Early enrollees, transfer portal additions highlight Ohio State debut 2024 spring practice
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is officially preparing for the 2024 season.
The Buckeyes started the first of their 15 spring practices on Tuesday and while there were plenty of familiar faces at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, it was the new ones that caught our attention.
Sixteen early enrollees from the 2024 class and a plethora of transfer portal additions took the field as Buckeyes for the first time. Jeremiah Smith, Aaron Scott Jr., Julian Sayin, Air Noland, Bryce West, Miles Lockhart, Jaylen McClain, James Peoples, Garrett Stover, Sam Williams-Dixon, Payton Pierce, Ian Moore, Deontae Armstrong, Devontae Armstrong, Eddrick Houston and Eric Mensah all had their first Ohio State practice.
But they weren’t alone in making their first practice as Buckeyes. Transfer portal additions Will Howard, Quinshon Judkins, Seth McLaughlin, Caleb Downs and Will Kacmarek all had their debut Ohio State practice on Tuesday as well.
Head coach Ryan Day and new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly spoke after the Buckeyes’ first practice with plenty of comments about the quarterbacks, play calling and their relationship. There are five quarterbacks on the roster, three of them have been at Ohio State for less than two months.
“At least in the first quarter of the spring, we’re just going to let them go play and just get a bunch of reps and roll them,” Day said Tuesday after the Buckeyes’ first practice of the spring. “I think as that starts to settle a little bit, we’ll start to maybe make sure guys are getting the reps with the ones that need to. But we’re going to let them compete. It’s hard for us to say to someone like Julian Sayin or Lincoln [Kienholz] or Air [Noland] or whoever, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come in here and compete’ when the first thing they do is take a bunch of reps with the threes. … We’ll compete. We have the fortunate of having a little bit of time right now.”
Ohio State has its second practice on Thursday with another media viewing opportunity. But with the glow of the first practice still in the air, Lettermen Row rolls out its first photo gallery of the year.
