5 Ohio State football preseason camp position battles to watch from quarterback to punter

The roster retention by Ohio State this offseason resulted in continuity.

Sixteen starters returned for the Buckeyes, a situation that seemingly leaves fewer spots on the depth chart up for grabs this year.

But there are still a handful of position battles to monitor when preseason training camp opens on Thursday. Important ones, too. The Buckeyes must replace Kyle McCord at quarterback after he transferred to Syracuse last winter.

Here are the five most important competitions to watch ahead of the season opener against Akron on Aug. 31 .

Quarterback

All eyes will be behind center.

The Buckeyes must sort through their options at quarterback, which included as many as five passers rotating in spring practice.

Coach Ryan Day is looking to be more deliberate about dividing reps after the first four practices , a plan that is likely to put Devin Brown and Will Howard at the center of the competition.

Brown pushed McCord to start last August as a redshirt freshman and has kept himself in the mix. He has been in the program for two and a half years.

But Howard is the most experienced. A super senior who used his final year of eligibility to transfer to Ohio State , he made 27 starts at Kansas State the last four years.

Howard is also able to use his legs as well as his arm, a trait Day is looking to see out of his starter after McCord was limited as a runner last year.

It’s been three months since the Buckeyes last practiced together, but Howard has stood out in strength and conditioning workouts this summer.

“When you’re in the weight room, you get a little taste of what guys are like, who they really are,” cornerback Denzel Burke said. “I’ve seen flashes of him being a dog and being a leader. That’s going to correlate to the field.

“Just being able to see that and the moments we have together as a team and how he moves around and acts, I’m really excited.”

Tight end

Gee Scott Jr. is the frontrunner to take over as the starting tight end after backing up Cade Stover last season and lining up with the first-team offense in spring practice.

But there are other options at a position that figures to be wide open for snaps.

Those include Will Kacmarek, a transfer from Ohio , and Jelani Thurman, a 6-foot-6 sophomore with tantalizing physical traits.

Kacmarek, who is regarded for his blocking, is experienced. He logged 935 snaps at the position in the Mid-American Conference the last two seasons, nearly twice as many as Scott saw in 2023 and 2022.

If he can adjust to the highest level of the Football Bowl Subdivision, he could make a push in camp, along with Thurman who goes through his second year at Ohio State.

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Offensive line

The Buckeyes are sorting out two spots along the interior of the offensive line between center and right guard.

Alabama transfer Seth McLaughlin, who made 25 starts at center with the Crimson Tide , has appeared to have a slight edge over Carson Hinzman, who anchored the line for Ohio State last fall .

“He’s the center,” Day said. “Carson’s going to play some center as well. We're going to see how that all shakes out coming out of the preseason.”

Day acknowledged earlier this week that Hinzman and McLaughlin can also swing between center and guard, which could put either of them in the mix on the right side with tackles Luke Montgomery and Tegra Tshabola.

Montgomery and Tshabola vied last offseason to start at right and left tackle with Josh Fryar and Josh Simmons, respectively.

Linebacker

It would have been easy to pencil in C.J. Hicks as the replacement for Steele Chambers at weakside linebacker in January.

But that was before Sonny Styles, one of the Buckeyes’ top tacklers while starting at safety last season, switched positions in spring practice .

While there is a bit of a learning curve for Styles, playing near the line of scrimmage won’t be unfamiliar.

In his two seasons with the Buckeyes, he has seen 41.5% of his snaps come either in the box or at the line.

As the position battle widened, Hicks still looked capable in spring practice and led Ohio State with eight tackles in the spring game.

A tight competition between the two former five-star recruits from the 2022 class appears likely.

Punter

The Buckeyes must replace Jesse Mirco, who transferred to Vanderbilt in January after he had been their starting punter since 2021.

There is a mixture of options, including two recent additions to the roster.

While Joe McGuire was the primary punter in spring practice, Nick McLarty, a freshman from Australia , and Anthony Venneri, a transfer from Buffalo , enrolled this summer.

Day remarked this week that McLarty, who stands 6-foot-7, has a “big leg,” but is young.

Venneri is the most experienced among them, having handled punts for the Bulls the last two seasons, averaging 43.5 yards per attempt. The Football Writers Association of America named him a freshman All-American in 2022.

“Those guys are important,” Day said, “so we’ll see what it looks like.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @ joeyrkaufman or email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 Ohio State football preseason camp position battles to watch from quarterback to punter