Players of the Game: Cade Stover and Sonny Styles Earn Top Honors For Performances in Ohio State's Season Opener Against Indiana

Following Ohio State's 23-3 win over Indiana in the season opener, senior tight end and captain Cade Stover is Eleven Warriors' offensive player of the game while sophomore safety Sonny Styles is the defensive player of the game.

Congratulations to the Eleven Warriors players of the game for Ohio State's 23-3 win over Indiana.

Cade Stover: Five receptions for a career-high 98 yards (19.6 yards per catch)
Sonny Styles: Four tackles (three solo stops) and 1.5 tackles for loss pic.twitter.com/JPlLtM23Nr

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 3, 2023

Stover was Ohio State's leading receiver on Saturday, catching five passes for a career-high 98 yards. He also had the longest offensive play of the day, securing a 49-yard catch and run from Kyle McCord late in the third quarter. Led by Stover, Ohio State's tight ends (108 yards on six combined catches from Stover and Gee Scott Jr.) had one more yard than the Buckeyes' receivers against Indiana.

Cade Stover is going to be such a problem this year. @cstov8 x @OhioStateFB

: CBS pic.twitter.com/Q0DOmzoy6w

— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) September 2, 2023

In 2022, Stover collected 36 receptions – the most by an Ohio State tight end since Rickey Dudley in 1995 – for 406 yards and five touchdowns. If Stover hoped to surpass those numbers in 2023, he's off to an excellent start.

As for Styles, the second-year Buckeye met and perhaps even exceeded the lofty expectations set for him in the preseason, collecting four tackles (three solo) and 1.5 tackles for loss in the season opener.

Sonny Styles. Playmaker. pic.twitter.com/Y6Xn0BxnDC

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 3, 2023

According to Pro Football Focus, Styles played 49 defensive snaps against Indiana – the third most snaps on the team behind Lathan Ransom and Steele Chambers – after he played 69 defensive snaps for the entire year in 2021. Styles' snap count proves that the Buckeyes plan to use the 6-foot-4, 230-pound safety early and often this fall and that Ohio State will lean on the Pickerington, Ohio, native as an integral part of the defense in 2023.

Stover and Styles are the first Eleven Warriors players of the game for the 2023 season. We will keep a running chart of all the recipients as the season continues, with the individual awards to be posted on our social media accounts and the website each Sunday after an Ohio State win.