Former Michigan linebacker Joey Velazquez walks on at Ohio State
COLUMBUS — Ohio State has a new walk-on linebacker, and he comes from an interesting spot.
Former Michigan linebacker Joey Velazquez has joined the Buckeyes program as a walk-on linebacker after spending the last five seasons at Michigan. Ohio State confirmed the news to Lettermen Row on Monday morning.
The Columbus native is now returning to his home city for the end of his college football career after a long tenure at Michigan.
Velazquez did not appear in a game last season during the Wolverines’ run to the national championship. He appeared in 20 games, mostly on special teams, during his time with the Wolverines program. According to On3’s Michigan site, The Wolverine, Velazquez was recruited to Ann Arbor to play the VIPER position in former UM defensive coordinator Don Brown’s system.
Velazquez was a three-star prospect and the No. 1,076 player in the country in the 2019 class, per the On3 Industry Ranking.
A two-sport athlete, Velazquez was also a member of the Michigan baseball team. He won a Big Ten title with both the football program and baseball team. During the 2023 baseball season, he appeared in 48 games with 38 starts, hitting four home runs with 36 hits.
“We liked how versatile he was, and our first thought was how he was a better version of Jordan Glasgow from what we saw athletically,” former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, said to UM reporters after Velazquez joined the program in 2019. “And Glasgow has made himself a heck of a special teams player and viper.
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“Joey came to our camp and competed like the dickens, and was also at our Cincinnati satellite camp. He had a double-header in baseball that day, had the game-winning hit and came back to the camp and won the MVP of the defensive backs. I love two-sport athletes.”
But the Michigan program is going through massive renovations after Harbaugh left for the NFL, and Velazquez decided to enter the transfer portal prior to the Wolverines’ two games in the College Football Playoff.
He has found a home — his former home where he grew up — in Columbus. After five years up North, Joey Velazquez is returning to play for Ohio State. He’s flipping sides of the rivalry and walking onto the Buckeyes football program.
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