College football season is getting just a little bit closer every day with the arrival of new preseason milestones.
Next week, a handful of Buckeyes will head to Chicago for Big Ten Media Days. But before that trip, the team is finalizing its 2019 roster.
The roster on the official website was just updated, which means there are new Ohio State football jersey numbers for some of the new arrivals, as well as a few familiar faces with new digits this year.
The new players who were here for spring ball already had their numbers. So you probably already know that Justin Fields is in No. 1, Garrett Wilson is wearing No. 5, Zach Harrison is in 33, and so on.
But between transfers and summer enrollee freshmen, there are 15 new Buckeyes getting their first number, and at least four returning players sporting a different one this fall.
In numerical order:
Freshman WR Jameson Williams: No. 6
Redshirt freshman WR Kamryn Babb: No. 7 (he wore 17 last season)
Redshirt freshman DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste: No. 8 (he was 38 in 2018)
Redshirt junior QB Gunnar Hoak: No. 12 (transfer from Kentucky)
Freshman LB Cade Stover: No. 16
Redshirt freshman QB Jagger LaRoe: No. 16 (transfer from Texas A&M)
Sophomore WR Chris Olave: No. 17 (he wore several numbers last year)
Freshman walk-on QB J.P. Andrade: No. 18
Freshman RB Steele Chambers: No. 22 (previously retired and worn by 1944 Heisman winner Les Horvath)
Freshman LB Craig Young: No. 37
Freshman SAF Bryson Shaw: No. 38
Freshman LB Tommy Eichenberg: No. 41
Graduate DT Antwuan Jackson: No. 52 (he was 90 last year)
Redshirt freshman OL Matthew Jones: No. 55 (he was 54 last year)
Freshman OL Enokk Vimahi: No. 66
Senior OL Jonah Jackson: No. 73 (transfer from Rutgers)
Freshman OL Harry Miller: No. 77
Redshirt freshman OL Nicholas Petit-Frere: No. 78 (he was 77 last year)
Freshman OL Dawand Jones: No. 79
Freshman TE Cormontae Hamilton: No. 83
Freshman DT Jaden McKenzie: No. 90
Freshman P Michael O’Shaughnessy: No. 96
The new players who were already issued their numbers during spring practice:
Sophomore QB Justin Fields: No. 1 (transfer from Georgia)
Freshman WR Garrett Wilson: No. 5
Freshman RB Marcus Crowley: No. 23
Freshman SAF Ronnie Hickman: No. 28
Freshman DE Zach Harrison: No. 33
Freshman OL Ryan Jacoby: No. 68
Freshman DE Noah Potter: No. 97
None of these numbers are written in stone, of course. Players will often switch numbers during fall camp, during the course of the season, and sometimes even during a game – usually to prevent having a duplicate number on special teams purposes.
And this news isn’t quite as exciting as it was when there was an NCAA Football game to populate with the new names and numbers.
But it’s another indication that football season really is getting closer, and that’s pretty exciting all by itself.