Ohio State Football

Ohio State just won its first national championship in 10 years after rolling through the College Football Playoff by outscoring its opponents by 70 total points. By the time the season was over, the Buckeyes beat the Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 10 teams in the final Associated Press poll.

OSU showed incredible dominance in the postseason, and now a host of 2024 Buckeyes are making their way to the NFL.

In recent years, the Buckeyes have been known for their penchant to send future NFL wide receiver standouts, such as Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Marvin Harrison Jr.

But Ohio State has also produced a successful quarterback (2023 Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud) and the Bosa brothers Joey and Nick, who have combined for 134.5 sacks.

This year's class isn't loaded with players that look like potential superstars on paper. But the 2025 Ohio State NFL draft crew is simply loaded with talent and depth, perhaps more than any other school. Twelve Buckeyes are listed in the top 100 of the B/R NFL Scouting Department big board alone, with 14 on the top 250.

The talent is there on both sides and at varied positions. The offensive backfield showcases quarterback Will Howard and running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. Those three were protected by a great offensive line, and three OL prospects are headed to the pros in Josh Simmons, Donovan Jackson and Seth McLaughlin.

Wide receiver Emeka Egbuka might be the biggest name of the entire group, and it's with good reason given his great success in Columbus. He left OSU as the program's career receptions leader (205) to go along with 2,868 receiving yards and 24 scores through the air.

But the defense was tremendous as well. Edge-rusher Jack Sawyer, the hero of the CFP semifinal vs. Texas and the heart and soul of this team, is heading to the NFL. He was part of a great front that also included defensive lineman Tyleik Williams and edge-rusher JT Tuimoloau, who had a Big Ten-leading 12.5 sacks. On the back end, Ohio State had an experienced veteran in cornerback Denzel Burke, who played 51 games and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2023.

And with that, here's a look at where all the Buckeyes went in the NFL draft.

Ohio State Draft Prospect List

OT Josh Simmons: Round 1, Pick 32 (No. 32 Overall): Kansas City Chiefs (After Trade With Philadelphia Eagles)

WR Emeka Egbuka: Round 1, Pick 19 (No. 19 Overall): Tampa Bay Buccaneers

DL Tyleik Williams: Round 1, Pick 28 (No. 28 Overall): Detroit Lions

EDGE JT Tuimoloau: Round 2, Pick 13 (No. 45 Overall): Indianapolis Colts

IOL Donovan Jackson: Round 1, Pick 24 (No. 24 Overall): Minnesota Vikings

RB Quinshon Judkins: Round 2, Pick 4 (No. 36 Overall): Cleveland Browns (After Trade With Jacksonville Jaguars)

RB TreVeyon Henderson: Round 2, Pick 6 (No. 38 Overall): New England Patriots

QB Will Howard: Round 6, Pick 9 (No. 185 Overall): Pittsburgh Steelers

CB Denzel Burke: Round 5, Pick 36 (No. 174 Overall): Arizona Cardinals (After Trade With Dallas Cowboys)

EDGE Jack Sawyer: Round 4, Pick 21 (No. 123 overall): Pittsburgh Steelers

IOL Seth McLaughlin: UDFA

S Lathan Ransom: Round 4, Pick 20 (No. 122 Overall): Carolina Panthers (After Trade With Denver Broncos)

LB Cody Simon: Round 4, Pick 13 (No. 115 Overall): Arizona Cardinals

CB Jordan Hancock: Round 5, Pick 32 (No. 170 Overall): Buffalo Bills (After Trade With Dallas Cowboys)

DT Ty Hamilton: Round 5, Pick 10 (No. 148 Overall): Los Angeles Rams (After Trade With Chicago Bears)

Ohio State football revealed its national championship rings on Saturday in celebration of its 2024 season, which saw the Buckeyes take home the first-ever title in the 12-team College Football Playoff era.

The Buckeyes, a No. 8 CFP seed, beat Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame to earn the crown.

It was a remarkable run for Ohio State, which ended the regular season with a brutal 13-10 loss to arch-rival Michigan at home. The Buckeyes were nearly three-touchdown favorites but fell to the Wolverines on a day where the offense got nothing going.

Still, the Buckeyes were 10-2 in the regular season, with the only other loss a 32-31 defeat to an Oregon team that won the Big Ten and finished 13-0 before the CFP.

Ohio State played to its potential in the playoff, though, winning its four games by a combined score of 145-75. All of its wins were by 11 or more points.

Players received three rings on Saturday at the team's spring game, per Stefan Krajisnik of cleveland.com: one for qualifying for the CFP, one from the CFP for winning the tournament and then a third one from Ohio State.

Now attention turns toward the season, which should assuredly see Ohio State as the No. 1 team in the preseason polls. A big test looms early, with the Buckeyes hosting Texas in Columbus on Aug. 30.

Chris Henry Jr., a 5-star wide receiver recruit for the class of 2026, has re-affirmed his commitment to Ohio State, per comments to Hayes Fawcett of On3.

Henry previously committed to Ohio State in July 2023 but kept his options open. Per Todd M. Adams of USA Today, Henry had official visits lined up for Miami, USC and Oregon from May 30-June 13.

However, Henry has chosen to remain a Buckeye.

The 6'5", 205-pound Henry, the son of late Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry, plays for Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California.

The latest 247Sports Composite list has Henry listed as the No. 9 overall prospect in the class of 2026 and No. 2 wideout.

Greg Biggins, the 247Sports' national recruiting analyst, provided this scouting report on March 10.

"Henry missed most of his junior season with a knee injury. When healthy, he’s a an elite prospect with as much upside as any receiver in the class. At close to 6-6 and 195 pounds, Henry has tremendous length and flashes surprisingly agility and lateral quickness for a player his size.

"He’s explosive out of the gate, can stop and start on a dime, change direction and has a huge catch radius. He has the long speed to stretch the field and hit the home run combined with the size and sure handedness to be a go to guy on key third down situations. He’s dominant in the air on jump balls and as he continues fills out and gains strength, his game will take off to another level."

Henry's firm commitment to Ohio State is great news for the defending national champions, who rank seventh overall on 247Sports' class of 2026 list. Henry is one of two 5-star prospects alongside safety Blaine Bradford.

Ohio State may have its eventual successor to Caleb Downs after securing a commitment from 5-star safety Blaine Bradford.

Bradford told On3's Hayes Fawcett the Buckeyes are "the best place for my development and for my future." The Louisiana native is the No. 1 safety and 23rd-best prospect overall in 247Sports' composite rankings for 2026.

Fawcett reported LSU, Oregon and Texas were all finalists before falling short to OSU.

247Sports scouting analyst Gabe Brooks evaluated Bradford last July and called him a "stoutly assembled safety prospect who could potentially move around the defensive back seven" or even line up as an off-ball linebacker one day.

"Flies downhill quick-trigger pursuer vs. the run. Quick in diagnosis," Brooks said. "Breaks down and drives through targets as a tackler. Speed-to-power ability and play strength enable playing through a block en route to the ball."

Ohio State has the fourth-ranked class in 247Sports' composite rankings for 2025, one spot better than in 2024. Looking ahead to next year's cycle, Bradford is the second 5-star prospect to pledge his future to the reigning national champion, joining wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. Head coach Ryan Day is also poised to add 4-star cornerback Jakob Weatherspoon to bolster the secondary.

Downs is entering his junior season in 2025 and it's safe to assume it will be his last in Columbus. The unanimous All-American will almost assuredly be a first-round talent within the 2026 NFL draft class.

Poaching Downs from Alabama was a sign of Ohio State's wider investment in the transfer portal, both in terms of coaching manpower and raw dollars. Day might turn to the portal for a ready-made star when replacing Downs.

Depending on how Bradford continues to develop, he could make a case to see the field right away as a true freshman.

To the victors go the spoils, and sometimes the spoils are trolling the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

Ohio State defeated Notre Dame 34-23 in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game and took the opportunity to remind the Fighting Irish as much on Monday's holiday:

There's not really anything Notre Dame can say back because the Buckeyes have long owned the bragging rights when it comes to these two traditional powerhouses.

Ohio State not only won this past season's national title game, it also defeated the Fighting Irish during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. That marks three straight campaigns with a head-to-head victory for the Scarlet and Gray, which extended their winning streak to seven in the series.

That streak includes Fiesta Bowl wins in 2006 and 2016. In fact, the last time Notre Dame defeated Ohio State was in the 1936 season.

Which is, for the record, a crisp 89 years ago.

This isn't the first time this month Ohio State's social media page has taken the opportunity to reminisce about the title game. It also posted a highlight of Will Howard's long pass to Jeremiah Smith on a 3rd-and-11 play that essentially clinched the win on 3/11 at 3:11 p.m.:

At least Notre Dame can take solace knowing it held a 7-0 lead against the Buckeyes for approximately six minutes in that championship game. That is more than Tennessee, Oregon and Texas can say, as the Scarlet and Gray didn't trail in any of their three CFP games leading up to the showdown with the Fighting Irish.

Games against Tennessee and Oregon were largely decided before halftime even arrived, and Ohio State's strong defense was able to keep Texas at bay and then put the game away with a scoop-and-score touchdown by Jack Sawyer.

It was a dominant postseason run for the reigning national champions, and they are still celebrating nearly two months later.

Ohio State is reportedly interested in a former NFL head coach for its vacant defensive coordinator position.

Per CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz, Matt Patricia met with the Buckeyes about their defensive coordinator opening in Columbus on Monday. Patricia, who coached the Detroit Lions from 2018 to 2020, last worked with the Philadelphia Eagles as a senior defensive assistant in 2023.

Patricia got his coaching start in the collegiate ranks but has only held NFL jobs since 2004. He was with the New England Patriots from 2004 to 2017, serving in various roles including defensive coordinator for six years.

His Lions tenure was mostly unsuccessful as he was fired in 2020 after failing to reach the playoffs in each of his first two seasons at the helm. After his stint in Detroit, he returned to the Patriots for two seasons before joining the Eagles for one season in 2023.

Ohio State is looking for a replacement for Jim Knowles, who was the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator from 2022 to last season. Fresh off a championship with Ohio State, Knowles left the program in January to become Penn State's defensive coordinator.

The three-year deal pays Knowles an average of $3.1 million per season, making him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football.

Replacing Knowles will be a tall task after he led Ohio State to having one of the best defenses in college football in 2024. The Buckeyes gave up just 254.6 yards per game, which was the best mark in the FBS last season. Their 12.9 points per game were also the fewest in the nation in 2024.

While Patricia has little experience at the collegiate level, he spent most of his career working under legendary coach Bill Belichick, who will coach North Carolina this season. Whether the Buckeyes give Patricia the chance to follow in the footsteps of Belichick remains to be seen.

To the victors go the spoils, and Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day is reportedly benefiting greatly from the Buckeyes' College Football Playoff national championship.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Thursday that Day and Ohio State agreed to a new seven-year contract to keep him with the team through the 2031 campaign. The agreement added three years onto his contract that was already in place and will pay him an average of $12.5 million per season.

Landing a contract extension like this is the latest step in an incredible turnaround for Day over the course of the last two months.

After all, November's shocking home loss to a Michigan team that was so mediocre it went to the ReliaQuest Bowl felt like a possible breaking point for Day's tenure at Ohio State. It was his fourth straight loss to the school's hated archrival, and this one was particularly concerning since the offense managed 10 points against a team it was expected to blow out.

Criticism from the Buckeye fanbase reached an all-time high, and some national media members even said it was time for Ohio State to move on from its head coach.

While Day's overall record wasn't in question, the fact that Ohio State hadn't beaten Michigan since 2019 or won the Big Ten since 2020 just wasn't good enough for the high standards in place. It also fell short of a national title during CFP appearances in the 2019, 2020 and 2022 seasons.

And then everything changed.

Perhaps the Michigan loss woke the Buckeyes up because they steamrolled their way through the inaugural 12-team CFP.

First came a 42-17 destruction of the SEC's Tennessee in a game where Day may have realistically been coaching for his job since it was the first one after the loss to the Wolverines. Then came a 41-21 win over No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl in a game that was 34-0 in the second quarter and not even as close as the final score indicated.

The Scarlet and Gray then went into Dallas and defeated the SEC's Texas Longhorns by 14 before an 11-point win over Notre Dame in the title game. All four wins came by double digits, and the champions trailed for fewer than seven total minutes during the course of the entire playoff.

While Ohio State fans undoubtedly want him to turn things around against Michigan, Day has now earned the benefit of the doubt after leading the program to the sport's mountaintop.

He also said during an appearance on The Steam Room podcast with Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, "Woody Hayes is the last (coach) to win multiple national championships at Ohio State. That's something I've now set for myself. To be the next head coach to win multiple national championships at Ohio State. There's still a lot more to be done."

It's quite the goal, but he now has the long-term stability to pursue it following this contract extension.

Ohio State reportedly didn't have to look far for its next offensive coordinator.

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports reported Wednesday that the reigning national champions plan to promote co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to the full-time O.C. position.

This comes after former O.C. Chip Kelly departed to fill the same role with the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL.

That the Buckeyes would promote Hartline comes as no surprise and further guarantees he will remain with his alma mater after he previously interviewed for head-coaching jobs elsewhere.

After all, he is widely considered one of—if not the—best wide receivers coaches and recruiters in the sport who has helped maintain the program's powerhouse status during his eight seasons on the staff.

Hartline has recruited and worked with a long list of star wide receivers, including Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, among others.

He also played at Ohio State before an NFL career that included back-to-back seasons of more than 1,000 receiving yards with the Miami Dolphins in 2012 and 2013.

Ohio State certainly didn't want to risk losing Hartline without a promotion after Kelly left, and now he will have the opportunity to further prove himself in a different role.

However, it remains to be seen if Hartline is given full play-calling capabilities in the offense even after this promotion.

After all, head coach Ryan Day has an offensive background and, as Pete Nakos of On3 pointed out, took over play-calling in 2023 after O.C. Kevin Wilson left for Tulsa. Day called plays that season even though Hartline held the official O.C. role.

Day then took a different approach in 2024 and went out and hired Kelly as a high-profile outside addition. In doing so, the head coach took more of a step back from consistent play-calling and played the CEO and game-management role that many head coaches do.

It was hard to argue with the results, as the Buckeyes went on to win the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff national championship. They were barely even threatened in their four CFP games, winning each of them by double digits and trailing for a grand total of fewer than seven minutes across the four contests.

Perhaps Day will give Hartline more play-calling responsibilities this time around, especially after such a strategy with Kelly resulted in Ohio State winning the national title.

If he does, the new O.C. will immediately be put to the test seeing how the Scarlet and Gray open the 2025 campaign with a home game against Texas.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day's victory tour following the team's victory in the College Football Playoff Championship took him to late night television.

Appearing on Monday's episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (starts at 2:14 mark), Day joked that he came "right back down to earth" immediately after the game as a result of the viral moment when a golf cart carrying him and two players crashed into a wall in the tunnel at Mercedes-Benz Stadium following the Buckeyes' 34-23 win over Notre Dame.

Another topic that Fallon asked about was an old social media post from LeBron James when he asked about college eligibility in a sport besides basketball.

Day joked that he would give James a spot on the Ohio State football team, but he would be "right in line with the freshman" and "have to work his way up" to get snaps on Saturdays.

James accepted the coach's terms with his response on social media:

James has often talked about the possibility of being a football player, including saying in 2011 that he had an offer to tryout for the Dallas Cowboys:

"I would have made the team. I would have tried out, but I would have made the team. One thing about it, I don't mind working for something, so if I would have had to try out for the Cowboys or the Seahawks, or if I'd have stayed home and went back home to Cleveland, I'd have tried (out), but I would have made the team. I just know what I'm capable of doing on the football field. Especially at that age."

Despite James' confidence about being able to have played in the NFL if he really gave it his best effort, it's safe to say he made the right career choice given how things are still going for him in the NBA.

Plus, depending on which position James played, it would have been tough to get snaps for the Buckeyes this season. Their receiver room featured freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka.

Carnell Tate was the No. 3 wideout and he had 733 receiving yards this season.

James gets the best of both worlds because he's still one of the best basketball players and he got to celebrate Ohio State's fifth national title by attending the College Football Playoff Championship Game in Atlanta.