Ohio State hit three home runs when it signed a trio of former Alabama players out of the transfer portal in 2024. Two years later, the Buckeyes added three transfers from Alabama again.
All three Alabama transfers that Ohio State signed in 2024 went on to become elite players for the Buckeyes:
- Caleb Downs was the best safety in college football for the past two years, earning unanimous All-American honors in both seasons. Ohio State’s defense was the best in the country in both years, and Downs – who also won the Jim Thorpe Award last season – was the biggest reason why.
- Seth McLaughlin won the Rimington Trophy as college football’s best center in 2024. While his lone season as a Buckeye was cut short after 10 games by a torn Achilles, he brought crucial stability during the regular season to an offensive line that went on to lead Ohio State to a national championship.
- Julian Sayin, who transferred to Ohio State after just days at Alabama following Nick Saban’s retirement, was a Heisman Trophy finalist last year in his first season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. After completing 77% of his passing attempts last year, the third-highest completion percentage in FBS history, Sayin is back to lead the Buckeyes’ offense for another season in 2026.
Now, the Buckeyes are hoping another trio of Crimson Tide transplants – defensive linemen James Smith and Qua Russaw and cornerback Cam Calhoun – can help them win another national championship in 2026.
No one should expect this year’s group of imports from Tuscaloosa to make quite the same level of impact that the 2024 trio has made in Columbus. After all, none of them come to Ohio State as established superstars like Downs already was after earning All-American honors as a freshman at Alabama. None of them has three-plus years of eligibility to become a centerpiece of the Buckeyes’ future like Sayin has.
But all three of the Buckeyes’ additions this offseason by way of Kalen DeBoer’s program have their own potential to be difference-makers in Columbus:
DT James Smith
The highest-profile addition among this year’s transfers from Alabama – and the most highly touted player in Ohio State’s entire 2026 transfer class, for that matter – Smith was ranked by 247Sports as the best interior defensive lineman and ninth-best overall prospect to enter the transfer portal this offseason. He’s projected to pair with Eddrick Houston to form a dynamic rotation at the 3-technique position for Ohio State in 2026.
A five-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, Smith never quite became a star in Tuscaloosa but was still productive, recording 28 tackles with 6.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 2025. If Larry Johnson can unlock his full potential in Columbus, Smith has the tools to be one of the nation’s best defensive tackles in 2026.
DE/OLB Qua Russaw
Rated just below a five-star as the No. 33 overall prospect in 247Sports’ composite rankings for the 2023 class, Russaw flashed the ability to be an impactful edge defender at Alabama, recording 44 tackles for 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble over the past two seasons.
A broken foot limited Russaw to just nine games in 2025, but with two more years of eligibility, there’s reason to believe the 6-foot-2, 243-pound edge defender’s best football is still in front of him. The question is where exactly he’ll fit into Ohio State’s defense, as he’s more of a hybrid outside linebacker than a true defensive end, but he could play a big role in helping the Buckeyes replace Arvell Reese, who was often used as an edge rusher in passing situations last year despite primarily playing Mike linebacker.
Qua Russaw could play as both a defensive end and a linebacker for Ohio State. (Photo: Jeff Hanisch – Imagn Images)
CB Cam Calhoun
Calhoun played the smallest role among this year’s Bama-to-Buckeye transfers for the Crimson Tide, and he’ll likely have the smallest role among them at Ohio State in 2026. A backup cornerback in his only season at Alabama after one year at Michigan and one year at Utah, he’s likely to be a backup this year at Ohio State too, with Jermaine Mathews Jr. and Devin Sanchez in line to be the Buckeyes’ starting cornerbacks.
But Calhoun proved he could be an excellent cornerback at Utah, where he held opponents to 21 catches on 43 targets for only 231 yards and two touchdowns with an interception and nine pass breakups. At worst, he’s a strong depth addition for Ohio State as its No. 3 cornerback, giving the Buckeyes the ability to rotate more at cornerback if they want to – and with two more years of eligibility, he could be a starter in 2027.
A fourth transfer addition to Ohio State’s defense this offseason also spent time at Alabama; Earl Little Jr., who’s projected to start at nickel after earning second-team All-ACC honors last year at Florida State, spent two years at Alabama (2022 and 2023) before transferring to FSU in 2024.
Ohio State didn’t sign those players just because they played at Alabama. Adding players in the transfer portal is all about finding the right fits, and just because they played at another blue-blood program doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be successful at Ohio State – especially considering Alabama hasn’t reached the same heights in its first two years under DeBoer as it did under the legendary reign of Saban.
But as Ohio State considered whether Smith, Russaw, Calhoun and Little would be upgrades for its 2026 defense, it certainly didn’t hurt that they’ve already been in a program where competing for national championships is an annual expectation.
“Obviously with that program, they know kind of what the stakes are,” Day said on his radio show last month. “Very, very serious about coming in here. So that was a big deal.”
It also didn’t hurt Ohio State’s chances of landing them that the Buckeyes could offer proof of how they’ve brought in transfers from Alabama and helped them take their games to the next level. While Downs was already an elite player in Tuscaloosa, he became even better as a Buckeye, winning a national championship in the process. McLaughlin was a pariah when he left Alabama after botching multiple snaps in a CFP semifinal loss at the Rose Bowl, but he became a dominant center with no snapping issues for Ohio State.
“I think that's important, now more than ever, is that when you recruit somebody and you say, ‘Hey, here's what the plan is,’ and what we say in recruiting is how we treat you once you're here that we follow through with it all,” Day said when asked if he thought Downs’ success at Ohio State helped the Buckeyes land more Alabama transfers. “So when their folks call and start to say, ‘Hey man, talk to us about Ohio State, talk about the coaching staff, talk about those things,’ it gives you testimony and credibility. So I think it does have an impact for sure. Is that the only reason why? No, but it does give credibility in a day and age where there's a lot of instability. So I certainly think it helped.”
Ohio State added more transfers from Alabama than any other school this offseason. The only other school the Buckeyes added multiple transfers from was UCF, as the Buckeyes signed former Knights defensive tackle John Walker and long snapper Dalton Riggs.
And Smith, Russaw, Calhoun, Little and Sayin won’t be the only players with Alabama roots on the 2026 Buckeyes. In addition to Russaw and Smith, who are both from Montgomery, Alabama, and have been teammates since high school, Ohio State also has three other players from Alabama on its 2026 roster: sophomore defensive end Zion Grady, redshirt freshman running back Anthony “Turbo” Rogers and freshman defensive tackle Emanuel Ruffin. The Buckeyes’ five players from the state of Alabama aren’t just the most they’ve ever had on their roster in a single season; it’s as many players as Ohio State had ever had from Alabama in its entire program history before this season.
Ohio State capitalized on Saban’s retirement to add three key pieces from Alabama ahead of its 2024 national championship season. With Alabama still looking to get back to Saban-era heights two years later, Ohio State made an influx of talent from the Crimson Tide and the state of Alabama a key part of its roster build once again.
