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First black stripe is shed during Ohio State’s spring practice

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

It didn’t take long for transfer defensive back Tanner McCalister to officially become a Buckeye.

On Monday, Ohio State announced that McCalister became the first of spring practice to lose his black stripe. It’s a tradition that dates back to the Urban Meyer era in Columbus and Ryan Day is keeping the tradition around.

The official Twitter account of Ohio State football posted the news on Monday.

McCalister spent his first 4 seasons at the college level at Oklahoma State before transferring to Ohio State. He followed former Cowboys defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to Columbus following the 2021 campaign.

During Oklahoma State’s 2021 season, McCalister was responsible for 39 tackles, 6 pass break-ups, 1 interception and a tackle for loss. Over the course of his 4 seasons in Stillwater, the defensive back collected 123 stops, 12 pass break-ups and 4.5 tackles for loss.

Ohio State is hopeful that McCalister can make a quick impact in the secondary as an experienced veteran. Clearly, he’s learning pretty quickly to have his black stripe removed so early in spring ball.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB