COLUMBUS, Ohio — Four players from Ohio State earned Big Ten Conference preseason honors on Tuesday.
The four Buckeyes are safety Caleb Downs, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson and defensive tackle JT Tuimoloau.
Egbuka, Henderson and Tuimoloau are all returned to Ohio State for a chance to beat Michigan and bring a national championship to Columbus. Downs transferred from Alabama after head coach Nick Saban retired.
Egbuka missed multiple games with an ankle injury last year, but managed to catch 41 passes for 515 yards and four touchdowns. He is expected to be the team's WR1 now that Marvin Harrison Jr. is in the NFL.
Henderson was Ohio State's primary ball carrier, rushing for 956 yards and 11 touchdowns on 156 attempts. He also caught 19 passes for 229 yards.
Tuimoloau was one of the Buckeyes on defense to be named first-team All-Big Ten Conference last year. He recorded 34 tackles, 4 sacks, 6 TFLs and a team-high 39 yards in losses. He also had a fumble recovery.
Downs entered the transfer portal in January and committed to Ohio State two days later. The safety has three remaining seasons of collegiate eligibility. Downs was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 1 player to enter the transfer portal this offseason. He was named 1st Team Freshman All-American, SEC Freshman of the Year and won the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award as the best freshman in all of college football this past season.
Ohio State's full schedule can be seen below:
- Aug. 31 – Akron (3:30 p.m., CBS)
- Sept. 7 – Western Michigan (7:30 p.m., BTN)
- Sept. 14 – Off
- Sept. 21 – Marshall
- Sept. 28 – at Michigan State
- Oct. 5 – Iowa
- Oct. 12 – at Oregon
- Oct. 19 – Off
- Oct. 26 – Nebraska
- Nov. 2 – at Penn State
- Nov. 9 – Purdue
- Nov. 16 – at Northwestern
- Nov. 23 – Indiana
- Nov. 30 – Michigan (Noon, FOX)