandler is the only player with more than 28 career snaps (with all of Brickhandler’s snaps coming at the FCS level), and defensive tackle, where Kayden McDonald leads the Buckeyes with 252 career snaps.

25 Transfers

It’s a sign of the times that even at Ohio State – a program that continues to prioritize high school recruiting over the transfer portal – more than a fifth of the roster now consists of players who started their college careers elsewhere. The Buckeyes have five more transfers on the rosters than they did last year; Ohio State’s 25 total transfers are the most in program history, though seven of those transfers are walk-ons.

More than half of those transfers are new to the Buckeyes’ roster as Ohio State added 13  players from the transfer portal – 10 of whom are on scholarship – this offseason.

At least a dozen transfers are expected to play significant roles for Ohio State in 2025.

On offense, Julian Sayin is competing for the starting quarterback job, CJ Donaldson is expected to share lead running back duties with James Peoples, Max Klare and Will Kacmarek are Ohio State’s top two tight ends and Ethan Onianwa and Phillip Daniels are competing for a starting tackle job.

On defense, Ohio State could have three transfer starters in the secondary – Caleb Downs, Davison Igbinosun and Lorenzo Styles Jr. – while Beau Atkinson, Logan George and Tywone Malone Jr. are all expected to be in the defensive line rotation. John Ferlmann enters his third year as Ohio State’s starting long snapper after transferring to OSU from Arizona State in 2023.

Players by Position

Although the House v. NCAA settlement implemented a 105-man roster limit for college football, Ohio State is taking advantage of the Designated Student-Athlete exception to carry 120 players on its roster this season, aligning with its total number of players from past years.

The Buckeyes’ overall numbers are healthy at every position with four scholarship quarterbacks, six scholarship running backs, 11 scholarship wide receivers, seven scholarship tight ends, 16 scholarship offensive linemen, nine scholarship defensive ends, nine scholarship defensive tackles, eight scholarship linebackers, eight scholarship cornerbacks and eight scholarship safeties, plus at least two players at every specialist spot.

Players by High School Class

While none of the original members of Ohio State’s 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes are still with the Buckeyes, Ohio State has eight members of those classes who transferred to OSU. Seven of them are in their final year of eligibility, excluding Logan George, who graduated from high school in 2021 but is only in his third year of college football after taking a two-year Mormon mission.

Including them, Ohio State has 29 players who are in at least their fourth year out of high school and 55 players who are in at least their third year out of high school, giving the Buckeyes a good balance of upperclassmen and underclassmen for their current and future rosters.

20 States and Two Countries

Just under half of Ohio State’s players are from the Buckeye State, but Ohio State also has players from 19 other states as well as two other countries.

Florida has the second-most players on this year’s roster as the Buckeyes added four new players from the Sunshine State this offseason (TJ Alford, Jarquez Carter, CJ Donaldson and Dylan Furshman).

North Carolina, Idaho and Oklahoma are states that have players on this year’s roster that did not have products on Ohio State’s 2024 squad. Four states that had players on last year’s roster have no players on Ohio State’s roster this year: Washington, Colorado, Connecticut and Tennessee.

Ohio State has three international imports on this year’s roster. Tight end Max LeBlanc hails from Quebec, though he played his high school football at The Baylor School in Tennessee. Both of Ohio State’s punters, Joe McGuire and Nick McLarty, are from Australia.

14 High Schools with Multiple Buckeyes

Glenville, Ohio State’s most famous high school pipeline, is one of four schools with three players on the Buckeyes’ roster. Three of those four schools are from Ohio, with the exception being St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia – most famous as the alma mater of Marvin Harrison Jr. – which has two new freshmen on the roster this year, defensive tackle Maxwell Roy and running back Isaiah West.

Ohio State could have four sets of high school teammates playing major roles this season:

• Lakota West’s Tegra Tshabola is a returning starter at right guard and Malik Hartford is competing to start at safety
• Pickerington Central’s Sonny Styles is a starting linebacker and Lorenzo Styles Jr. is competing to start at nickel
• Chaminade-Madonna’s Jeremiah Smith is the Buckeyes’ top wide receiver and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. is their top defensive end
• IMG Academy’s Carnell Tate is a starting wide receiver and Jayden Fielding is the starting kicker