Perhaps the path to a starting role for Will Smith Jr. isn’t as narrow and unidentifiable as previously thought.
The redshirt junior and 2025 rotational piece at defensive tackle proved as much in the spring game – by starting. Ohio State’s defensive tackle play in the yearly scrimmage didn’t exactly turn heads. Still, Smith has laid firm groundwork toward the top of the depth chart as he competes with junior Eddrick Houston and the Buckeyes’ pair of portal acquisitions at DT, James Smith and John Walker.
“I feel like with Coach Mick (Marotti)'s program, I got a lot stronger,” Smith said in the week leading up to the spring game. “I've been trying to work on my pass rush moves a lot. I feel like I've definitely progressed in that. Working with John and James and Eddrick and all of them. I feel like we've been putting our minds together and it's been helping us all a lot, so, yeah.”
Injuries early in Smith’s career slowed his development temporarily, but the Central Ohio native and Buckeye legacy carved out a spot for Ohio State’s No. 1 defense in 2025. He played the fourth-most snaps at defensive tackle after Kayden McDonald, Eddrick Houston and Tywone Malone Jr., solidifying himself as the team’s second nose guard behind McDonald.
Smith finished the season with 20 tackles. The Silver Bullets as a whole realized generational numbers in their first year under defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, topping the country in total defense, scoring defense and passing defense. They had the No. 1 red zone defense in college football, too. While there’s a giant cupboard to refill with five of last year’s defenders, including McDonald, being selected in the top 40 picks of the 2026 NFL draft, a second year with Patricia should be beneficial to everyone.
“Defense is like – it's always changing,” Smith said. “But I feel like it's good because we know the gist of it now and how he teaches. So we're able to kind of pass that on to the new players. And I feel like they've been picking it up a lot faster than we did last year.”
Patricia is not the only person that Smith is bouncing ideas off of. Ohio State acquired the services of James Smith from Alabama and John Walker from UCF to bolster its defensive tackle room this portal cycle. Will Smith said they and Houston have collaborated to develop as much as possible.
“We’ve all been kind of putting our minds together and working together on teaching us the pass rush,” Smith said. “And just kind of bouncing ideas off each other because we all have, we've been to different schools. So we just kind of like mixing all that work together, so it's been good.”
Defensive stats weren’t made available from the spring game, though Will Smith clearly got in on a few tackles. His most notable play came on a pass deflection, however, a ball he batted into the arms of a leaping Beau Atkinson for an interception.
Will Smith might be bouncing ideas off of James Smith, Houston and Walker, but the quartet is still battling for the two defensive tackle positions atop the depth chart, though all are likely to have a role. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson has seen his unit's experience show up in practice, though there is still much work to be done before fall.
“I feel pretty good,” Johnson said. “We've got some guys on the inside that have played now. We have guys coming in from the transfer portal, played 300 some plays. So that's a bonus, the guys that have some experience. Now we take what we have and put those guys together. I think it gives a little more depth on the inside, a little bit stronger on the inside like we want to be, because we have guys who have played football.”
As to what motivates him to work with every ounce of his being, Smith’s answer remains the same: To honor his late father, the Ohio State defensive end great Will Smith Sr. No doubt he’d already be proud of what his son has achieved.
“I’m representing my dad's name on my back,” Smith said. “So I gotta make sure, I gotta play up to his standards. I feel like that's one of my biggest inspirations for sure.”
