A pair of safeties and a pair of wide receivers lead Ohio State’s top players entering the College Football Playoff.
Caleb Downs returns to the top spot in the Buckeye 20, Eleven Warriors’ ranking of Ohio State’s top 20 players, after being leaped by Jeremiah Smith in the midseason rankings. Downs earned all but two first-place votes from our staff in our pre-College Football Playoff rankings after a spectacular regular season for which he earned first-team All-American honors while leading the way for the Buckeyes to have the top defense in college football.
Smith comes in at No. 2 after obliterating Ohio State’s freshman receiving records by catching 57 passes for 934 yards and 10 touchdowns during the regular season. Fellow wide receiver Emeka Egbuka remains in the third spot while Ohio State’s other star safety, Lathan Ransom, makes a four-spot lead from the midseason rankings and checks in at No. 4. Running back TreVeyon Henderson rounds out the top five.
Our full rankings ahead of the College Football Playoff can be found in the table below, with more analysis on each player available on our Buckeye 20 page. Each player received 20 points for a first-place vote down to one point for a 20th-place vote and was ranked by the total number of points they received from our 10-member voting panel, which was asked to rank Ohio State’s top 20 players through the completion of the regular season.
| Rank | Pos | Player | Pts (1st) | Change | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S | CALEB DOWNS | 198 (8) | ▲1 | 2 |
| 2 | WR | JEREMIAH SMITH | 192 (2) | ▼1 | 1 |
| 3 | WR | EMEKA EGBUKA | 170 | – | 3 |
| 4 | S | LATHAN RANSOM | 140 | ▲4 | 8 |
| 5 | RB | TREVEYON HENDERSON | 138 | – | 5 |
| 6 | DT | TYLEIK WILLIAMS | 134 | ▼2 | 4 |
| 7 | C | SETH MCLAUGHLIN | 132 | ▲2 | 9 |
| 8 | DE | JACK SAWYER | 130 | ▲3 | 11 |
| 9 | LB | CODY SIMON | 121 | ▲9 | 18 |
| 10 | RB | QUINSHON JUDKINS | 108 | ▼4 | 6 |
| 11 | DE | JT TUIMOLOAU | 101 | ▲1 | 12 |
| 12 | QB | WILL HOWARD | 94 | ▼5 | 7 |
| 13 | LT | JOSH SIMMONS | 85 | ▼3 | 10 |
| 14 | LT/LG | DONOVAN JACKSON | 72 | ▲2 | 16 |
| 15 | CB | JORDAN HANCOCK | 65 | ▲2 | 17 |
| 16 | WR | CARNELL TATE | 55 | ▲3 | 19 |
| 17 | DT | TY HAMILTON | 50 | ▼2 | 15 |
| 18 | LB | SONNY STYLES | 42 | ▲2 | 20 |
| 19 | CB | DENZEL BURKE | 40 | ▼6 | 13 |
| 20 | CB | DAVISON IGBINOSUN | 21 | ▼6 | 14 |
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Also receiving votes: DE Caden Curry (4), RT Josh Fryar (3), DT Kayden McDonald (3) CB Jermaine Mathews Jr. (1), TE Gee Scott Jr. (1) |
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Simon, Ransom make biggest leaps
The biggest riser in the Buckeye 20 from midseason through the end of the regular season was Cody Simon, who jumped up nine spots to make his first-ever appearance in the top 10. We had wanted to see Simon make more game-changing plays in the second half of the season, and the Block O wearer delivered, recording 49 total tackles with 7.5 tackles for loss and four sacks in the Buckeyes’ final six games of the regular season.
Lathan Ransom made the second-biggest jump from midseason as he makes his first-ever appearance in the top five of the Buckeye 20 with his four-spot surge from No. 8 to No. 4. Ransom was chosen as Ohio State’s second-best defensive player after an excellent regular season in which he recorded 57 tackles with six tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and an interception, earning him second-team All-American honors from CBS Sports.
Jack Sawyer (11th to eighth) and Carnell Tate (19th to 16th) each moved up three spots from their midseason rankings.
Burke, Igbinosun and Howard slide
Denzel Burke, who entered the season ranked second in the Buckeye 20, slid another six spots in our pre-College Football Playoff rankings after falling 11 spots at midseason. While Burke was better in the second half of the season than he was in his final game of the first half of the season against Oregon, he hasn’t reestablished himself as the dominant cornerback he was a year ago, resulting in his drop from the second spot in the rankings to the second-to-last spot in the rankings.
Ohio State’s other starting outside cornerback also falls six spots from midseason as Davison Igbinosun drops to the final spot in the top 20 after continuing to struggle with pass interference penalties in the second half of the season.
Will Howard fell five spots from his No. 7 midseason ranking to No. 12, a drop attributed to his struggles against Michigan, as he completed just 19 of 33 passing attempts for 175 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in the Buckeyes’ rivalry game loss.
Running back Quinshon Judkins fell four spots to 10th after an up-and-down second half of the season. Left tackle Josh Simmons dropped three spots after missing the second half of the season with a knee injury, though he still remains 13th in the rankings – a testament to how good he was before his injury and how much he’s been missed since he went down.
