Freshmen standing out
In addition to Bey, the two names to keep an eye on are Henry Jr. and Boyd in the wide receivers room. Guilford also saw work with the starters during camp, and should remain in contention to contribute, but his buzz wasn't as loud in the spring as his fellow 2026 classmates.The pair arrived to campus in two different fashions, as Henry was a five-star recruit out of California and national powerhouse Mater Dei, while Boyd was a three-star from Texas, but he became the third-fastest Buckeye to lose their black stripe.
Henry has seen more work with the projected starters than Boyd, who had a couple of red zone touchdowns during 7-on-7 work. Boyd has been with the twos, but has also worked as a punt returner all three days. Despite not seeing a ton of work with Sayin, that didn't stop him from earning an elite comparison at Big Ten Media Days, and he'll for sure remain in the mix for snaps throughout the season.
“I think those guys in particular are really fighting hard. I think they can see it. We saw enough in them in the spring to lead us to believe that they can help us this year. The question is, 'how early and how much?' And that's what preseason is gonna be about.”– Ryan Day on Chris Henry Jr. and Brock Boyd
Besides the group listed above, Cincere Johnson has done positive things at middle linebacker, safety Simeon Caldwell briefly got some run with the ones on Saturday and the 6-foot-7, 320-pound frame of Sam Greer was certainly accurate.
The thing with freshmen now is they're viewed differently after the five-for-five ruling, where athletes have been granted five years to play five seasons, starting with full-time enrollment or the academic year after turning 19 years old, which Day noted.
"Everybody's playing now. The whole redshirt idea doesn't really exist moving forward," Day said. "So first off, everybody in the program should have the idea that they're fighting for positions, fighting for playing time, wanting to get on the field."
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