Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. is the man the rest of OSU's defense is seemingly built around. Who his counterpart at Ohio State's other DE spot is one of the biggest questions Matt Patricia has to answer in spring practice.
Thus far through the first two weeks of spring practice, there's been a little bit of clarity between the three players involved, but not much when it comes to who will emerge as the top edge rusher in the rotation.
Per Eleven Warriors' Dan Hope, "Who will start opposite Jackson appears to be a three-way competition between sophomore Zion Grady, fifth-year senior Beau Atkinson, and Alabama transfer Qua Russaw. There’s no clear pecking order in that competition right now, but the early intrigue centers around Grady, who Jackson said has “all the tools” to be a great defensive end, and Russaw, who was more of a hybrid linebacker than a true defensive end at Alabama but showed plenty of explosiveness and power in his first two practices as a Buckeye."
Qua Russaw has uphill battle against Zion Grady
Russaw needs to win the starting job more urgently than Grady. Russaw is the one who needs to prove he's not just years of hype with no payoff. Either way, even if Grady doesn't win the starting job, he'll push for snaps. In 2025, he received 104 snaps in a crowded room that included Caden Curry, who's off to the NFL.
Russaw is under pressure to prove that Nick Saban wasn't wrong to see something in him when he brought him over as part of his final recruiting class in Tuscaloosa. He's under pressure to prove that he belongs at the top of the depth chart at a blue-blood school.
We'll see if he can win an uphill battle in spring practice that will carry over into the fall and will persist throughout the entire 2026 season.