Last Update: DEC. 12, 2024
The Eleven Warriors Buckeye 20 is a year-round ranking of the best players on the Ohio State football team’s roster.
Our post-regular season rankings entering the College Football Playoff are led by standout safety Caleb Downs, who’s joined in the top five by wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka, safety Lathan Ransom and running back TreVeyon Henderson.
The full pre-CFP Buckeye 20 rankings can be found below. The final Buckeye 20 for the 2024 season will come after the conclusion of Ohio State’s CFP run.
01 Caleb Downs
Downs has been everything he was supposed to be in his first season as a Buckeye, firmly establishing himself as the best safety in college football with an All-American season. A missile of a tackler who provides consistently excellent coverage on the back end, Downs has led the way for Ohio State’s defense to be the best in college football while also scoring Ohio State’s first punt return touchdown in 10 years.
02 Jeremiah Smith
The No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class immediately lived up to the hype in his first regular season as a Buckeye, shattering Ohio State’s freshman receiving records by catching 57 passes for 934 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s already the player who defensive coordinators build their game plans around stopping when facing Ohio State, yet he’s still made one highlight-reel grab after another to assert himself as one of college football’s biggest stars.
03 Emeka Egbuka
Egbuka re-emerged as one of the nation’s best receivers this year after an injury-plagued 2023 season, catching 60 passes for 743 yards and nine touchdowns during the regular season. While he’s been overshadowed by Smith, Egbuka has often functioned as the go-to receiver in critical situations, a credit to his reliability as a route runner and pass-catcher and his ability to turn short passes into longer gains with his agility and strength as an open-field runner.
04 Lathan Ransom
Ransom saved his best season for last as the fifth-year senior has been a high-impact defender for Ohio State in 2024, recording 57 tackles with six tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and an interception during the regular season. Playing alongside Downs has allowed Ransom to line up all over the field and be an aggressive downhill playmaker while he’s also been rock-solid in pass coverage, giving Ohio State the best safety duo in college football.
05 TreVeyon Henderson
Henderson has averaged nearly seven yards per carry in 2024, using his explosive speed to break 26 runs of 10-plus yards on just 108 regular-season rushing attempts. He’s been a more decisive runner than he was in past seasons while he’s also excelled in pass protection, making the highlight reel throughout the season with his pancake blocks on blitz pickups.
06 Tyleik Williams
Williams hasn’t been quite as productive statistically as a senior as he was in 2023, but he’s still played a massive role in leading the way for Ohio State to hold opponents under 100 rushing yards per game. Among all of Ohio State’s defensive linemen, he’s the one whose absence has been most noticeable when he hasn’t been on the field as his combination of explosiveness, power and block-shedding skill is matched by few defensive tackles across college football.
07 Seth McLaughlin
Despite his season-ending Achilles injury that ended his season after 10 games, McLaughlin climbed two spots in the Buckeye 20 from his midseason ranking. That’s a testament to how good McLaughlin was in those 10 games – and how much he’s been missed since he went down – as his dominance as both a pass protector and run blocker earned him this year’s Rimington Trophy as college football’s best center.
08 Jack Sawyer
Much like last year, Sawyer saved his best football for November, recording 20 total tackles with two sacks, an interception, a fumble return touchdown and 15 total quarterback pressures in the final month of the regular season. His 4.5 total sacks for the season haven’t lived up to the expectations he entered the season with, but he’s still been one of the best defensive ends in the country as a frequently disruptive pass rusher off the edge who also excels against the run.
09 Cody Simon
Simon climbed nine spots in the Buckeye 20 from midseason with a superb second half of the season in which he recorded 49 total tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and four sacks. The Block O wearer has taken his game to new heights in 2024, serving as the leader for Ohio State’s No. 1-ranked defense while making more game-changing plays than ever before, becoming one of the biggest stars on a defense full of them.
10 Quinshon Judkins
Judkins fell four spots in the Buckeye 20 from midseason as he had an inconsistent second half of the regular season behind a reshuffled offensive line, but he still led Ohio State with 805 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. The Ole Miss transfer hasn’t been quite as productive splitting carries for the Buckeyes as he was taking the motherlode of carries for the Rebels, but Pro Football Focus still graded him as a top-15 RB in the FBS for the regular season.
11 JT Tuimoloau
The first Ohio State defensive end to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors three times, Tuimoloau has had his best season as a senior, recording 38 tackles with 11.5 tackles for loss and six sacks, all career-highs. Tuimoloau leads the team in both of the latter categories as he’s been a frequently disruptive presence as both a pass rusher and a run defender off the edge in tandem with Sawyer.
12 Will Howard
Howard is on pace to break Ohio State’s completion percentage record, having completed 72.3% of his passes for 2,860 yards and 27 touchdowns with eight interceptions while also running for seven scores during the regular season. His struggles in the Michigan game hurt his ranking, but Howard has otherwise excelled in his lone season as a Buckeye, providing great leadership while passing the ball efficiently and giving the Buckeyes the running threat they had lacked from the quarterback position for three years.
13 Josh Simmons
Like McLaughlin, Simmons remains in the Buckeye 20 despite a season-ending injury as he was one of Ohio State’s two best offensive linemen before the knee injury he suffered against Oregon cut his year short. Until that injury, Simmons was one of the most dominant left tackles in all of college football, allowing zero sacks in six games; the Buckeyes’ offensive line hasn’t been the same without him.
14 Donovan Jackson
Jackson moved to left tackle after Simmons went down and has performed admirably in his new role. While he’s had some lapses in pass protection, he’s done about as well as can be expected for a guard playing left tackle. He’s continued to be one of the Buckeyes’ best run blockers despite playing out of position on the edge, and he’s earned a place on multiple All-American teams in recognition of how he’s handled playing at two different spots.
15 Jordan Hancock
Hancock’s playing time has fluctuated this season as the Buckeyes have used more three-linebacker packages that take him off the field, but he’s been Ohio State’s most consistent cornerback when he’s been on the field, allowing only 18 catches for 133 yards and no touchdowns while recording 32 tackles with six pass breakups, two forced fumbles and an interception. His versatility has been an asset for Ohio State’s secondary as he’s also played some snaps at safety, with his most productive game of the year coming when he filled in for Lathan Ransom at safety against Nebraska.
16 Carnell Tate
You won’t find a better No. 3 receiver in college football than Tate, who’s gotten better and better as the season has progressed to catch 41 passes for 583 yards and four touchdowns. The Chicago native has a knack for making difficult plays look easier than they are, moving with impressive gracefulness both with and without the ball in his hands. He’s shown the ability to be a home-run hitter with five catches of 30-plus yards while he’s also been effective in the short to intermediate passing game.
17 Ty Hamilton
Like his older brother DaVon, Ty Hamilton has played his best football in his fifth year at Ohio State, recording a career-high 40 tackles with four tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble. He doesn’t make as many flashy plays as Ohio State’s other starting defensive linemen, but he’s one of the biggest reasons why the Buckeyes’ run defense has been one of the best in the country.
18 Sonny Styles
Styles has had his ups and downs in his first season as a linebacker but has gotten better over the course of the year, ultimately finishing the regular season with a team-high 76 tackles. The converted safety is a gifted playmaker who has flashed plenty of big-play ability with 6.5 tackles for loss, four sacks and three pass breakups, but he’s also had his share of missed assignments that have led to plays the other way.
19 Denzel Burke
Burke hasn’t been bad outside of the nightmare game he had against Oregon, but he hasn’t been the dominant cover corner he was in 2023, allowing more catches, yards and touchdowns than he did a year ago on fewer targets. Burke has elevated his game as a tackler around the line of scrimmage, shutting down runs and screen passes throughout the season to record a career-high 41 tackles, but his inconsistency in coverage has slid him down the Buckeye 20 rankings after he began the year at No. 2.
20 Davison Igbinosun
Igbinosun has also slid down the rankings over the course of the season as he’s struggled mightily with committing pass interference, leading all FBS cornerbacks with 13 penalties this year. He’s been solid in coverage outside of those penalties, however, holding opposing receivers to 22 catches for 258 yards and one touchdown on 43 targets while recording the first two interceptions of his college career. He’s also been an asset in run support, recording 30 tackles.
