Patience is a precious commodity in the year 2026.
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It’s difficult to have patience for the portal process at this time for Ohio State. The Buckeyes are fresh off a disappointing College Football Playoff loss. Indiana, the team that beat Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game, is in the CFP semifinals and already loading up transfer portal studs at multiple positions for the 2026 season.
Meanwhile, a portal exodus is happening around college football, and the Buckeyes are no exception. Twenty-one Ohio State players have hopped in as of this story. Most of them wouldn’t have filled a meaningful role next season, and starting right guard Tegra Tshabola might not have been starting again in 2026, though there have been some intriguing young players to depart. Wide receivers Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham and cornerbacks Aaron Scott Jr. and Bryce West are some examples.
Four of the 21 departures were first-year players in 2025, some of them with no tape. This system needs to change. That much is clear. This much turnover across the country is not sustainable. But it’s reality.
Quincy Porter is one of four Ohio State players to hit the portal – so far – after just one season in college.
It’s easy in this day and age to want the answers now. Ohio State definitely has holes to fill and upgrades to make through the transfer portal, and the additions so far might have been necessary, but they haven't carried enough flash to make it feel like the sky isn’t falling. But far more important than portal speed is getting the right players. And getting the right evaluations. The Buckeyes’ 2024 and 2025 transfer portal classes are excellent case studies.
A great left tackle could have changed the course of Ohio State’s 2025 season.
That’s no insult to Austin Siereveld, the Buckeyes’ left tackle this year, who was the best part of an offensive line that gave appearances of being championship-caliber at Michigan before imploding in the Big Ten title game and in the CFP quarterfinals.
Siereveld was the only of Ohio State’s five starting offensive linemen not to give up a sack in 2025, per Pro Football Focus. That’s in 425 pass-block reps, and he may have been better in run-blocking. PFF gave him an overall grade of 83 for the year, almost 10 points higher than the Buckeyes’ next-highest-graded offensive lineman, left guard Luke Montgomery (73.7).
But imagine if that production came at right guard – Siereveld’s previous position – or right tackle with another player of his caliber or better at left tackle for Ohio State. That’s the vision Ryan Day and staff had when investing in Ethan Onianwa from Rice in the transfer portal last season. A redshirt senior with 34 starts of experience for the Owls, some praised him as being of day-two NFL draft pick caliber — or better.
Hes the best offensive lineman in the portal and its not even close. Cant believe he didnt declare. https://t.co/6NMc1U1zbm
— Tom Luginbill (@TomLuginbill) December 24, 2024
I, too, praised Onianwa as a rock-solid left tackle with high-end talent upon his commitment.
What mattered, however, was the evaluation of Ohio State’s coaching and support staff. And that evaluation was off. Onianwa showed fewer and fewer signs of being starter-level for the Big Ten as time progressed. By preseason camp, the Buckeyes elected to move Siereveld to left tackle. Then Onianwa moved to guard and fell from the starting lineup. He rotated with starting right guard Tegra Tshabola for the Buckeyes’ first three games, then never played a meaningful snap again.
Ohio State pooled its portal resources behind the wrong offensive tackle in last year’s cycle, and it played a major role in the loss of the Buckeyes’ shot at a repeat national championship. Perhaps more patience in evaluation could have helped. In 2024, Ohio State rewarded portal patience with key pieces to that national title run.
It took 27 days after the first 2024 transfer portal window opened on Dec. 3, 2023, for the Buckeyes to land a commitment. That commitment was a blocking tight end from Ohio named Will Kacmarek. Two days after the worst offensive line performance I’ve seen from Ohio State in my time as a reporter in a 14-3 loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl, and a month after a third straight loss to Michigan, it didn’t inspire tons of confidence. Cracks were appearing in the sky for some.
Quarterback Will Howard and center Seth McLaughlin rolled in the next week, evaluations that Ohio State nailed where others had doubts. Then the Buckeyes hit a universally recognized home run in Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins on Jan. 8, six whole days after the portal window closed. Eleven days after that, the true crown jewel was found: Alabama safety Caleb Downs. Four essential pieces to the championship landed more than a month after the portal window opened. A fellow five-star prospect from Alabama, quarterback Julian Sayin, followed Downs’ footsteps two days later.
The 2026 Ohio State transfer portal class started with another blocking tight end from Ohio, Mason Williams. The Buckeyes have added a long snapper, four-star defensive tackle John Walker and a veteran wide receiver with production at the mid-major level, Devin McCuin, but many areas still need to be addressed for their 2026 roster.
There are no guarantees in life. Certainly no guarantees that Ohio State hits the home runs it needs in this portal cycle. More transfers out might still come before splashy adds are made. But it’s a process that, unfortunately, requires patience to see play out.
