In-season roster addition Puff Johnson has arrived on Ohio State’s campus, but the sixth-year transfer won’t be in uniform for the Jan. 20 home game against Minnesota.

That was the message from coach Jake Diebler on Jan. 19, just three days removed from Johnson having a temporary restraining order approved by a Franklin County judge granting him immediate eligibility to join the Buckeyes during the 2025-26 season. He’s on campus, listed in the official game notes and is on the roster, but seeing him in action against the Golden Gophers would be too much, too soon according to Diebler.

“Gotten a chance to work him out a couple times,” the coach said. “It’s a daily evaluation as to when he’s going to be ready to play in a game … (but) no, do not anticipate him being on the court (against Minnesota).”

Johnson was granted eligibility on Jan. 16 and, logistically, couldn’t make it to campus on time for the 1 p.m. tip against UCLA. After the 86-74 win for the Buckeyes, Diebler said the next steps would involve physically getting Johnson in the building and starting to assess where he was physically while assimilating him with his new teammates. Although he had been taking classes, Johnson had not been on campus for months while hoping to be granted eligibility.

Suddenly, he’s a Buckeye, and now the 25-year-old wing is getting a crash course on this year’s team.

“There’s two things: there’s him physically being ready to play in a game and then there’s him within how we play and learning what we’re doing and things, being ready to play in a game,” Diebler said. “He’s working really hard at both to be ready as quickly as possible. I don’t know when that’s going to be quite yet, but we’ve at least gotten started and started working on it.”

Johnson was seeking this sixth year of eligibility in part because injuries limited him to 14 games as a freshman at North Carolina in 2020-21 and 17 games last year at Penn State. After the UCLA game, Diebler said Johnson had told him that he was in good shape, but the coach said exactly what that meant would remain to be seen.

On Jan. 19, Diebler said early impressions are positive.

“The thing we’ve got to check is game shape,” he said. “When you’re playing up and down multiple possessions against live bodies, that’s a different impact than just running up and down against no defense. That’s what we’re in the process of evaluating, but he’s a guy who’s wanted this and been preparing for this, but there’s a different type of game shape.”

As far as a baseline level of fitness, Diebler said, “I feel good about where he’s at.”

More: Ohio State’s Jake Diebler wears pin for late Big Ten official Terry Wymer

Johnson will wear No. 6 for the Buckeyes. He is listed at 6-foot-8, 200 pounds on the team’s updated official roster and is expected to slot into Ohio State’s rotation on the wing when he’s up to speed. In 111 career games, Johnson has averaged 5.3 points and 2.6 assists but is expected to help Ohio State on the defensive end.

“He’s got an ability to guard multiple positions,” Diebler said. “He’s got good positional size. He has familiarity with this conference. He’s shown an ability to rebound. All those things are really good. He’s been a guy who’s had some decent steal numbers in the last two years as well, which is an area we’ve got to continue to get better in. Defensively, that’s where it starts.”

Johnson averaged 1.4 steals per game for Penn State last season and averaged nearly one steal per game during his two years with the Nittany Lions. In 2024-25, he also averaged a career-best 10.2 points per game.

“He can play multiple positions,” Diebler said. “And, because of his experience and basketball IQ, we anticipate him being a guy who is a blender on the court, a guy who adds to what already is a really good chemistry this team has. He’s got to play to his strengths: cutting, rebounding, catch and shoot 3s, driving, scoring, but also within what we’re doing.”

The transfer window in college football closed Jan. 16, and several players from central Ohio were among the thousands nationwide who took advantage in finding new teams.

Some of them found familiarity in moving, whether with former teammates, coaches who previously recruited them or both.

Here are the Columbus-area players who transferred to Football Bowl Subdivision programs in the past two weeks, according to the On3 transfer tracker. Players’ new schools are listed next to their names, with their previous school in parentheses:

Braydon Alford, Michigan (Butler)

Position: Wide receiver

Class: Sophomore

Eligibility remaining: Three seasons

High school: Dublin Jerome

The son of Michigan running backs coach Tony Alford, who formerly coached the same position at Ohio State, Braydon Alford did not appear in any games in two seasons at Butler after a high school career that saw him catch 90 passes with 1,487 all-purpose yards and 10 touchdowns as a senior at Jerome. Alford earned third-team all-state in Division I as a senior.

Landon Beal, Ohio State (Maine)

Position: Long snapper

Class: Redshirt freshman

Eligibility remaining: Three seasons

High school: Grove City

The 6-foot Beal long snapped for the Dawgs and did the same this past season at Maine after redshirting his first year with the Black Bears in 2024. Beal was the second long snapper picked up by the Buckeyes in the portal, after Dalton Riggs was added from Central Florida.

Rasheem Biles, Texas (Pittsburgh)

Position: Linebacker

Class: Junior

Eligibility remaining: One season

High school: Pickerington Central

The two-time all-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker and the top-ranked transfer at his position, according to 247Sports, is headed to the SEC for his final college season.

Biles had 101 tackles, including 17 for loss, and three touchdowns in 10 games in 2025 and 185 total stops and 10 sacks in three years at Pitt. He was a second-team all-district defensive back as a senior at Central despite missing most of the season because of injury.

Biles and the Longhorns host Ohio State on Sept. 12.

Preston Bowman, Ohio University (Kentucky)

Position: Wide receiver

Class: Freshman

Eligibility remaining: Four seasons

High school: Pickerington North

Bowman will join a slew of Pickerington players in Athens after a freshman season at Kentucky in which he redshirted. Bowman caught 52 passes for 1,248 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior at North – he also averaged 34.9 yards per punt – and was named OCC-Ohio Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-state in Division I.

Francis Brewu, Notre Dame (Pittsburgh)

Position: Defensive lineman

Class: Sophomore

Eligibility remaining: Two seasons

High school: Thomas Worthington

Another departure from Pitt, Brewu will reunite with former position coach Charlie Partridge in South Bend. Brewu, who also visited Ohio State, had 7½ tackles last season with a sack, forced fumble and two quarterback hurries. He had four total sacks in two seasons and, according to a South Bend Tribune story, benches 475 pounds and squats 700. A first-team all-state honoree in Division I as a senior, Brewu started 12 of 13 games in 2025 after overcoming thumb and hamstring issues in 2024.

Kamari Burns, Kansas State (Cincinnati)

Position: Edge rusher

Class: Redshirt sophomore

Eligibility remaining: Two seasons

High school: Gahanna Lincoln

Burns will remain in the Big 12 after playing 11 games without a start this fall for the Bearcats, finishing with 11 tackles and half a sack. Burns, who helped Gahanna reach a Division I state semifinal as a senior and redshirted as a freshman, matched his career high of three tackles in a game twice.

Sam Dixon, South Carolina (Ohio State)

Position: Running back

Class: Redshirt freshman

Eligibility remaining: Three seasons

High school: Pickerington North

Dixon entered the transfer portal after each of the past two seasons and is leaving Columbus this time, having caught on with a Gamecocks team that went 4-8 last fall. Dixon, who played half his senior season at North after transferring from Millersburg West Holmes, ran for 53 yards in four games as a freshman during OSU’s national championship season but never made a dent in the Buckeyes’ rotation of backs this year, running for 9 yards and scoring a touchdown in his only appearance, a Week 2 win over Grambling State.

Terris Dudley, Connecticut (North Carolina State)

Position: Linebacker

Class: Redshirt freshman

Eligibility remaining: Four seasons

High school: Hilliard Bradley

The former safety from Bradley will end up playing for Jason Candle after all, having originally committed to Toledo when Candle was coach of the Rockets before switching to the Wolfpack, for which he did not play a snap in the fall. Candle was hired at Connecticut in December. Dudley had 116 tackles, including 77 solo, as a senior and earned third-team all-state in Division I.