The Ohio State football program has taken a lot of criticism for not using NIL money on incoming recruits. It has cost them several five-star recruits during the 2026 cycle, and it will likely continue to do so before Signing Day. While that is true, they have spent money on the transfer portal.
The Ohio State Buckeyes have used NIL money to sway some big-time transfers to come to Columbus over the last few years. By and large, they have a fantastic hit rate when it comes to the Transfer Portal. That hit rate may be lower after this offseason.
Bringing in players like Max Klare and Beau Atkinson already looks like they are fantastic additions. One player looks like he was a waste of NIL money because he can't even crack the top two at either tackle spot after getting paid over $1 million to play for the Buckeyes.
The Ohio State football team looks like they wasted money on Ethan Onianwa
Ohio State paid over $1 million to bring in Ethan Onianwa from Rice. He was expected to be the starting left tackle this season after Ohio State lost four starters on the offensive line. Instead, he might barely be the backup right guard based on reports out of training camp.
Austin Siereveld looks like he will be the starting right tackle. Phillip Daniels, a transfer from Minnesota, has made a surge to start at right tackle. Tegra Tshabola seems to have won the battle at right guard. That means Onianwa has now turned into a very expensive backup.
That's a pretty big miss when it comes to an evaluation of a player that costs that much money. He should be a pretty good backup, but college programs don't spend that much money to bring in a backup offensive lineman. That money could have been used on one of those top recruits instead.
Ryan Day hasn't announced the starters quite yet, but it looks like this is how things are straightening up up front. If this ends up being the case, it could be a huge miscalculation on how to use the NIL funds for this team moving forward.
Day has done a fabulous job of identifying talent in the portal. This would be his first definite miss. It's a bad one, but it's not one that fans can be furious about. Day has earned the trust of the fans when it comes to portal talent.