The OSU football team lands Eli Brickhandler, while men’s hoops hopes to land Darrion Williams.
We’ve long known that Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes would need to add a fourth scholarship quarterback. Coming out of the spring, the roster only had three QBs, and none of them had much experience; in fact, the three combine for a total of 34 collegiate pass attempts (and only 15 completions).
While the position battle is going to come down to the heir apparent Julian Sayin (5-for-12 for 84 yards) and Lincoln Keinholz (10-for-22 for 111 yards), with true freshman Tavien St. Clair waiting in the wings, Day always likes to have a veteran guy in the mix, to serve as an emergency option and someone to show the young pups how to carry themselves as college signal callers.
Well, on Tuesday, the Buckeyes found their fourth in the form of former Houston Christian quarterback Eli Brickhandler — yes, that’s his real name.
OH-IO #OhioStateFootball pic.twitter.com/OkUvHFcdcZ
— Eli Brickhandler (@EliBrickhandler) May 20, 2025
Despite being a graduate transfer, the newest Buckeye has two years of eligibility remaining. He started his career at North Carolina A&T and then headed to Houston after two seasons. Last year, he shared the QB responsibilities with Cutter Stewart — also his real name — and completed just 49.4% of his passes (38-of-77) for 557 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions, adding 4 touchdowns on the ground; obviously not wildly exciting numbers if Ohio State ever needed to call on him to take the offensive reigns.
But Brickhandler isn’t coming to Columbus to contend for playing time, and he will clearly be QB4, but he will be a veteran who can run the scout team, and give OSU’s defense convincing reps against a mobile QB.
Welcome to the family, Eli.
Moving from the gridiron to the hardwood, a few puzzle pieces seem to be slowly coming together for Jake Diebler’s men’s basketball team. The second-year head coach has been holding one spot on his roster to try and find the perfect fit to help get his squad back to the NCAA Tournament.
This offseason, Diebs has already dipped into the transfer portal to add centers Joshua Ojianwuna (Baylor) and Christoph Tilly (Santa Clara), power forward Brandon Noel (Wright State), and point guard Gabe Cupps (Indiana). All of those players will bring experience to the team (although Ojianwuna will likely be out for a while rehabbing an ACL tear), but the Buckeyes still need someone who can make an immediate impact. Perhaps someone who averaged 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists for a team that made it to the Elite 8 before losing by 5 points to the eventual national champions.
Yesterday, former Texas Tech Red Raider Darrion Williams officially withdrew from the NBA Draft process, and according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, “Ohio State is the team to watch here, though not guaranteed, they are considered the favorites for Darrion Williams.”
This news comes on the day after The Columbus Dispatch’s Adam Jardy reported that William’s Texas Tech teammate Devan Cambridge had opted not to take a visit to Columbus, and on the same day that he committed to UCF.
If Williams was going to be available, there is no doubt that the Buckeyes would go with him over just about anyone else still available. He is the No. 6 player in the transfer portal and the No. 2 power forward, and would instantly join the Buckeyes’ starting lineup.
Now, there are other schools reportedly in the mix, including Kansas, N.C. State, BYU, and Auburn, but there is a lot of smoke around Williams potentially joining Bruce Thornton, John Mobley, Devin Royal, Micah Parrish, Taison Chatman, and the rest of the aforementioned transfers.
I don’t know much, and I am an affirmed homer, but that seems like it would make for a pretty exciting rotation for Diebler to play with heading into the 2025-26 season.