Marvin Harrison Jr. is officially the top receiver in college football.
The Ohio State wide receiver was named Friday as the winner of this year’s Biletnikoff Award, which honors college football’s top pass catcher. He won the award by just one vote, tying the closest voting margin in Biletnikoff Award history.
Congratulations to All-America receiver @MarvHarrisonJr, winner of the prestigious Biletnikoff Award by a thrilling 1-vote margin, tied for closest in BA history! The BA recognizes the CFB season's outstanding FBS receiver at any position. #OutstandingReceiver #NCFAA pic.twitter.com/n4cRhYi6Nw
— Biletnikoff Award (@biletnikoffawrd) December 9, 2023
Harrison becomes the second Buckeye to win the award, joining Terry Glenn, who won the second-ever Biletnikoff Award in 1995.
THIS FOR ZONE6 #WRU https://t.co/mqCmKE2Vk7
— Marvin Harrison Jr. (@MarvHarrisonJr) December 9, 2023
“It would mean a lot,” Harrison said Thursday when asked what it would mean to him to win the Biletnikoff Award. “I always said I always wanted to win it for Zone 6, Wide Receiver U. They always have that conversation about us and other schools with like LSU, like Alabama, and to just add a Biletnikoff Award winner to the long list of great receivers we have at Ohio State, that's what would mean the most to me. So if I could do that, that'd be great.”
Many people thought Harrison should have won the Biletnikoff Award last year, when Harrison caught 72 passes for 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns during the regular season, but the 2022 award went to Tennessee’s Jalin Hyatt. Harrison wasn’t denied a second time as he won the award over fellow finalists Malik Nabers (LSU) and Rome Odunze (Washington) this year.
Harrison caught 67 passes for 1,211 yards and 14 touchdowns during this year’s regular season, numbers which also earned him Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year honors and a trip to New York for this weekend’s Heisman Trophy ceremony.
Harrison was also named Friday night as a Walter Camp All-American, the first of five All-American teams he’ll need to land on to become just the fifth Buckeye ever to earn unanimous All-American honors twice.
His 1,211 receiving yards are the fifth-most in a single season for an Ohio State receiver while his 14 touchdowns tied his own end-of-season total last year for the second-most in school history. He became the first receiver in Ohio State history to surpass 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons and broke the school record for career 100-yard games (15). He had eight 100-yard games during this year’s regular season while he scored at least one touchdown in 10 of Ohio State’s 12 regular-season games, including four games with two touchdown catches.
Harrison was the only Buckeye to win an award during ESPN’s College Football Awards Show on Friday night. Ohio State tight end Cade Stover was a finalist for the John Mackey Award, but that award was won by Georgia tight end Brock Bowers for the second year in a row.
