The All-American awards keep coming for Ohio State.
On Wednesday, The Athletic revealed its list of the 50 best players in college football, selecting Marvin Harrison Jr. and Paris Johnson Jr. as first-team All-Americans and awarding J.T. Tuimoloau with second-team honors.
Harrison claimed his third first-team All-American selection after receiving the same honor from Pro Football Focus and CBS Sports. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound receiver racked up 72 receptions for 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns through the first 12 games of 2022. Additionally, Harrison dropped only one pass on 108 targets, per TruMedia, and three out of every four catches went for a first down or a touchdown.
The Philadelphia native shares the honor with Tennessee's Jalin Hyatt, who is also a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award with Harrison this season. The award's winner will be announced on Thursday at ESPN's College Football Awards show at 8 p.m.
Johnson received second-team All-American recognition this season from PFF and CBS. However, The Athletic saw Johnson's performances across 12 weeks to be worthy of first-team honors. According to PFF, the 6-foot-6, 311-pound left tackle allowed only one sack and 10 total pressures this year on an offensive line that ranks sixth in sack rate and fifth in pressure rate.
Northwestern's Peter Skoronski was the other offensive tackle who shared first-team recognition with Johnson. Both players are regarded as the top draft-eligible linemen and are expected to be the top tackles selected at the 2023 NFL draft, should they decide to enter the field.
Tuimoloau earned his first All-American recognition of the season from The Athletic, who awarded him with second-team honors. He appeared in all 12 games for the Buckeyes this year, recording 28 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble, four pass breakups, two interceptions and a touchdown.
The second-year defensive end arguably had the greatest single-game performance of any player in college football this season. In Ohio State's 44-31 win over Penn State, Tuimoloau collected six tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, a deflected pass – which resulted in a Zach Harrison interception – and two inceptions, including a pick-six to seal the game for the Buckeyes in the fourth quarter.
Here is a complete list of Buckeyes to receive All-American honors this season:
- C.J. Stroud: CBS Sports (second team)
- Marvin Harrison Jr.: PFF, CBS Sports and The Athletic (first team)
- Emeka Egbuka: PFF (third team)
- Paris Johnson Jr.: The Athletic (first team); CBS Sports (second team); PFF (honorable mention)
- Dawand Jones: PFF and CBS Sports (first team)
- Luke Wypler: PFF (third team)
- Tommy Eichenberg: PFF (first team); CBS Sports (second team)
- Ronnie Hickman: PFF (second team)
