Ohio State football: Former top-rated recruit enters portal

The Ohio State football team didn’t have a lot of players enter the transfer portal right after the Spring Game, which is when most players do it if they are going to leave. It seemed like they were going to have a relatively smooth Spring in that regard except for losing a kicker.

That has changed after today. The Buckeyes are losing Caleb Burton, a former four-star wide receiver to the transfer portal. Burton came in from the 2022 class with a lot of hype around him. He was one of the many kids that the Buckeyes brought in from Texas.

Burton becomes the first member of the 2022 recruiting class to leave the team. Burton was slated to fight for playing time next year after the top four guys leave next year for the Draft, although Xavier Johnson could still come back and use his Covid year.

I’m a little surprised by this, but not shocked. The wide receiver room is the most packed room with talent on this roster. Unless you’re an absolute bona fide stud, you’re not going to play. Burton saw two five-star receivers commit for 2024 and decided it was too much competition.

Burton will go play somewhere else where he can compete for a starting job immediately. I do think he’s still very talented and can be a pretty good player. I just think he saw the writing on the wall as an Ohio State football player and decided to head out.

I’ll be interested to see where he ends up. He had offers from all of the major schools when he was in high school. He’s never started a game though. In fact, he’s never recorded a single stat in a college football game. He’s still very raw as a prospect.

We wish him all the best at his next stop, wherever that may be.