Ohio State isn’t going to replace Kayden McDonald with one player, and that’s the whole point.
McDonald’s final season was the kind of run that leaves a real void. He finished with 65 tackles, nine tackles for loss for 29 total yards, three sacks, two forced fumbles and two pass break-ups. He piled up a career-high eight tackles in three different games last season - against Texas, Penn State and Miami - and he earned Bronko Nagurski national defensive player of the week honors after the Buckeyes beat Washington, when he posted seven tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks.
That production came with the hardware to match. Before the Texans took him 36th overall in the NFL draft, McDonald was a unanimous first-team All-American, the Big Ten’s defensive lineman of the year, a finalist for the Outland Trophy and a first-team All-Big Ten selection.
So yes, the Buckeyes are losing a star. But the answer in 2026 doesn’t have to be another Kayden McDonald. It has to be a room that works together, with four defensive tackles covering for one another and recreating the production, power and reliability McDonald brought to the field.
That’s why the shape of this group matters so much. Ohio State appears headed for another four-man rotation, and that setup makes sense with the personnel on hand.
Last season, McDonald handled most of the nose tackle work while Will Smith Jr. backed him up. Tywone Malone Jr. and Eddrick Houston split time at three-technique after Houston, slowed by a knee injury, lost his starting job to the redshirt senior.
Now the room looks different. Smith Jr. and Houston are back, and they’re joined by John Walker, a transfer from UCF, and James Smith, a transfer from Alabama who is listed at 6-foot-2, 314 pounds.
Houston is the name that jumps off the page. He’s fully recovered from the injury and coming off a strong spring, and he has one of the highest ceilings in the group.
This feels like the year the former five-star finally turns promise into production and becomes a leader up front. He may not replace McDonald by himself, but he has the kind of ability that can raise the level of the entire room.
By season’s end, he could be an All-Big Ten caliber tackle, and if that happens, it gives the rest of the rotation cleaner roles and a path to elite play.
Houston and James Smith were the standouts in spring practice, but they do the same basic job, which means Ohio State may have to get creative to keep both on the field. There could be times when Smith slides to nose tackle, but the most likely starting setup is Houston at three-technique with Smith rotating in behind him.
At nose tackle, Walker looked steady in spring practice. He probably won’t duplicate McDonald’s dominance, but he doesn’t have to.
He should share reps with Smith Jr., who has the ability to become a real problem as a pass rusher. Together, they give Ohio State enough quality to avoid a major dropoff.
That’s the advantage of a true four-man rotation. Each player can lean into what he does best, and nobody has to carry the load snap after snap. It also gives defensive line coach Larry Johnson a chance to keep the group fresh over the course of a long season.
Johnson’s standard is always high, and his track record suggests he can get this unit moving quickly even if there’s some early-season adjustment. Most people expect some decline from last year because McDonald is gone, but the Buckeyes have enough depth and enough complementary skill to make that dip manageable.
And the schedule makes that depth matter even more. With Indiana, Michigan and Texas on the slate, Ohio State will need its defensive tackles to help wear teams down, control the line of scrimmage and make life harder for offenses late. Fresh legs in the middle could end up being more valuable than one marquee name in the 12-team playoff era.
If the Buckeyes are waiting for one player to become McDonald, they may be waiting a while. If they let the whole group do the job, the pieces are there for this unit to exceed expectations. The talent is real, the rotation makes sense, and the ceiling is high enough that this could end up as one of the best defensive tackle groups in the Big Ten, if not the country, even with a McDonald-sized hole in the middle.
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Ohio State Is Suddenly Making Noise For A Tough SEC Country Target
Ohio States recruiting momentum has already shown up in the class with commitments from five-star offensive tackle Marcus Fakatou and four-star lineman Karlos May, even as the Buckeyes took a miss on five-star running back David Gabriel Georges, who picked Tennessee. Now the attention has shifted to a different kind of target in four-star safety CJ Craig-James, a player from SEC country who has kept Ohio State in the mix and given the Buckeyes reason to believe this one is not as long a shot as it once looked.
Craig-James has already trimmed his list and included Ohio State among the schools still standing, which matters for a program trying to keep its foot in the door with elite defensive backs. The next step is the one that tends to separate real contenders from hopefuls, and Ohio State likely needs to get him on campus for a game-day visit to stay in the conversation, even though no date has been set yet. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Just Crossed A Line College Football Fans Saw Coming
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For college sports fans, the bigger takeaway is how quickly the ground is shifting around traditional power programs, and Notre Dame is now leaning into that reality in a very visible way. The partnership puts a premium on long-term support for athletes, but it also signals how aggressively schools are monetizing their brands in ways that would have been hard to imagine not long ago, especially for a program that has long guarded its image so closely. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Just Entered A New Era With JPMorgan Chase
Ohio State athletics is heading into a new commercial era, one that reaches far beyond the football field. The school announced a partnership with JPMorgan Chase that will put the banks logo on jerseys across all 36 varsity sports beginning in the 2026-27 season, adding another visible layer to a department that continues to operate on a bigger, more corporate stage than ever before.
The agreement also brings support for NIL opportunities and financial literacy programs for student-athletes, which gives the deal a broader purpose than simple branding. With the partnership reportedly worth nearly $17 million annually, it underscores how major athletic departments are increasingly tying competitive, financial and educational priorities together, even if the full impact of this one will not be felt until the new era officially arrives. [Read more 🡒]