Ohio State Football gets a RB in the transfer portal to play LB

The Ohio State football team has one of the best running back rooms in the country. They have one of the best running backs in the country as well in TreVeyon Henderson. Even so, teams can always use more depth at any position on the team.

You would have thought that’s what new transfer DeaMonte Trayanum would give them. He is a running back from Arizona State that is originally from Akron. In fact, Trayanum ran for 6 touchdowns this season. But the Buckeyes won’t be using him on offense. They’ll be using him for defense.

Trayanum is coming to Ohio State to play linebacker. It’s somewhat of an odd move for a major program to pursue someone on the other side of the ball to have someone switch positions, but the Buckeyes have experience turning running backs into linebackers. They did that with Steele Chambers.

The Ohio State football team needs some help at linebacker. With Dallas Gant and Craig Young leaving, their depth at linebacker is a problem. Bringing in someone else from the transfer portal won’t hurt. It will be interesting to see how Trayanum fits into the roster though.

My guess is that Trayanum wouldn’t have transferred in if he wasn’t given assurances that he had a real chance to play. He wouldn’t have changed positions either if he wasn’t given some assurances as well. Whether or not he competes for a starting job is another question.

I’m surprised that Ryan Day went this route to fix the linebacker depth. I understand there weren’t many other options in the transfer portal, but this is a very odd way to go. Trayanum hasn’t played linebacker since high school, and that was three years ago.

He has no experience playing linebacker at the collegiate level, so I’m really interested to find out how well he can adjust.