Ohio State’s seniors will play their final home game at Ohio Stadium on Saturday, but the defining chapters of their senior season are still to come.
On one hand, Saturday’s home finale against Rutgers represents the end of an era for Ohio State’s seniors. Buckeyes in their final year of eligibility will play at Ohio Stadium for the final time – unless Ohio State hosts a first-round College Football Playoff game – and that’s a bittersweet moment that they don’t want to look past.
“Kind of sweet, but kind of sad at the same time,” senior kicker Jayden Fielding said of his emotions entering Senior Day. “Playing at the Shoe is a really special place to play, playing in front of all those fans is really special to me, and I built quite the connection with it. So it'll be a cool, but sad day.”
If all goes according to plan, however, Saturday’s game will be far from the end of Ohio State’s 2025 season. The Buckeyes still aspire to play five more games this season after Saturday – their rivalry game at Michigan next week, the Big Ten Championship Game one week later and three College Football Playoff games on their way to a second straight national championship. Those are the games this season – and by extension, Ohio State’s senior class – will be remembered by.
“It's great that we have a national championship (from last season), but we're also a team that doesn't have any Gold Pants. We're also a team that doesn't have a Big Ten championship,” senior defensive end Caden Curry said Wednesday. “So I feel like we definitely have things that we still need to get done, and I feel like I want to be somebody known – as our class – as somebody that's done everything that they needed to get done here at Ohio State.”
Winning the national championship last season hasn’t made Ohio State’s seniors any less hungry to finish their careers with another title. As the most veteran Buckeyes, they’re taking pride in trying to be the ones to lead Ohio State to another championship this season.
“We want to go and we want to do it our own way,” Fielding said. “We had the guys last year, they were fantastic, great people, showed us how to do it. Now it's our turn to go win it as seniors again.”
Ohio State’s senior class isn’t quite as big as it was last year, when Will Howard, TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Gee Scott Jr., Donovan Jackson, Seth McLaughlin, Josh Fryar, Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon, Denzel Burke and Lathan Ransom all played major roles for the Buckeyes.
Still, Ohio State has 11 starters this season who are considered seniors: Sonny Styles, Will Kacmarek, Carson Hinzman, Tegra Tshabola, Caden Curry, Kenyatta Jackson Jr., Tywone Malone Jr., Davison Igbinosun, Lorenzo Styles Jr., Jayden Fielding and John Ferlmann. But only six of those players – Sonny Styles, Hinzman, Tshabola, Curry, Jackson and Fielding – have spent their entire careers with the Buckeyes, and Hinzman, Tshabola and Jackson are all redshirt juniors in terms of eligibility who could be back at Ohio State for another season.
Nevertheless, those seniors – alongside Ohio State’s juniors and even its sophomores – have provided crucial leadership that has enabled the Buckeyes to start the season 10-0 despite losing 14 key seniors from a year ago.
“It isn't just about your ranking that gives you leadership, it's about your impact and influence on others, and I think you're seeing some really great leadership,” Ryan Day said this week. “When guys speak, the guys around them listen. And I think there's just a matter of fact about this group. There's not a lot of drama. They know what they need to do. They show up, and they make guys around them better.”
In total, Ohio State has 12 fourth-year players who have spent their entire careers with the Buckeyes, also including backup tight end Bennett Christian, redshirting defensive end C.J. Hicks and walk-ons David Adolph, Dianté Griffin, Brenten “Inky” Jones and Mason Maggs. Their 2022 class has a chance to be one of the most accomplished classes in Ohio State history.
If the Buckeyes finish the regular season unbeaten, win the Big Ten championship and win three CFP games on their way to a national championship, they’d set the record for the most wins (52) for a four-year class in Ohio State history. All the while leading Ohio State to back-to-back national championships for the first time in school history.
“A lot of words come to mind, but the one that comes to mind is historical,” Malone said when asked how he wants Ohio State’s senior class to be remembered. “Coming back from a national championship with a whole bunch of new guys, we’re striving to do the same thing. So it's just something that I feel like we could do and if we just keep being focused and just keep being disciplined, we're going to get there.”
At the same time, Ohio State’s seniors also run the risk of being the second straight senior class to never beat Michigan or win a Big Ten championship if they don’t get a win next week in Ann Arbor. So while the seniors are grateful for the memories they’ve already made as Buckeyes and the memories they’ll make in their final game at the Shoe on Saturday, they won’t leave Columbus satisfied unless they complete their remaining goals.
“It's definitely not a deep breath or anything like that because we've got the most challenging part of our season coming up,” Kacmarek said of Senior Day. “Our fans, our crowd, our stadium is unreal, so obviously I'm going to miss that, but we've just got to keep doing our thing.”
Regardless of what happens over the next two months, Ohio State’s seniors shouldn’t be solely remembered for what they accomplished on the football field. Sonny Styles said he wants his senior class to be remembered for the type of men they are, not just what they’ve done as players.
“Good men, good teammates; I think a lot of guys on this team are going to end up being great fathers, great husbands, and stuff like that,” Styles said of what he wants the legacy of his senior class to be. “Obviously, you're going to be remembered as national champions. Hopefully, we can achieve all of our goals this year and be the first team in Ohio State history to go back-to-back. But I think it's bigger than football, and I think a lot of other guys will say the same thing.”
On the field, though, Saturday’s Senior Day will serve as both a celebration of what the seniors have already accomplished and a preamble to the Buckeyes’ biggest games of the season. So they’ll be sure to soak in the moment when they run out onto the field to be celebrated by a crowd of more than 100,000 fans before the game – but once the game kicks off, they’ll turn their focus back to beating Rutgers and all the goals that follow.
“For the guys who are playing their last game in the Shoe, it's a big deal. And we need to celebrate those guys by everybody in the Woody giving everything we have and playing for them,” Day said. “And I know they're going to put everything they have into this game, because there's a lot of great memories on that field, a lot of great memories in the Woody, spending time on the practice field, and all of those things. And when you get a chance to reflect, it just makes you realize how important finishing this season is the right way.”
