Ohio State’s 2026 safety room is starting to take shape after being a gelatinous blob of anxiety for fans just three days ago.
That’s the day rising sophomore safety Faheem Delane entered the transfer portal. With free safety Caleb Downs off to the NFL draft as a near-guaranteed top-10 pick and nickel Lorenzo Styles Jr. out of eligibility, the Buckeyes were bereft of options for both spots on their 2026 roster. Bryce West (Wisconsin) and Aaron Scott Jr., two cornerbacks who could have helped fill the nickel spot directly or indirectly, had also hopped in the portal earlier this offseason.
It took only two days after Delane’s departure for Ohio State to not only fill in, but reshape its safety unit for 2026. See, for the past three seasons, a cornerback has played the nickel position for the Buckeyes. But when Jim Knowles first introduced the 4-2-5 to Columbus in 2022, it was initially presented as a three-safety defense. He even brought a safety from his previous spot, Oklahoma State’s Tanner McCalister, in from the portal to play it in the defensive coordinator’s first season at OSU.
Jordan Hancock (2023 and 2024) and Lorenzo Styles Jr. (2025) had safety responsibilities, including deep zone coverages, mixed into their play on the back end, but both came from the cornerback room and were primarily slot corners. However, on Sunday and Monday, Ohio State received portal commitments from Florida State’s Earl Little Jr. and Duke’s Terry Moore, both players with second-team All-ACC honors on their résumés.
The plan seems clear: Jaylen McClain returns at strong safety. Moore takes over at free safety. Little becomes the new nickel and restores Ohio State to a true three-safety defense in its second year under DC Matt Patricia.
We’re here to break down how each man fits into the potential plan for the Buckeyes at safety in 2026, and how Little’s skill set could provide new elements to the nickel position.
Strong Safety: Jaylen McClain
The 10-mile-wide spotlight on Caleb Downs in Ohio State’s defense last season cast a shadow over just how good McClain played in his first year as a starter. The numbers show he was a bona fide eraser playing deep for the Buckeyes.
McClain collected 53 tackles, proving excellent as a back-end sweeper when opposing runs broke through to the second level, and missed just four tackles on the season, per Pro Football Focus. He added three pass breakups and allowed just 84 receiving yards – a staggering figure – and no touchdowns on 27 targets in coverage. That’s 3.1 yards per target. The worst passing offense in college football, UMass, averaged 4.8 yards per attempt, for reference.
At every step of his two-year Ohio State journey so far, McClain has outperformed his recruiting ranking. Not that he was completely ignored by the services that rank prospects, but by Buckeye standards, the No. 36 safety and No. 375 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite cracking the two-deep as a freshman and playing so well as a first-time starting sophomore is exceptional.
Not much else to talk about here. With another year of development, McClain will be a bedrock piece of Ohio State’s secondary and should gain recognition as one of the nation’s best safeties. That’s the expectation, anyway.
Free Safety: Terry Moore
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A torn ACL negated Moore’s entire 2025 season. But if he returns to his 2024 form, he’s a superstar in the making at free safety.
The former running back won a starting job at Duke the year he transitioned to safety in 2023, then broke out big-time as a junior. He racked up 71 tackles, seven tackles for loss, one sack, four interceptions, six pass breakups and two forced fumbles. He surrendered just 202 receiving yards in 32 targets per PFF, a commendable 6.2 yards per target.
Quality pass coverage, big-play generation and excellent run support. Not much more to ask of a free safety. Moore earned second-team All-ACC honors for his play in 2024. His tape showcases refined ball-hawking and ball skills playing centerfield, and he seeks turnovers with aggression. The types of plays that can flip a game.
A theme with all three projected starters at safety for Ohio State in 2026 is versatility, and Moore is no exception. Per PFF, 379 of Moore’s 744 snaps in 2024 were at deep safety, 174 were in the box and 155 were in the slot. Downs saw similarly heavy usage in all three areas as both a sophomore and junior at Ohio State, though he split time more evenly between the box and deep safety as his primary two alignments.
No player can replace Downs, one of the best safeties in the history of college football, but in the areas where the soon-to-be top-10 NFL draft pick was deployed, Moore is an excellent replacement, assuming he can return to his pre-injury self. Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia can get back in his lab and deploy more diverse coverages and disguises to confuse quarterbacks with the experience and versatility Moore, McClain, and Little bring to the table.
Nickel: Earl Little Jr.
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Now for the man set to adjust Ohio State's defensive structure in 2026.
Little makes a second second-team All-ACC performer in the Buckeyes’ Big Ten-ready secondary for 2026, joining Moore. Unlike Moore, he’s not coming off an injury, so that all-conference nod came in 2025. He played free safety for Florida State, but his run-support prowess, physicality and fluid movement make him a great candidate for the nickel spot. As much is clear from the first few plays of his highlight tape with the Seminoles.
While Little is a hard hitter, he’ll need to work on shoring up his tackling as he transitions to a slot and box role. He missed 14 tackles in 2025, per PFF. Still, his coverage numbers are respectable, allowing 14 receptions for 168 yards in 22 targets, 7.6 yards per target. Like Moore, he can generate big plays with his ball skills and aggression, collecting four interceptions and two forced fumbles for the Seminoles in 2025.
Hancock played a more standard slot corner role for Ohio State in 2023 before enabling some of Downs’ best performances by dropping into deep coverage for certain looks in the second half of 2024, allowing Downs to play in and around the box more often during the Buckeyes’ national championship run. Styles received similar usage in 2025. But a true three-safety defense, with all three men having experience playing primarily a deep safety spot, changes the look.
Each of the three of Little, Moore and McClain can be effective deep, in the box and in the slot. From disguised cover-2 and cover-3 looks to Moore or McClain flying to a surprise underneath zone while Little drops deep, there are so many ways to confuse the picture for quarterbacks – and do so effectively – for Patricia, who showed he’s one of the best in the business at doing just that in 2025.
Perhaps more than ever after Knowles coined the term for Buckeye fans way back in 2022, Ohio State’s defense will be safety-driven in 2026.
