A big chunk of every Ohio State football roster is filled by players from within the state’s borders.
But in recent years, as recruiting has become more of a national game, the Buckeyes have cast a far wider net than before and brought in players from areas where they’ve rarely or never done so before.
This year’s OSU team features scholarship players from 22 different states, including the first ever player from Idaho (Tommy Togiai), the first players from Arizona since 2000 (Jack Miller and Lathan Ransom), the first Washington native since 1998 (Gee Scott, Jr.), and the first Buckeye from Hawaii since 1994 (Enokk Vimahi).
There are 10 states which have never produced an Ohio State football player, at least as far back as 1941. Before that, the data from official team rosters starts getting a little more spotty.
Ironically, one of them is Ryan Day’s home state of New Hampshire. The rest of New England isn’t exactly Buckeye country, either. There has never been an Ohio State football player from neighboring Vermont or tiny Rhode Island, and Maine has only produced one walk-on.
The others are Alaska, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming.
There is absolutely no hometown data available prior to 1922, so while it is technically possible that the 1911 team featured a standout from Alaska or Rhode Island, it’s not terribly likely.
You can find the rosters from 1960-present here, and the ones from prior to 1960 here if you want to do some detective work of your own.
A few notes: The players included in the search are those who appear on the official yearly rosters from Ohio State, and based on their listed hometowns. So even though Drue Chrisman attended high school at Cincinnati’s LaSalle High School, he’s listed with the Indiana players because his home town is Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Players listed below are the most recent scholarship players from that state or country, except where noted with (walk-on). In those cases, there has either been a walk-on more recently than a scholarship player, or there has never been a scholarship player.
Donte Wheat, the only scholarship player from Alabama to appear on an OSU roster, is something of a mystery. He appeared in the 1981 media guide, with a short blurb that called him “something of an unknown.” But he may not have ever enrolled, and at least one member of that team does not remember him. Wheat would go on to letter at Louisville from 1983-1984. He’s listed below because he did appear on that roster.
Kevin Johnson was listed as a Washington, D.C. native on the 1996 roster, but a Maryland native in 1997. He is listed below, but the last full-time D.C. Buckeye was Marcus Spriggs in 1995.
Alabama
Willie Salter (walk-on)
2001
Donte Wheat 1981
Alaska
None
Arizona
Jack Miller, Lathan Ransom 2020
Arkansas
K.J. Hill 2019
California
Wyatt Davis, Chris Olave, CJ Stroud, Kourt Williams 2020
Colorado
Joey O’Connor 2012
Connecticut
Scott Leach 1983
Delaware
Charles Hunter 1979
District of Columbia
Kevin Johnson 1996
Florida
Sevyn Banks, Marcus Crowley, Tyreke Johnson, Nicholas Petit-Frere, Shaun Wade 2020
Georgia
Steele Chambers, Justin Fields, Antwuan Jackson, Harry Miller, Trey Sermon 2020
Hawaii
Enokk Vimahi 2020
Idaho
Tommy Togiai 2020
Illinois
Tuf Borland 2020
Indiana
Drue Chrisman, Josh Fryar, Dawand Jones, Pete Werner, Craig Young 2020
Iowa
Richard Haupt 1960
Kansas
Jamie Sumner 1995
Kentucky
Sean Nuernberger 2018
Louisiana
Nader Abdallah 2008
Maine
Peter Gwilym (walk-on) 2014
Maryland
Mitchell Melton, Bryson Shaw, Taron Vincent 2020
Massachusetts
Cam Williams 2015
Michigan
Cameron Martinez, Grant Toutant 2020
Minnesota
Jashon Cornell 2019
Mississippi
Craig Robinson 1990
Missouri
Kamryn Babb, Cameron Brown, Mookie Cooper, Jameson Williams 2020
Montana
None
Nebraska
None
Nevada
Haskell Garrett 2020
New Hampshire
None
New Jersey
Tyler Friday, Ronnie Hickman, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Cody Simon, Luke Wypler 2020
New Mexico
None
New York
Blake Haubeil, Matthew Jones, Jeremy Ruckert 2020
North Carolina
Jacolbe Cowan, Jaden McKenzie 2020
North Dakota
None
Ohio
27 Players 2020
Oklahoma
Josh Proctor 2020
Oregon
None
Pennsylvania
Julian Fleming, Marcus Hooker 2020
Rhode Island
None
South Carolina
Michael Hill 2017
South Dakota
Grant Schmidt 2015
Tennessee
Cormontae Hamilton, Master Teague, Max Wray 2020
Texas
Baron Browning, Lejond Cavazos, Elijah Gardiner, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ryan Watts, Garrett Wilson 2020
Utah
Branden Bowen 2019
Vermont
None
Virginia
Teradja Mitchell, K’Vaughan Pope 2020
Washington
Gee Scott, Jr. 2020
West Virginia
R.J. Coleman 2005
Wisconsin
Jim Meckstroth 1972
Wyoming
None
Australia
Cameron Johnston 2016
Canada
Mike Roberts 2005
Nigeria
Chris Ntukogu (walk-on) 1988
South Africa
Ryan Pretorius 2008