The Ohio State football program and safety Marcus Hooker have parted ways as Hooker has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal with the goal on finding a new home. An Ohio State spokesperson confirmed the report to BuckeyeScoop on Tuesday afternoon.
Hooker is the younger brother of former Ohio State star Malik Hooker and unfortunately did not enjoy the same success at Ohio State as big brother did just a few years prior.
The now-former Ohio State player played in 21 games for the Buckeyes in his first two seasons including 14 in the 2019 season and eight in the 2020 season but the path to the field became more difficult as Hooker found his way into legal trouble with a pair of OVI charges and a temporary suspension from the team in 2021.
Hooker would play in four games during the 2021 season including the Rose Bowl against Utah, recording a pair of tackles in Ohio State’s comeback win.
Ohio State’s defensive backfield has seen some major changes with the additions of coaches Perry Eliano and Tim Walton along with new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and it was easy to predict that changes would be coming as the Buckeyes would be employing new schemes and looking to restack the deck in terms of personnel at the conclusion of spring practice.
Hooker joins Bryson Shaw and Andre Turrentine as safeties to transfer out of the program in the past few weeks
There were concerns among Ohio State fans that the Buckeyes would get under the 85-man scholarship limit in time for the start of fall practice. Now Ohio State unofficially sits at 84 players on scholarship (when the summer enrollees join the program in June) and the transfer churn may not be complete quite yet with many players looking at an NCAA deadline of May 1st to enter the portal without the need for a waiver to have immediate eligibility.
