Ohio State football lands huge safety from the transfer portal

The Ohio State football team is expected to be really good next year, especially on defense. They were in the top five in most major categories and they were in the top 10 in the ones they weren't. Most of those guys from that defense are coming back too.

Now the Buckeyes added even more talent to that defense. They were able to land Alabama safety Caleb Downs from the transfer portal. Downs was a five-star recruit in the 2023 class and chose Bama over Ohio State and Georgia. Now that Nick Saban has retired, he wants to come to Columbus.

This is a massive get for the Ohio State football program. Downs was a Freshman All-American and was a key piece of Alabama's defense last season. Downs had 107 tackles as a freshman and is excellent against both the run and the pass. Adding him to the secondary seems almost unfair.

Downs will join Denzel Burke, Jordan Hancock, Lathan Ransom, and Sonny Styles in the secondary. Styles will play a hybrid safety/linebacker position so Downs can slide in more efficiently. The rest of the defense is just as stout as the secondary is too.

This makes the Buckeyes one of the favorites to win the national championship next season. Ryan Day is pulling out all the stops in a season he knows could be his last if he isn't able to win big. He is trying his absolute best to use the talent around him the best that he can.

Ohio State might not be done in the portal either. There is still an offensive lineman and a quarterback that they have their eye on. We'll see if anything else happens, but this was the big one. Keeping Downs away from Georgia is huge for a team that has a lot of momentum heading into next year.