Ohio State football loses another player to transfer portal

Perhaps I opened my mouth a bit too soon. Just last week, I wrote that the Ohio State football program wasn’t seeing as many transfers as usual after the Spring Game. Since then, two players have now entered the portal as they look to leave the Buckeyes.

Today it was Ben Christman. Christman is an offensive lineman that was a former four-star recruit when he came in the 2021 recruiting class. He stands at 6’6 and 315 pounds and can play tackle or guard. The problem is that he didn’t have any playing time in his first two years.

It didn’t look like he was going to see any playing time this year either, so he is now headed into the portal. Even with Christman not likely to see playing time this year, I think this is bad for the Ohio State football program heading into the Fall.

It’s bad because the offensive line is one of the weakest positions of depth on this team. Poor recruiting by former offensive line coach Greg Studrawa led to the Buckeyes being thin up front. To have them lose a guy who was a four-star recruit makes them even thinner.

Christman leaving makes sense for him personally. He has two years of eligibility left and he can go find somewhere that he can compete for a starting job. It makes all the sense in the world that he would enter the portal. I just wish he hadn’t so the Buckeyes could keep a bit more depth.

I hope this means that the Buckeyes are going to get a tackle or two in the portal because they still need depth at that position. It would be a shame for them to have injuries up front and then have to put in guys that they don’t trust yet.