Four Ohio State players were named Big Ten preseason honorees on Tuesday.
Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson and defensive end JT Tuimoloau are among the 12 Big Ten stars who were named Tuesday as the conference’s preseason honorees for the 2024 season.
The Buckeyes have the most preseason honorees of any school. Michigan ranks second with three Big Ten preseason honorees: defensive tackle Mason Graham, cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland. Oregon has two preseason honorees, quarterback Dillon Gabriel and wide receiver Tez Johnson, while Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins, Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter and Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai round out the list of players selected by a panel of Big Ten media members as the conference’s best players entering the 2024 season.
Downs earns Big Ten preseason honors after transferring to Ohio State this offseason from Alabama, where he earned the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award as college football’s best freshman following a spectacular first year of college football in which he led the Crimson Tide with 107 tackles and was arguably the best all-around safety in the country.
Tuimoloau joins him among the six defensive preseason honorees as he looks to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors on the defensive line for the third year in a row. He’s coming off a junior season in which he recorded 38 tackles with seven tackles for loss, five sacks and two pass breakups.
Egbuka, a second-team All-Big Ten honoree in 2022 and a third-team all-conference selection in 2023, is expected to be one of college football’s top receivers in 2024 as he becomes the lead dog in Ohio State’s receiver room with Marvin Harrison Jr. now in the NFL. He’s caught 115 passes for 1,666 yards and 14 touchdowns over the past two years despite missing part of the 2023 season with a high ankle sprain.
Henderson, a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2023, enters 2024 as one of the nation’s most dynamic running backs. He ran for 926 yards and 11 touchdowns on 156 carries and added 19 catches for 229 yards in 10 games last season.
