Max Klare Transferred To Ohio State To Become Complete Tight End

The first vote of confidence for Max Klare came from Ohio State safeties Lathan Ransom and Caleb Downs last season. After preparing for him and playing against him in 2024, the duo made sure to drop his name to OSU tight ends coach Keenan Bailey should Klare enter the transfer portal after the season.

After a redshirt sophomore season where he led the Purdue with 51 receptions for 685 yards and four touchdowns, Klare indeed entered the transfer portal following the 2024 season. A couple of days before Christmas, Klare announced he was transferring to Ohio State.

“It’s been great so far,” Klare said on Thursday of his time at Ohio State so far. “You know, the people have been great, all the players, everyone’s really embraced me. It feels like home and I can’t ask for a better place to be.”

One of the reasons Ohio State may feel like home is because Klare played his high school football in Ohio. A quarterback-turned-tight end at Cincinnati St. Xavier High School, Klare made a fast rise as a pass-catching tight end with the Boilermakers. He caught 22 passes for 196 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2023.

Now at Ohio State, Klare is being challenged not just by the Buckeye defense, but also by his fellow tight ends. There may be no deeper position room in college football than the Buckeye tight end room. There are six scholarship players all vying for playing time this spring, with a seventh arriving in June.

The increased competition wasn’t a drawback, it was a draw.

“I think just the environment and just the people here, you know what I mean, the coaches, so much experience and the players you get to play against every day, it’s going to make you better,” Klare explained.

Klare clearly has a good feel for the game as a route runner. He understands concepts and knows where the holes in a defense can be found. He works on being on the same page as his quarterback. All of those skills will be put to good use at Ohio State, but that’s not the only part of his game he wants to develop.

Klare’s 51 receptions last year would have been a school record for a tight end at Ohio State. The current record is 45, done twice by John Frank (1981, 1983). Klare’s numbers may dip this season, but his ability to threaten a defense will only increase. At Purdue, he was often the first option, and defenses knew it. Now a Buckeye, a defense can only allocate so many resources to stopping a tight end.

But Max Klare didn’t come to Ohio State just to catch passes. He chose the Buckeyes because of the opportunity to grow as a player.

“I mean, I liked everything [about Ohio State], but you know how coaches sometimes just tell you what you want to hear? You don’t always want that. You want someone that’s real and [Keenan Bailey] kept it real with me, you know? He showed some things that like I need to improve on, which I like to hear, but not everyone wants to hear.”

In terms of messaging from Bailey, Klare heard everything he wanted to, and it wasn’t about catching 50 passes or being in a pass-happy offense. It was about how tough things would be and how it wouldn’t just be about catching passes. That convinced Max Klare even more that Ohio State was the place he needed to be.

“Coach Kee, he hit on all the things I wanted to hear and some things I didn’t want to hear,” he explained. “And that’s real as a coach and you want to be in an environment that’s going to push you in all aspects of the game. And being a tight end, it’s not just about pass catching. You’ve got to block. That’s something that I want to keep developing, and going against these guys every day, I mean, running routes and blocking these guys every day, it’s going to make you better. I have a vision of where I want to be as a tight end and I think this place gives me the best opportunity to do that.”