Ohio State football fans had the opportunity to meet seven Buckeye players at two Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet dealerships in the Columbus area on Saturday.
Buckeye quarterback Kyle McCord, wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Marvin Harrison Jr. and safety Sonny Styles participated in a meet-and-greet at Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet of Columbus while wide receiver Xavier Johnson, defensive end JT Tuimoloau and cornerback Denzel Burke did the same at Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet of Worthington.
Ohio State stars Sonny Styles, Marvin Harrison Jr., Kyle McCord and Emeka Egbuka signing autographs and taking pictures with fans at Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet of Columbus pic.twitter.com/zeWAdjyZ0s
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) July 22, 2023
All seven players will be promoting the dealership this season as a part of the Mark Wahlberg Auto Group NIL Program. Burke said he has been working with the Wahlberg Auto Group since his freshman year and wanted to continue that partnership.
“Just relationships here, good people here and they’ve been showing love since my freshman year,” Burke said. “So it's always good. Whatever they need. I got it.”
Eleven Warriors was at both dealerships on Saturday to catch up with the Buckeye players on site. While Harrison and Tuimoloau will both be at Big Ten Media Days next week, we interviewed each of the other five participating players to learn more about how their summers have gone and how they’re preparing for the start of preseason camp in less than two weeks.
Most importantly, Egbuka and Johnson both said they are healthy and ready to go for camp after both of them were sidelined by injuries this spring.
“If camp started today, I'd be playing in it,” Egbuka said.
“I was running routes actually, this morning, kinda was surprised that I wasn't rusty,” Johnson said. “I would say I’m better than I was when I got injured.”
McCord will of course be trying to secure the starting quarterback job when preseason camp begins, and he said Saturday that he knows “taking that next step in the leadership role is gonna be important.”
In his first interview since his older brother Lorenzo transferred to Ohio State, Styles talked about the value of reuniting with his sibling in the Buckeyes’ secondary.
“It’s super nice,” Styles said. “You got an automatic extra work partner every day, so that's been great.”
Burke said the Buckeyes “have a chip on our shoulder” with the way last season ended and expressed no doubt that Ohio State’s secondary will return this season to the “BIA” standard it was once known for.
“It's gonna happen,” Burke said. “I just know it’s gonna happen.”
