Ohio State football scholarship picture: How the Buckeyes project by position for 2023

Two of the biggest dates on college football’s offseason calendar are in the rearview mirror.

The early entry deadline for the NFL draft passed last Monday. Two days later, the first transfer portal window closed.

Roster shuffling is never quite over in the sport. Graduate transfers remain permitted to put their names in the portal, and a second portal window is open in early May following spring practices.

But much of the movement is done, allowing for a more accurate peek into the scholarship situations for teams across the Bowl Subdivision.

Looking at Ohio State, the program projects to have 88 players on scholarship, including nine freshmen who are to enroll in the summer after they signed letters of intent during the early signing period last month. The NCAA maximum is 85, a limit teams must reach before the start of preseason training camp in August.

For the time being, here’s the Buckeyes’ unofficial scholarship tally.

Quarterback (4)

• Tristan Gebbia, r-senior

• Kyle McCord, junior

• Devin Brown, r-freshman

• Lincoln Kienholz, freshman

The preference for Ryan Day is to maintain four scholarship quarterbacks, offering a certain level of depth at the most important position. It’s a threshold the Buckeyes were unable to reach last fall as they did in 2021 and 2020, but they should be up to four for next season with last week’s addition of Oregon State transfer Tristan Gebbia.

Running back (5)

• Chip Trayanum, r-junior

• Miyan Williams, r-junior

• TreVeyon Henderson, junior

• Evan Pryor, r-sophomore

• Dallan Hayden, sophomore

The Buckeyes could have as many as five scholarship running backs if Chip Trayanum, who switched positions from linebacker in October, remains on offense, a preference he expressed before the Peach Bowl. It would match their total from this time a year ago before Marcus Crowley's medical retirement. The program did not sign a back during the early signing period last month, but the return of Miyan Williams for his fourth season helped to keep the backfield well stocked.

Wide receiver (13)

• Xavier Johnson, r-senior

• Julian Fleming, senior

• Emeka Egbuka, junior

• Marvin Harrison Jr., junior

• Jayden Ballard, r-sophomore

• Kojo Antwi, sophomore

• Kaleb Brown, sophomore

• Caleb Burton, r-freshman

• Kyion Grayes, r-freshman

• Brandon Inniss, freshman

• Bryson Rodgers, freshman

• Noah Rogers, freshman

• Carnell Tate, freshman

This position has as much returning production as anywhere on the roster, as the only scholarship receiver to depart was Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who appeared in limited snaps after injuring a hamstring in the season opener. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, who formed a potent 1,000-yard receiving duo, were sophomores, and Julian Fleming, a junior who was third on the team in receiving, put off the draft.

Tight end (6)

• Cade Stover, r-senior

• Gee Scott Jr., senior

• Joe Royer, r-junior

• Sam Hart, r-sophomore

• Bennett Christian, r-freshman

• Jelani Thurman, freshman

Cade Stover opted to return for a fifth season, leaving the Buckeyes with their top receiving tight end in a generation. The other returning tight ends caught only a combined seven passes to Stover’s 36 receptions in 2022. Those included five receptions by Gee Scott Jr. and two by Joe Royer.

Offensive line (18)

• Matt Jones, r-senior

• Vic Cutler, r-senior

• Enokk Vimahi, r-senior

• Josh Fryar, r-junior

• Jakob James, r-junior

• Trey Leroux, r-junior

• Grant Toutant, r-junior

• Donovan Jackson, junior

• Ben Christman, r-sophomore

• Zen Michalski, r-sophomore

• George Fitzpatrick, r-freshman

• Avery Henry, r-freshman

• Carson Hinzman, r-freshman

• Tegra Tshabola, r-freshman

• Luke Montgomery, freshman

• Joshua Padilla, freshman

• Austin Siereveld, freshman

• Miles Walker, freshman

The Buckeyes added a transfer in Vic Cutler, who was the starting left tackle at Louisiana Monroe, as another piece as they rebuild an offensive line that loses three out of five starters from last season — tackles Paris Johnson and Dawand Jones and center Luke Wypler. While much of Cutler’s experience is at tackle, he’ll compete for the starting spot at center. Expect position battles at the tackle spots, too. Zen Michalski and Josh Fryar are in line for those roles after they were backups last fall. Donovan Jackson and Matt Jones, who were the starting left and right guards, are back. Jones also has center experience as a reserve in previous seasons.

Defensive end (7)

• Jack Sawyer, junior

• J.T. Tuimoloau, junior

• Caden Curry, sophomore

• Omari Abor, r-freshman

• Kenyatta Jackson, r-freshman

• Jason Moore, freshman

• Joshua Mickens, freshman

The positioning of Jack Sawyer is something to watch this offseason. He settled in at the “jack” position, a hybrid defensive end-linebacker role in defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ scheme. But with Zach Harrison leaving for the NFL, could he line up as the end opposite J.T. Tuimoloau? Experience is limited on the edges of the Buckeyes' defensive line, especially with Javontae Jean-Baptiste transferring to Notre Dame for his final season of eligibility. Caden Curry is the only returning end who has played more than 24 snaps on defense.

Defensive tackle (7)

• Jaden McKenzie, r-senior

• Ty Hamilton, r-junior

• Tyleik Williams, junior

• Mike Hall, r-sophomore

• Hero Kanu, r-freshman

• Kayden McDonald, freshman

• Will Smith Jr., freshman

Most of the interior defensive line rotation is back with Ty Hamilton, Mike Hall and Tyleik Williams, who played the most snaps behind Taron Vincent last fall. Hall's 4.5 sacks were tied with Sawyer as the most among the Buckeyes, and he could seize a larger role after he was banged up for much of the fall.

Linebacker (8)

• Steele Chambers, r-senior

• Tommy Eichenberg, r-senior

• Cody Simon, senior

• Mitchell Melton, r-junior

• Reid Carrico, r-sophomore

• C.J. Hicks, sophomore

• Gabe Powers, r-freshman

• Arvell Reese, freshman

Both starting linebackers returned with Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers holding off on the draft, as did Cody Simon, who started 10 games in 2021 and stepped up last season as the third linebacker against heavier personnel teams. But there isn’t as much depth behind them. Ohio State, which had 10 scholarship linebackers a year ago, will be down to eight if Trayanum sticks it out at running back. Numbers could still remain around this mark moving forward with Knowles using a 4-2-5 base alignment that features only two linebackers as part of the second level.

Cornerback (6)

• Denzel Burke, junior

• Jordan Hancock, r-sophomore

• Jyaire Brown, sophomore

• Ryan Turner, r-freshman

• Jermaine Matthews, freshman

• Calvin Simpson-Hunt, freshman

Thin depth at this spot hurt the Buckeyes last season. As injuries piled up in the early weeks of the season, they began their Big Ten schedule in late September with only three scholarship cornerbacks available, prompting them to start freshmen in their conference opener against Wisconsin. The other three were all sidelined. The depth issue isn't going away. They’re set to have the same number of scholarship corners in 2023 barring any future activity in the portal this spring.

Safety (10)

• Josh Proctor, r-senior

• Ja’Had Carter, senior

• Lathan Ransom, senior

• Cameron Martinez, r-junior

• Kourt Williams, r-junior

• Kye Stokes, sophomore

• Sonny Styles, sophomore

• Jayden Bonsu, freshman

• Malik Hartford, freshman

• Cedrick Hawkins Jr., freshman

Ohio State lost two safeties to the portal last month, but also added Ja'Had Carter, a Syracuse transfer who was among the top available players at the position. He is a leading candidate to replace Tanner McCalister as the nickel safety. With Josh Proctor using his additional season of eligibility, given to all players as a result of the pandemic shortened season in 2020, he could help ease the loss of Ronnie Hickman, who was the starting free safety. The Buckeyes also had 10 scholarship safeties in 2022.

Special teams (4)

• Parker Lewis, r-junior

• Jake Seibert, r-junior

• Jesse Mirco, junior

• John Ferlmann, r-sophomore

This could be the second straight season in which the Buckeyes have four specialists on scholarship. Last year, that included Jesse Mirco, the punter, and three kickers in Parker Lewis, Jake Seibert and Noah Ruggles. With Ruggles’ eligibility up, the additional scholarship player is John Ferlmann, a transfer long snapper from Arizona State. He’s the first scholarship long snapper for Ohio State since Liam McCullough in 2019.

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at jkaufman@dispatch.com or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football 2023 position by position scholarship projection