It’s down to three days until spring practice begins for the 2026 Ohio State football team.
As such, our position-by-position previews of the Buckeyes’ roster entering spring practice continue. Each of Ohio State’s defensive position groups is replacing a key player from 2025, but today, we arrive at the only one replacing two first-team All-Americans: The linebackers.
Spring Previews
Ohio State boasted one of the best starting linebacker tandems in the team's history, and perhaps college football history, in 2025 with Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles. But the top backup to both men is back in 2026, alongside a rising five-star talent and a veteran transfer to form a strong top three. Let’s break it down.
Who’s Back
Payton Pierce (No. 3 LB in 2025), Riley Pettijohn (No. 4 LB in 2025), TJ Alford (Third-String in 2025), Garrett Stover (Third-String in 2025), Eli Lee (Redshirt in 2025)
Payton Pierce enters 2026 as the heir apparent at Mike linebacker after a fantastic 2025 campaign serving as the third linebacker behind Reese and Styles. In just 262 snaps, he racked up 43 tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Ohio State’s coaching staff is incredibly high on what he can achieve this season, and James Laurinaitis frequently spoke about him in the most glowing terms last year.
Riley Pettijohn, a five-star prospect from the recruiting class of 2025, flashed as the fourth linebacker on Ohio State’s depth chart. He was named the Buckeyes’ Defensive Player of the Game against Grambling State, returning a fumble for a touchdown, breaking up a third-down pass and delivering a huge hit to force another fumble. He finished the year with nine tackles and one TFL in 76 snaps.
There are a few more talented young bodies back for Ohio State in 2026. TJ Alford headlines the bunch, a diverse athlete and top-150 prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, but Garrett Stover has earned some praise entering his third year and brings some decent athleticism. Eli Lee played six snaps and took a redshirt as a freshman last season.
Who’s New
Christian Alliegro (Transfer), Cincere Johnson (Freshman), Braxton Rembert (Freshman), CJ Sanna (Freshman)
With two All-Americans gone at linebacker, adding a quality veteran was a priority for Laurinaitis in the portal. He found his man in former Wisconsin Badger Christian Alliegro. Alliegro came out on fire in his junior 2025 season, racking up 48 tackles, six TFL and two sacks in his first seven games. Then, in that seventh game, he broke his hand. He finished the contest, which was against Ohio State, with the ailing appendage but missed the next two games and had just five combined tackles in his last three games of the year.
Alliegro will need to shore up his tackling – he missed 11 tackles in 2025, per Pro Football Focus, and they all came before the broken hand – but he has great instincts, a nose for the football and can play on the edge as a pass rusher. He excelled in that area in limited opportunities last season, recording 10 quarterback pressures in just 39 pass rush snaps, again per PFF.
Three freshman recruits join Alliegro as new members of the linebacker room. Five-star Cincere Johnson arrives from the famed Ohio State pipeline of Glenville High School in Cleveland, with the hulking physical makeup that helped turn Reese, also from Glenville, into a star. Four-star CJ Sanna brings more talented Ohio flavor, with four-star Braxton Rembert making it three top-300 recruits Laurinaitis signed on the recruiting trail.
Who’s Gone
Arvell Reese (NFL Draft), Sonny Styles (Senior), Ty Howard (Transfer)
Reese became a Butkus Award finalist in his lone season as an Ohio State starter, playing his way into a likely top-five NFL draft pick by forklifting offensive linemen and playing all over the field for the Buckeyes. Getting plenty of snaps on the edge and in the B-gap in addition to his traditional off-ball linebacker alignments, he logged 69 tackles, 10 TFL and 6.5 sacks.
Styles was not only the leader of Ohio State’s defense, a team captain and the Block “O” jersey recipient, but he became one of the surest tacklers and instinctual players at linebacker in the country. The former safety didn’t miss a single tackle until the Buckeyes’ final game of the year, picking up 82 tackles with 6.5 TFL, one sack, one interception and three pass breakups. He’s a lock to join Reese as a first-round NFL draft pick after both were All-Americans – especially following an all-time performance at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Ty Howard, the older brother of Ohio State running back Bo Jackson, spent one season with the Buckeyes after transferring in from Duquesne. He never played any defensive snaps.
The Big Question
Will Payton Pierce become a star?
National media might not be raving yet about how good Pierce can be next season, but Ohio State’s coaching staff is very high on what he can become. He had more tackles per snap he played than Reese or Styles in 2025, though he was often on the field in 4-3 packages against run-heavy offensive personnel groupings to aid with that production.
"Payton's awesome," Laurinaitis said ahead of the 2025 season. "Payton's awesome. He's tough. He's an absolute natural. Absolute natural middle linebacker. His feel in the box and his ability to maneuver and feel blocking schemes (is special). He's got that wrestling background, so his striking ability and the way he snags and then runs his feet on contact, it's just a throwback, man. I love Payton."
If Pierce can play at an All-Big Ten, or especially at an All-American, level wearing the green dot for Ohio State’s defense, it will raise the effectiveness of the entire front six. It starts with embracing his new starting role this spring.
Battle to Watch
Riley Pettijohn vs. Christian Alliegro
With Pierce set to start at Mike linebacker, Pettijohn and Alliegro will battle this spring to be Ohio State’s new starting Will linebacker.
The Buckeyes brought in the former Wisconsin linebacker to add a veteran with more experience to the room, and he can play sideline-to-sideline in space while adding an edge-rushing presence when defensive coordinator Matt Patricia wants to shake up his looks.
“Christian Allegro was somebody in the Wisconsin game, we played them, and he just played hard,” Ryan Day said in January. “He played physical. You could tell he could diagnose plays. And I remember watching the film – which I didn't realize in-game – and the first part of the game, he didn't have a club on his hand. The second half of the game, he had this big cast on his hand, and come to find out, he had really broken his hand. Like, he shattered his hand and went back into the game and played. And to me, I was like, ‘Wow.’ To me, that's a tough player.”
Pettijohn is a clear talent, though, and if he can tap into his potential more as he enters his second year of school, it will become difficult to keep him out of a starting spot. His ceiling is likely higher than Alliegro’s, but it’s all about how much he can develop in the offseason.
Overall Pre-Spring Outlook
It’s impossible to reach the heights that Ohio State saw at linebacker in 2025, certainly in the first half of 2025. But if Pettijohn or Alliegro stakes a firm claim on the Will linebacker job and Pierce lives up to the billing Laurinaitis has long given him, the Buckeyes could have one of the nation’s best starting tandems once more.
The loser of Pettijohn and Alliegro’s battle will provide an excellent third linebacker for 4-3 packages and spell duty as well. Stover and Alford provide some solid young depth, plus Johnson could climb the depth chart in his first year, given his talent.
Development will be critical.
