The Buckeyes Are Springing Forward Into The 2025 Season

Ohio State concluded its spring practice sessions with the spring game on April 12th, and despite some voiced concerns by Ohio State head coach Ryan Day about the Ohio State defensive line (more on that momentarily), the Buckeyes head into the crucial summer workout periods having fulfilled one of the most crucial concerns – staying healthy. I can only guess that Coach Day and his assistant coaches collectively exhaled once the spring game finished.

With the unveiling of the national championship rings at the spring game, as well as the subsequent visit by the team and coaches to The White House on April 14th, it truly feels as though the 2024 season has been officially celebrated and placed into its proper place within the program’s mindset.

Yes, the 2024 season provided an abundance of memories that will always be cherished by those within the program, but the message from this upcoming season’s leaders was that it was crucial to focus on 2025, and not keep looking back at 2024.

Banners celebrating the 2024 season have been taken down within the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, prompting Day to state, “That was a good start because that’s the right mentality to have. We’ve got to start this thing from scratch and go from there.”

The spring transfer portal window officially opened on April 16th, and it remains to be seen how active the Buckeyes will be at tweaking their roster. Ohio State has players such as Kayden McDonald and Eddrick Houston projected as the starters along their defensive line in 2025, but Coach Day gave the impression that the Buckeyes may be looking for additional defensive line depth in the transfer portal, saying, “It seemed to me like there was just a lot of knockback on the offensive side of the ball here. But then again, I don’t want to make any judgments until I watch the film.”

As I have written previously, Ohio State has used the spring game as a barometer to identify areas for improvement. No matter how many individuals Ohio State may add to their 2025 roster, it certainly seems that the mindset is looking forward, and leaving the past behind as memories to be treasured.