Ohio State football might have an unexpected new starter on offense with key player potentially losing their job
The Ohio State Buckeyes had a 1,000 yard rusher last season with Bo Jackson as a freshman. Now, it appears he may not be the Buckeyes’ starting running back to start the season.
The Ohio State Buckeyes opened fall camp this week in Columbus, and a surprising development has emerged from the first couple of practices.
Ohio State returns Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin as its 2 most important offensive players, but the running back position could see a real shakeup heading into the 2026 season.
Second-year running back Isaiah West has taken the majority of first-team reps, while returning 1,000-yard rusher Bo Jackson has worked with the second team. West’s offseason surge has him ahead on the depth chart at this point, it seems.
Only two practices into fall camp, it’s too early to make definitive proclamations. Still, when a returning starter is working with the second team while another player commands the first-team reps, it means something.
A year ago, Jackson didn’t open the season as Ohio State’s top rusher, but within a few games he established himself as the lead back. He finished the year with 1,090 yards and 6 touchdowns. West, on the other hand, was buried on the depth chart as the fourth running back at best to start 2025. By season’s end, he had climbed to the No. 2 spot with 310 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on just 59 attempts. He looked like the second-best back for the Buckeyes down the stretch.
Where West has potentially gotten a leg up is what he’s done in the offseason. Ohio State coach Ryan Day was glowing about what West had accomplished heading into Thursday’s opening practice. Day said:
“You can see his body, you can see the work he’s put in. Had a tremendous offseason, one of the best in the whole building,” Day said on Thursday. “Consistency. And when he was in there last year, he showed some real good things. So we want him to take the next step, just as we do Bo. But just Isaiah, one year in the program by the way, when you have the injury like he had, sometimes it takes a year or two to get back into it. We’re seeing him look the best physically he’s looked, so that’s exciting. But again, same thing, just day one.”
Day’s comment about the injury timeline is notable. West is now two years removed from a significant injury he suffered in high school, and the timeline suggests he could be reaching a point where he fully bounces back physically. Combined with the strong offseason West has had, it starts to explain why the running back is commanding first-team reps.
A deep backfield could be a win for Ohio State
Letterman Row’s Jeremy Birmingham offered some interesting insight on the early camp dynamic.
“Bo Jackson, who ran for more than a 1,000 yards as a freshman, working pretty exclusively with the second team on Thursday and Friday, is going to be getting a lot of touches for Carlos Locklyn,” Birmingham wrote. “But it’s no secret that Ohio State wants more out of its running backs. In the case of Jackson, maybe the surge from Isaiah West is a net-positive for his long-term development.”
No one was really expecting West to take the starting job heading into fall camp. Having two high-level backs would be a win for Ohio State, though. The Buckeyes had that kind of depth a couple of years ago with Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, and it paid dividends throughout the season.
It remains to be seen whether this early-camp trend holds through the rest of August and into the season opener. Either way, the competition at running back is now one of the more compelling storylines to follow as Ohio State prepares for the 2026 season.
