Ryan Day predicted to utilize Ohio State football TE transfer gem in complement to Jeremiah Smith

Zain Bando

Ryan Day predicted to utilize Ohio State football TE transfer gem in complement to Jeremiah Smith image

Ohio State went ahead and put itself in yet an even greater position to repeat as national champions again. Although it returns a chunk of talent, the Buckeyes did their best to expand offensively.

In doing so, the Buckeyes snagged another key weapon with the potential to complement the electrifying, highly touted receiving threat, Jeremiah Smith, in Purdue transfer tight end Max Klare.

Although Klaire was part of a one-win Boilermakers team this past year, he was a critical target for an offense that struggled to move the ball (minus their lone win and the Illinois shootout).

Klaire could be used more regularly in a much more succinct system, as CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli suggests.

"Ohio State has always had quality tight ends to pair with their elite wide receivers, but now the Buckeyes offense has one of the most productive pass-catching tight ends in the country," Fornelli wrote. "Klare was one of the lone bright spots with Purdue last season."

Indeed, he was. Despite catching only four touchdowns, Fornelli predicts he's due for a lot more, regardless of who the Buckeyes' quarterback ends up being.

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"He did that while being the only pass-catching threat opposing defenses were worried about. That will not be the case in Columbus, where he's likely to find a whole lot of room to work over the middle of the field," Fornelli wrote.

Ohio State rolled through the College Football Playoff to get to Atlanta, Ga., and despite the scrutiny surrounding Ryan Day, he has proven himself as one of the sport's elite.

Whether the Buckeyes can do it again won't be known until the season officially gets underway at the end of August.

For now, it's anyone's guess.

Zain Bando

Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Over the years, Bando has written about various beats surrounding Illinois, Northwestern, and Kansas State Athletics but sticks to the Big Ten as his primary expertise. Outside of collegiate reporting, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated and hosts/co-hosts two podcasts as part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – Bando's Breakdowns and The MMA Outsiders, which air weekly on YouTube and are distributed on all podcast platforms Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons. Bando is a Chicago Suburban native and a member of the FWAA and USBWA, continuing to hone his professional skills as a sports journalist and media personality. Since June 2019, Bando's byline has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network (Sports News Highlights), Mike Farrell Sports, Reuters, and more. When Bando is not writing, he binges on old UFC fights, spends time with family and friends, memorizes every Super Bowl, and manifests all the places he still has to travel to (even while bringing his laptop).