Jeremiah Smith is already Ohio State’s biggest star.
As high as expectations were for Smith entering his freshman season, the first-year wide receiver was ranked only ninth in the preseason Buckeye 20 as the Eleven Warriors staff wanted to see Smith perform in actual game action before crowning him as one of Ohio State’s top eight players. Six games into the 2024 season, however, we agreed that Smith is already the best player on a team loaded with talent.
Smith earns the No. 1 spot in our midseason Buckeye 20 update as he was ranked first or second on the ballots of every Eleven Warriors staffer who participated in the voting. Caleb Downs, who started the season at No. 1, leads all defensive players in the midseason Buckeye 20 after receiving three first-place votes. Emeka Egbuka rounds out the top three in our ranking of Ohio State’s 20 best players at the halfway point of the season.
While the preseason Buckeye 20 was heavy on defensive players at the top, offensive skill-position players earned five of the top seven spots in our midseason rankings with offensive players holding seven of the top 10 spots overall. All 20 players who made our preseason rankings also made our midseason rankings, but every player is ranked in a different position than they were when the season began.
Our full midseason player rankings can be found in the table below. Each player received 20 points for every first-place vote they received from our staff down to one point for a 20th-place vote, and the players were ranked based on the total number of voting points each received; ties were broken by the number of total ballots each player appeared on.
Below the table, we break down the biggest risers and fallers from the preseason rankings to the midseason rankings. You can find more analysis on each player on our Buckeye 20 page and on The Buckeye 20 Show, which you can watch in the video at the top and bottom of this article.
| Rank | Pos | Player | Pts (1st) | Change | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WR | JEREMIAH SMITH | 196 (6) | ▲8 | 9 |
| 2 | S | CALEB DOWNS | 182 (3) | ▼1 | 1 |
| 3 | WR | EMEKA EGBUKA | 181 | ▲2 | 5 |
| 4 | DT | TYLEIK WILLIAMS | 166 (1) | ▲2 | 6 |
| 5 | RB | TREVEYON HENDERSON | 156 | ▼1 | 4 |
| 6 | RB | QUINSHON JUDKINS | 148 | ▲1 | 7 |
| 7 | QB | WILL HOWARD | 127 | ▲9 | 16 |
| 8 | S | LATHAN RANSOM | 109 | ▲3 | 11 |
| 9 | C | SETH MCLAUGHLIN | 104 | ▲11 | 20 |
| 10 | LT | JOSH SIMMONS | 103 | ▲8 | 18 |
| 11 | DE | JACK SAWYER | 96 | ▼8 | 3 |
| 12 | DE | JT TUIMOLOAU | 86 | ▼4 | 8 |
| 13 | CB | DENZEL BURKE | 76 | ▼11 | 2 |
| 14 | CB | DAVISON IGBINOSUN | 66 | ▼2 | 12 |
| 15 | DT | TY HAMILTON | 62 | ▲4 | 19 |
| 16 | LG | DONOVAN JACKSON | 62 | ▼2 | 16 |
| 17 | CB | JORDAN HANCOCK | 61 | ▼7 | 10 |
| 18 | LB | CODY SIMON | 47 | ▼3 | 15 |
| 19 | WR | CARNELL TATE | 28 | ▼6 | 13 |
| 20 | LB | SONNY STYLES | 22 | ▼3 | 17 |
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Also receiving votes: RT Josh Fryar (8), RG Tegra Tshabola (6), DE Kenyatta Jackson Jr. (4), K Jayden Fielding (2), WR Brandon Inniss (1), LB Arvell Reese (1) |
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McLaughlin, Howard lead biggest risers
The final player to make the cut in our preseason top 20, Seth McLaughlin leaps into the top 10 after an excellent first half of the season leading Ohio State’s offensive line. Named as a midseason All-American by multiple media outlets, the Buckeyes’ starting center is now ranked as Ohio State’s ninth-best player. McLaughlin’s 11-spot jump is the largest of any player from the preseason Buckeye 20 to the midseason Buckeye 20.
The second-biggest riser is Will Howard, who has answered preseason questions about whether he had the passing prowess Ohio State needed by completing 73.3 percent of his passing attempts – which would be a school record – for 1,574 yards and 14 touchdowns with only three interceptions while also running for five touchdowns. Howard jumps up nine spots in the season’s first rankings update from 16th to seventh.
Smith is one of two players to jump up eight spots from the preseason along with Josh Simmons, who ascended from 18th to 10th with an excellent first half of the season as Ohio State’s starting left tackle. Unfortunately for Simmons and the Buckeyes, he won’t have the opportunity to continue climbing the rankings this year as he is expected to miss the rest of the season with the knee injury he suffered against Oregon.
Burke, Sawyer lead biggest fallers
Denzel Burke and Jack Sawyer were the second and third-ranked players in our preseason Buckeye 20, but both fell out of the top 10 after struggling in Ohio State’s most recent game against Oregon. Given that the Oregon game was Ohio State’s biggest game of the first half of the season by far, it carried substantial weight in how players were ranked at the midway point of the year.
Burke is still Ohio State’s top-ranked cornerback but dropped 11 spots from second to 13th after giving up eight catches for 179 yards and two touchdowns against the Ducks. Sawyer fell eight spots from third to 11th, with fellow starting defensive end JT Tuimoloau dropping from eighth to 12th, after Ohio State recorded zero sacks in the loss to Oregon, in which the Ducks threw for 359 yards against the Buckeyes’ defense.
Jordan Hancock, whose playing time has fluctuated as he’s been the first player to come out of the game when the Buckeyes have used three-linebacker personnel on defense, dropped seven spots from 10th to 17th. Carnell Tate, who has 15 catches for 232 yards and one touchdown as Ohio State’s No. 3 receiver, dropped from 13th in the preseason rankings to 19th at midseason.
Eleven Warriors’ Dan Hope, Andy Anders and Chase Brown broke down where every player is ranked and why on our midseason edition of The Buckeye 20 Show, which you can watch in the YouTube video below.
