Ohio State’s Passing Game Had a YAC Problem in 2025 – And Fixing It Could Define the Buckeyes’ Offense in 2026​

For the first time in the transfer portal era, Ohio State added a wide receiver from the transfer portal – two, to be exact. It also added a new wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator.

Part of that was due to the attrition that happens in today's college football landscape, but Brian Hartline taking his talents to South Florida also played a part. However, another reason is that Ohio State needs to have a more explosive passing attack, one that generates more yards after the catch.

In 2025, Ohio State had 3,755 receiving yards as a team. Only 1,595 of those yards came after the catch (5.1 YAC/reception), per Pro Football Focus. The Buckeyes were the 15th-worst Power Four team in that category. After averaging 5.2 YAC/REC during an undefeated regular season, OSU averaged only 4.7 YAC/REC in its two postseason losses (4.0 vs. Indiana and 5.3 vs. Miami).

It's the worst OSU has been in that category throughout an entire season since 2020, when it averaged 4.5 yards after catch per reception.

Only five Buckeyes had more than 100 yards after catch last season, led by Jeremiah Smith, whose 378 YAC were tied for the 50th-most in the country. While 10 Ohio State players averaged more than 5.0 YAC/REC, only two of those players had more than 100 yards after catch, and none were a wide receiver who had more than six receptions.

The Buckeyes had two of the best receivers in the country (a top-four pick in the 2025 NFL draft and arguably the best player in college football in both 2025 and 2026), yet Ohio State’s pass-catchers didn’t make many game-changing plays after the catch.

Top Five Buckeyes in Yards After Catch in 2025
For comparison's sake, Indiana and Miami – the only two teams to beat Ohio State last season and the national championship matchup – had 1,712 yards after catch (5.9 YAC/REC) and 2,384 yards after catch (6.7 YAC/REC), respectively. Malachi Toney led the country in the statistic, with 841 (7.7 YAC/REC).

"It's something that's definitely an emphasis point," Day said. "I think we've been solid at it, but I certainly think we can get better."

Smith agreed. After he had 491 yards after catch (6.5 YAC/REC) as a freshman in 2024, those numbers dropped to 378 and 4.3 in 2025. However, it was a problem for the entire group, not just for the star wide receiver.

"We really had no guys that had juice when they had the ball in their hands," Smith said in the spring. “I am always trying to find ways to get better. This offseason to really try to advance my IQ of the game, be better at yards after the catch. That really is the biggest emphasis in our wide receiver room this year, especially a goal for us.”

Given its importance for Ohio State’s passing attack to take another step and reach its full potential, the Buckeyes have been focused on improving in making plays after the catch since the beginning of the offseason. Hiring Cortez Hankton to replace Hartline was the first step in doing so. A college wide receivers coach since 2012, Hankton has a proven track record of developing receivers who gain yards after the catch.

YAC/REC of Teams with Cortez Hankton as WRs Coach Over the Last Five Years
"It's a part of my personality, just in terms of who I am and what I've coached over a number of years," Hankton said in March. "And it was something I felt like we could improve on. And so when I came in, Coach ironically said, 'Hey, this is an area where I could feel like we can improve.' And so I felt like it was right in my wheelhouse."

Ohio State's wide receivers have taken notice since Hankton came to Columbus in January.

"Just making guys miss. That's really it. Running through a soft shoulder," Smith said of how Hankton has coached him to gain more yards after catch. "Coach Hankton does a good job of showing me clips and stuff like that about how to run through a soft shoulder and making guys miss. I feel like that's something y'all gonna see from me a lot this year."
.
.
.
continued

Absolute kick in the balls season ending kind of 9th inning meltdown.

2 outs and your so called ace close has the 130 hitting #8 hitter in a 0-2 count and can't finish him off

Then he walks the #9 hitter

Then Rocchio commits an error that allows the tying run to score

Gutless team

ScriptOhio said:

Ohio State five-star WR recruit Jett Harrison signs huge NIL Deal

The 2028 prospect has already signed an NIL deal, despite not enrolling in school for two more seasons.

scarletandgame.com

Ohio State five-star WR recruit Jett Harrison signs huge NIL Deal​

The 2028 prospect has already signed an NIL deal, despite not enrolling in school for two more seasons.

Ohio State landed a commitment from five-star receiver Jett Harrison a few weeks ago. He became the first blue-chip recruit for the Buckeyes in the 2028 recruiting class. He is the brother of all-time great Marvin Harrison Jr. Of course, he is also getting a healthy amount of NIL money to come to Columbus.

The Buckeyes don't disclose how much their deals are worth publicly. However, they allow their athletes to sign with any company, including competitors of their sponsors. That's what Harrison has done, as he has signed a shoe deal with a competitor of school sponors Nike.

Ohio State recruit Jett Harrison signs NIL deal with New Balance​

An ad by New Balance has been released, showing Harrison catching footballs. They have announced an NIL deal with Harrison, even though he is two years away from enrolling at Ohio State. High school students in certain states are allowed to receive NIL deals.

In the ad, the entire Harrison family can be seen. Perhaps the entire family has decided to sign a deal, which is why they wanted to include Jett Harrison in it. If this is what it takes for the Buckeyes to bring him in, this is certainly worth it from a business perspective.

Harrison is rated as the fourth-best recruit in the 2028 recruiting class. He is also listed as the second-best receiver in the class. While the specifics of this NIL deal have not been released, it's unlikely that this is the only NIL deal that he will be getting once he gets to Columbus.

In order for Harrison to be worth all of his NIL money, he needs a good quarterback to be throwing him the ball. The Buckeyes are working on that, and they are projected to land five-star quarterback Christopher Vargas this weekend, who is also in the 2028 recruiting class.
.
.
.
continued

Login to view embedded media

Click to expand...

I love the commercial, great ad. Glad he can take advantage of that.

brodybuck21 said:

11W Forums

305Buck 4 hours ago
Kemon Spell hasn’t ruled out visiting Miami and other schools for games this season. This was always what I expected to happen with the numbers being thrown around for DGG. There was no way Spell wasn’t going to want more money.
Birm has indicated that Ohio State has no interest in paying what it would take to flip him from Georgia.

Click to expand...

It's pretty clear what our position is on breaking the NIL bank on a RB...not happening. And I'm not opposed to it at all, spend that money on the OL and get a RB on the cheap beat the same tier.

johnson2443 said:

This is a shocking DL to have on one college team let alone a high school.

Click to expand...

No joke, that's not even fair. I'm not sure what you even do about that at the HS level. Run a screen 80% of the time?

BuckBackHome said:

WOW! Those passes are a thing of beauty.

Click to expand...

For his size, that's an incredibly compact delivery. Pair that with a cannon and I can see why he's so highly rated. Really hope he winds up in Columbus, this kid is for real.

Pagan back to his old self. Probably get Santillan back in 2 weeks. Losing Hunter hurts but these pencil dicks are still fighting at least.

He's not gonna be hitting 9 long

Genao again!! His 4th hit gives us a 5-4 lead

buckeyemania11 said:

Genao the first Cleveland player with 3 hits in his debut since the legendary Gomer Hodge in 1971

Click to expand...

Try again!

Ok for some reason my brain was thinking the Ohio exhibition thing was today

Bestbuck36 said:

Wasn't that game today? Maybe I'm off on my date

Click to expand...

I posted today (8/5) was the scheduled return date of their Puerto Rico trip.

Genao the first Cleveland player with 3 hits in his debut since the legendary Gomer Hodge in 1971

Buckeyes are different

"Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. " - Mike Tyson

It's almost always about adjusting. The games we shit the bed we were either too slow to adjust or didn't at all.

Yeah our schedule alone should shut people tf up but, nope, still stupid

Geesh, Skenes has disintegrated before our eyes

Tanner said:

To me, the biggest criticism you can make about Day is his teams sometimes don't seem to have a plan B when plan A isn't working

Click to expand...

Nobody is perfect.

He seems to avoid the weird mid-season game where it looks like they'd never played football before like Urban had....and even though Tressel was an offensive-minded coach, his teams always seem to move the ball inefficiently.

The fun part is plan A usually works so damn well....it's hard to sometimes put too much time into plan B. So I think most of us understand that, even if we wish there would be a more cohesive plan B at times...

Brock Burke just out here every night earning his paycheck. Beautiful thing to see