What are Ohio State football’s 5 biggest offseason questions?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State is a month removed from its national championship win, and with a full coaching staff again, the focus turns to spring practice.

Although the exact start date for spring practice is unknown, the Buckeyes plan to start after spring break, which is set for March 10-14.

Ryan Day said things will be different this year, with some of the biggest returning stars having a smaller workload than in previous years. Ohio State will need the extra reps for its younger players, as this will be a more inexperienced group than last season.

There are many questions surrounding this roster, but we’ll go through five of the biggest ones.

1. What will come of the quarterback battle?

Ohio State has another quarterback battle coming this offseason, but this year is different from the previous seasons.

Last year, while it wasn’t a guarantee, Will Howard was expected to win the quarterback battle against Devin Brown once Howard got comfortable as he had four years of college football experience.

Julian Sayin, right, and Lincoln Kienholz will compete for the Ohio State starting quarterback job entering the 2025-26 season. (Adam Cairns / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

The year before, when Brown battled Kyle McCord, McCord had been with the program for three years and Brown for two years, although neither had much game experience.

This season, it’ll be much different as Ohio State prepares to give the keys of the offense to either Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz. Neither player has made a start at Ohio State, although Kienholz played two and a half quarters of the team’s Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri after the 2023 season and completed 6 of 17 passes for 86 yards.

Both have multiple years left in eligibility and could give Ohio State a consistent starter for the first time since C.J. Stroud.

It’s hard to underestimate how important this offseason is for the future of the quarterbacks. Sayin is the favorite to win the job. The No. 1 quarterback in the 2024 class, he was the third-string quarterback last season, over Kienholz, and Day went out of his way to get Sayin playing time in garbage time of games this season.

Sayin completed 5 of 12 passes for 84 yards and one touchdown, showing off his quick release. He’s still young, but a good spring could do wonders for him with confidence and experience.

I expect this battle to go into preseason practice, much like the past two seasons, unless Kienholz decides to transfer in the spring window.

This quarterback battle, however, could set the tone for the future of Ohio State’s group. If Sayin wins the job, everything goes back to a normal timeline for the Buckeyes, of Sayin getting two years before going to the NFL and turning things over to top 2025 quarterback recruit Tavien St. Clair.

New quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler and Day have their work cut out for them this offseason, but they have a lot of young talent to work with.

2. Can Ohio State find the answers on the defensive line?

This is the biggest question on defense and arguably the biggest on the roster, depending on how you feel about the quarterbacks.

Ohio State’s 2024-25 season on defense can be broken down into three parts. There was the pre-Oregon time when the defensive identity wasn’t set. There was the post-Oregon run when Ohio State raised its blitz percentage and sent extra pressure more than 30 percent of the time in the five games leading up to facing Michigan. Ohio State even blitzed 60 percent of snaps against Purdue and 53 percent against Northwestern.

Then there’s the postseason defense that didn’t blitz much and relied on its defensive line to get stock pressure. In the College Football Playoff run, Ohio State’s blitz rate was just 14.1 percent, yet it tallied 18 sacks in those four games, the most in a four-game stretch the season. So, there are two things Ohio State needs to figure out with new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia: how much it wants to blitz and who can lead the stock pass rush this season. Although it’s going to be hard to equal the pressure that JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer brought, the coaches have to find something that can get close. Tuimoloau and Sawyer combined for 115 pressures, and Sawyer led the team with 64.

Kenyatta Jackson Jr. made headlines a few years ago in spring practice and had a good season even if he was a backup. He had 17 pressures on 189 pass rush snaps, and if Ohio State goes with a traditional four-man defensive line, Caden Curry will be the other defensive end. Curry had 13 pressures on 131 pass rush snaps last season.

Ohio State is going to have to figure out what its identity will be up front and then from there spend this offseason trying to develop more pass rushers.

3. Can the transfers get acclimated quickly on the offensive line?

Ohio State didn’t have a splashy transfer portal addition like last season, but it did a nice job filling some major holes in the roster. The biggest need was the offensive line, and Ohio State addressed those concerns by adding Ethan Onianwa from Rice and Phillip Daniels from Minnesota, who are both tackles.

The positive to having so many injuries last season is that Ohio State should be experienced along the interior of the offensive line with Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinzman, Tegra Tshabola and Austin Siereveld all back. They’ll compete for three interior positions, which leaves the tackle battles.

The transfers are the likely favorites to take the tackle spots, but players like Montgomery, Ian Moore, Deontae Armstrong, true freshman Carter Lowe and a few others will get some reps there.

Ohio State is hoping the transfers can come in and be impact players because there’s not much experience behind them at tackle. If the transfers can get adjusted to the new offense and Ohio State’s expectations quickly, this could be a talented group for new offensive line coach Tyler Bowen.

4. How much does Ohio State’s passing attack grow with Brian Hartline calling plays?

One of the obvious changes to Ohio State’s Playoff offense was the improved passing attack.

In the wins against Tennessee and Oregon, the Buckeyes threw for more than 300 yards in back-to-back games for just the first time in the season. They looked unstoppable when they were playing aggressively through the air.

Day was a big part of that in the game-planning room, but Hartline’s influence was an underrated part of Ohio State’s growth. He’s known as a stellar recruiter and developer when it comes to receivers, but he also showed off his knowledge of route concepts in a game-planning sense down the stretch. That stood out to Day, as he told Columbus TV station WBNS in an interview.

Hartline has had a front-row seat to watching how two of the best minds in football, Chip Kelly and Day, work and he should be prepared to call plays this season.

The perk to having Hartline call plays is that he’s a receivers coach and knows the smallest details of his players’ strengths and weaknesses. His understanding of route concepts should help maximize the production from his position group, but the question remains about how much that influence will change Ohio State’s offense.

I’d expect Ohio State’s offense to look similar. It’s not changing everything, but how much can Hartline influence the down-field aggressiveness? I’d expect the coaches to limit the risks early, especially with a new quarterback, but as Kienholz or Sayin get comfortable, Ohio State could start airing the ball out and showing off the depth at receiver.

5. Who emerges at running back?

Much like the defensive line, the running back group has been stripped dry of its 2024 production. TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins entered the 2025 NFL Draft and accounted for 2,123 of Ohio State’s 2,662 rushing yards last season. They combined for 24 touchdowns, and the only other running back with a touchdown was true freshman James Peoples, who had two.

He’s the favorite among the returners to take the starting job. Peoples, the No. 8 running back in the 2024 class, showed some flashes of elite talent last season. He averaged 4 yards per carry last season on 49 carries.

West Virginia transfer CJ Donaldson tallied 734 yards and 11 touchdowns while averaging 4.4 yards per carry.

Ohio State has been known to have elite running back talent each year. Even before Henderson broke onto the scene as a freshman, the Buckeyes had Trey Sermon in 2020 and JK Dobbins in 2019.

This is a crucial offseason for Ohio State because it’s a changing of the guard at running back, but it will want to keep the tradition going.

New running backs coach Carlos Locklyn has done a nice job with the group and recruited well in the 2025 class. There’s a chance Ohio State plays as many as three running backs in major snaps next season, and if that’s the case, there could be a freshman ready to make an immediate impact too. Freshmen Bo Jackson and Anthony “Turbo” Rogers are two candidates for that spot.

(Top photo of Ryan Day: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)