{"id":688518,"date":"2026-03-28T19:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T19:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/688518\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T19:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T19:03:13","slug":"2026-black-stripe-tracker-kyle-parker-and-earl-little-jr-are-first-ohio-state-newcomers-to-shed-their-black-stripes-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/688518\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Black Stripe Tracker: Kyle Parker and Earl Little Jr. Are First Ohio State Newcomers to Shed Their Black Stripes in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\tLittle Jr. joined Parker in officially becoming a Buckeye on Saturday. The former All-ACC safety arrived in Columbus after two years at Alabama and two years at Florida State. He has recorded 93 tackles with three tackles for loss, one sack, four interceptions and two pass breakups across 35 career games.\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tLittle Jr. is one of two transfers the Buckeyes brought in at safety, along with former Duke defensive back Terry Moore. Little Jr. is expected to play nickel for the Buckeyes, while Moore is projected as a free safety.\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tMARCH 28, 2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tKyle Parker<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tParker\u2019s status as the first Buckeye to have his black stripe removed this spring was revealed by Ohio State wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton during an interview session after Ohio State\u2019s fifth practice of the spring.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p>Zone 6 adds a Fast &amp; Physical Baller to the room. Welcome, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realkp4_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@realkp4_<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SohsEE4MH8\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/SohsEE4MH8<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\u2014 Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OhioStateFB\/status\/2037949163837534510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 28, 2026<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe stripe removal made Hankton think of another former wide receiver at LSU, Kyren Lacy, who died by suicide last April.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\u201cTo see KP, who was like a brother to Kyren, taking that black stripe off, man, it was really just fun and heartwarming to watch, because I know that dude would be smiling for him,\u201d Hankton said.\u00a0\u201cI can see them dancing in the corner and celebrating. And it&#8217;s days like today that truly lets you take the perspective of being thankful and grateful to be in this position to coach.\u201d\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tParker, a redshirt junior, is competing for a starting wide receiver job at Ohio State this spring after catching 31 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns at LSU in 2025. His achievement of losing his black stripe before any other player this spring suggests his quest to earn that job \u2013 or at least a significant spot in the rotation \u2013 is off to a great start.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tOhio State\u2019s 2026 Black Stripe Removals<\/p>\n<tr>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPlayer<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPos<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYear<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKYLE PARKER\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWR\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREDSHIRT JUNIOR\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMARCH 28\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEARL LITTLE JR.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tS\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREDSHIRT SENIOR\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<td>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMARCH 28\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tBe sure to check out our Black Stripe Tradition\u00a0page to see the history of Ohio State\u2019s black stripe removals from 2012, when the tradition started, all the way through today.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Little Jr. joined Parker in officially becoming a Buckeye on Saturday. The former All-ACC safety arrived in Columbus&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":688519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-688518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116308358374792096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}