Ohio State’s first practices of 2026 are less than one week away.
After a two-month layoff following the Buckeyes’ College Football Playoff quarterfinal loss to Miami, a new-look Ohio State team will take the field for 15 practices this spring, starting next Tuesday. The Buckeyes have aspirations of competing for a national championship once again, but there are plenty of questions they need to answer this spring as they replace more than half of their scholarship roster from last season.
Spring Previews
With that in mind, we’re taking a position-by-position look at how Ohio State’s roster has changed since last season, the biggest questions and position battles entering spring practice and the overall outlook for each position group ahead of next week’s start of spring. The third installment of our Spring Preview looks at Ohio State’s running backs, where three freshmen – two true, one redshirt – and a transfer will take center stage this spring while Bo Jackson and Isaiah West recover from offseason shoulder surgeries.
Who’s Back
Bo Jackson (Starter in 2025), Isaiah West (No. 3 RB in 2025), Anthony “Turbo” Rogers (Redshirt in 2025)
All three of Ohio State’s returning running backs are in just their second year of college, but two of them already have significant experience.
Bo Jackson quickly emerged as Ohio State’s starting running back as a freshman, rushing for 1,090 yards – the fifth-most ever for an Ohio State freshman – and six touchdowns on 179 carries.
West also worked his way into the rotation, emerging as Ohio State’s No. 2 running back for most of the second half of the regular season before finishing the year as the Buckeyes’ third RB behind CJ Donaldson. He ran for 310 yards and two touchdowns on 59 carries as a freshman.
Rogers, the most highly touted recruit of Ohio State’s three second-year running backs, saw no game action as a true freshman. He was sidelined by injury for most of the year and will be going through his first spring as a Buckeye this March and April after enrolling last summer.
Who’s New
Ja’Kobi Jackson (Transfer), Favour Akih (Freshman), Legend Bey (Freshman)
A seventh-year senior, Jackson adds a much-needed veteran presence to a running back room otherwise filled with underclassmen. He brings a background of being a successful running back in the SEC, as he ran for 509 yards and seven touchdowns on 95 carries as Florida’s No. 2 RB in 2024. He received a medical hardship waiver to play one more college season in 2026 after he suffered an upper-body injury that ended his season after four games in 2025.
Bey had the most dramatic recruitment of any member of the 2026 class, flipping from Ohio State back to Tennessee on signing day due to family pressure before ultimately securing his release from the Volunteers to sign with the team he actually wanted to play for. The Buckeyes believe the drama will be worth it; Ryan Day described Bey as “dynamite, “lightning in a bottle” and “the poor man’s Tyreek Hill” while talking about the 126th-ranked overall prospect during a radio show in January.
Akih, a local product from just north of Columbus in Delaware, Ohio, is also a four-star prospect who was ranked as the No. 302 overall recruit in the 247Sports composite for 2026.
Who’s Gone
CJ Donaldson (Senior), James Peoples (Transfer), Sam Dixon (Transfer)
Donaldson, who ran for 361 yards and 10 touchdowns on 96 carries last season, is the most notable departure from the running back room, but there’s plenty of room for improvement over his 3.8 yards per carry. Peoples didn’t live up to expectations last year either, so his departure was unsurprising after he was surpassed by both Jackson and West on the depth chart.
Dixon appeared in just one game in 2025 and was unlikely to play a significant role if he stayed at Ohio State. While Ohio State would probably prefer to have at least one returning running back who’s an upperclassman, none of these running backs will likely to be higher than third on the depth chart if they were on the 2026 roster.
The Big Question
Who will prove they can play this spring?
Ohio State won’t have a single running back going through spring practices who’s played a snap as a Buckeye. Bo Jackson and West both underwent shoulder surgeries after last season and will be sidelined for the spring as a result.
While it’s unfortunate that they won’t have the opportunity to develop on the field this spring, it opens up a huge opportunity for the Buckeyes’ other running backs to work with the top units and show what they can do. That’s as true for the freshmen as it is for Ja’Kobi Jackson, as Carlos Locklyn already proved last year that he’ll move freshmen up the depth chart quickly if they prove they can play.
Ja’Kobi is the presumptive candidate to start spring as the No. 1 running back as the only available RB who’s seen collegiate action, but Bey and Rogers offer the most upside to be breakout stars of the offseason. Akih shouldn’t be overlooked either, as West was largely viewed as an afterthought to play as a freshman at this time a year ago but ended up in the rotation even after he missed spring with an injury.
Battle to Watch
Legend Bey vs. Anthony “Turbo” Rogers
Both fast, shifty running backs with receiving skills out of the backfield, Bey and Rogers bring similar skill sets and potential for the Buckeyes. And even with Bo Jackson and West expected to lead the running back depth chart, whoever has the better spring between Rogers and Bey might end up playing a big role this fall.
Ohio State is looking for more home-run plays in the running game this season – the Buckeyes tied for 88th in the FBS with only 12 runs of 20-plus yards last season – and Bey and Rogers might be the best candidates on the entire roster to add more explosiveness on the ground. Bey has been timed at 4.33 seconds in the 40-yard dash; Rogers was clocked running as fast as 22.8 miles per hour in high school.
To earn regular playing time this fall, Bey and/or Rogers will have to show mastery of the finer points of playing running back – namely ball security and pass protection – as Bey was a high school quarterback while Rogers often played receiver in high school. But while there may not be room for both of them in the rotation, the door should be open for one of them to carve out a role as a spark plug for the offense. How they perform this spring with Jackson and West sidelined will go a long way toward determining how much of a look they get this fall.
Overall Pre-Spring Outlook
Bo Jackson quickly emerged as a star as a freshman, while West showed the potential to be an excellent running back himself, so there’s good reason to be optimistic about the future of the Buckeyes’ running back unit entering 2026. The Buckeyes’ depth at the position, however, will be fully put to the test this spring.
If Ja’Kobi Jackson shows he can be a quality addition to the rotation and any of Bey, Rogers or Akih has a breakout spring, Ohio State will enter the summer with a very bright outlook at running back. Theoretically, the Buckeyes should be better at running back in 2026 with Bo Jackson and West gaining experience and new talent replacing players who fell short of expectations in 2025.
Ideally, multiple running backs will have big springs to set up an intense competition for snaps in preseason camp. If that doesn’t happen, however, the pressure will be on Bo and Isaiah to come back better than ever and take the next step as the leaders of the running back room as sophomores.
