There are slim pickings in the portal. Taking a look at 247 Sports’ transfer portal rankings, you see that five of the top 22 players are linemen.
But you don’t see another listed until #73 and, in all, only seven of the top 100 players are linemen.
When you take a deeper dive, you find that two of those seven are true freshmen who have never suited up for a college football game, much less played in one.
Of the others, two committed to their new schools in December, one followed his head coach to a new school, and another transferred to a new school only to transfer back to his original school after just a few months.
The only one of those seven who hit the open transfer market was Lance Heard, formerly of LSU.
But he never showed any interest in the Buckeyes. There just is not anyone available who can come in and compete for a starting job.
After being unhappy with right guard, Ryan Day and his offensive staff looked at the Spring Game tape and came away feeling there was someone who showed the ability to grow into the role of a starter.
This is a line of thinking I’ve heard from a few insiders who cover the program daily.
