Buckeyes rack up B1G accolades
COVER PHOTO: OSU wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. and tight end Cade Stover celebrate Stover's touchdown catch near the end of the first half in their game against Michigan State on Nov. 11. The Buckeyes won, 38-3. Picture by Aaron Layne/Columbus Wired.
The Big Ten handed out their postseason awards on Tuesday and Wednesday and several Ohio State players were on the receiving end of some serious props.
Wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. and linebacker Tommy Eichenberg were not only donned with the privilege of being named consensus first-team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media but both won individual player of the year awards.
Eichenberg, a fifth-year senior out of St. Ignatius (Cleveland, Ohio) High School, became the first OSU LB to win the Butkus-Fitzgerald linebacker of the year while Harrison, a junior out of St. Joseph’s Preparatory (Philadelphia) High School, had a double dip being adorned with both the Richter-Howard Receiver of the Year and Graham-George Offensive Player of the Year awards.
Tight end Cade Stover did not earn consensus first-team honors, however, he was named the Kwalick-Clark Tight End of the Year.
Defensive end J. T. Tuimoloau, running back TreVeyon Henderson and offensive guard Donovan Jackson were also consensus first-teamers but did not win individual awards.
This is the second year in a row both Harrison and Eichenberg finished as first-teamers while it’s the first time for fifth-year senior Stover, who also became Ohio State’s first tight end to win the individual award since being handed out in 2011. He was named by the media as their favorite TE but came in second to Michigan’s Colston Loveland according to the coaches.
Since 1982 when the first Offensive POTY award was handed out by the conference, Ohio State has had 15 winners and Harrison becomes only the fifth OSU non-quarterback to win. Running backs Keith Byars (1984), Eddie George (1995), Ezekiel Elliott (2015) and offensive tackle Orlando Pace (1996) were the others to take home the accomplishment.
However, Harrison is the first OSU wide receiver to ever win the award and is only the third wide receiver to win it. He is now the sixth consecutive Buckeye to earn the honor following quarterbacks Dwayne Haskins (2018), Justin Fields (2019, 2020) and C.J. Stroud (2021, 2022), which is the longest streak in conference history.
The other two wide receivers to win the award were Michigan’s Desmond Howard (1991) and Braylon Edwards (2004).
Harrison not only led the team with 1,211 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns but he also led the conference in those areas and was the only B1G receiver to average over 100 yards per game (100.9).
He set an OSU single-season record with eight 100-yard games, eight consecutive games with a TD reception and is the only receiver in school history to log fifteen 100-yard games. He is also the only Buckeye to have two 1,000-yard seasons.
Eichenberg isn’t the first OSU linebacker to win a Big Ten postseason award but he is only the fifth since the conference began handing out individual awards to defensive players in 1984.
Eric Kumerow won the third-ever Defensive Lineman of the Year in 1986 while Steve Tovar, A. J. Hawk and James Laurinaitis all won the Defensive Player of the Year with Tovar earning the coaches nod in 1992 while Hawk was the consensus pick in 2005 and Laurinaitis was consensus back-to-back in 2007 and ‘08.
Eichenberg finished 13th in the conference and was eighth among linebackers in total tackles. However, missing two games hurt his overall numbers and per game, he finished seventh in tackles per game (8.2).
Stover finished second on the team in receiving yards (576), receptions (41) and receiving touchdowns (5). He led all tight ends in the conference in yards while coming in second in TD’s and third in receptions.
Tuimoloau earned his second-straight first-team honor leading the Buckeyes in both sacks and sack yards (4, 32), was third on the team with six tackles-for-loss for a team-leading 39 yards and tied-for 10th on the team with 34 tackles. None of those stats were good enough to crack the conference’s top-25 in each category.
This is Henderson’s first time ever being named to the conference’s first-team as he led the Scarlet and Gray with 854 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns this year despite missing three games in October. He finished fourth in the conference in yards, third in TD’s but led the league in rushing yards per game at 94.9.
This is Jackson’s first time as a first-teamer and the Buckeyes haven’t had a guard place on the first-team since Wyatt Davis did it three years ago.
Here is a complete list of all the other Buckeyes and how they fared.
Offense
Quarterback Kyle McCord: consensus third-team
Wide receiver Emeka Egbuka: third-team coaches, honorable mention media
Offensive tackle Josh Fryar: first-team media, third-team coaches
Offensive guard Matthew Jones: consensus second-team
Defense
Cornerback Denzel Burke: first-team coaches, second-team media
Defensive end Jack Sawyer: second-team media, third-team coaches
Defensive tackle Tyliek Williams: second-team media, third-team coaches
Linebacker Steele Chambers: third-team media, honorable mention coaches
Safety Josh Proctor: third-team media, honorable mention coaches
Defensive tackle Mike Hall, Jr.: third-team coaches
Cornerback Davison Igbinosun: consensus honorable mention
Safety Lathan Ransom: consensus honorable mention
Safety Sonny Styles: consensus honorable mention
Defensive tackle Ty Hamilton: honorable mention coaches