Double-digit Buckeyes earn AP All-Big Ten honors

COLUMBUS — Ohio State was the best team in the country for most of the season until it lost the Big Ten Championship Game to Indiana on Saturday night.

The Buckeyes are being honored for the season they’re having, landing 12 players — from both sides of the ball — on the Associated Press’ All-Big Ten team that was released Tuesday. It’s headlined by AP Big Ten Freshman of the Year Julian Sayin and AP Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Caleb Downs.

It also includes wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, defensive linemen Caden Curry and Kayden McDonald, linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles and cornerback Davison Igbinosun, giving the Buckeyes eight first-team selections. Sayin didn’t make the first-team but was the Freshman of the year.

This all comes one week after Jeremiah Smith won the Richter-Howard Wide Receiver of the Year honor from the Big Ten, winning it for the second consecutive season. Through 12 games played, Smith has 80 catches for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns so far this season despite missing a game and being limited in another game.

Downs was named the Big Ten’s Nagurski–Woodson Defensive Player of the Year last week, too, officially becoming the best defensive player in a conference littered with impressive defensive standouts. Downs is the 10th Ohio State player to be named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year; it’s the 11th time a Buckeyes defender has won the award as linebacker James Laurinaitis won it twice in 2007 and 2008.

Last week, Downs was also named the Big Ten’s Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year for the second straight season. The only other winner of the award from Ohio State, which began in 2011, was Shaun Wade in 2020.

McDonald was named the Big Ten’s Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year last week, too.

Sayin won the Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year honor from the Big Ten last week for his first season as a starting quarterback. Sayin has leads the nation in completion percentage, completing 78.4 percent of his passes for 3,323 yards and 31 touchdown passes. Sayin was named a second-team All-Big Ten quarterback from the coaches and media in the Big Ten — and then again by the AP this week.

Ohio State players named AP All-Big Ten

First team: WR Jeremiah Smith, WR Carnell Tate, DE Caden Curry, DT Kayden McDonald, LB Arvell Reese, LB Sonny Styles, DB Caleb Downs, CB Davison Igbinosun
Second-team: QB Julian Sayin, TE Max Klare, LG Luke Montgomery, RB Bo Jackson