Julian Sayin, Jeremiah Smith named semifinalists for Maxwell Award

COLUMBUS — Ohio State star quarterback Julian Sayin and star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith are semifinalists for the Maxwell Award, given annually to the top player in college football.

The pair has connected often this year, forming the best quarterback-receiver tandem in college football. Smith has 65 catches for 862 yards and 10 touchdown grabs, all of which have come from Sayin.

Sayin, currently the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy with just a month remaining in the race for the award, has completed 80.9 percent of his passes for 2,491 passing yards and 24 touchdown passes to go with just four interceptions — only one of the picks came in conference play.

With a marquee game at Michigan in the rivalry game and a potential Big Ten title game appearance against Indiana still on deck, Sayin and Smith both have chances to cement themselves as worthy of the award at the end of the season.

No Ohio State player has won the Maxwell Award since Eddie George won it in 1995. Other winners from the Buckeyes are Archie Griffin in 1975, Bob Ferguson in 1961 and Howard Cassady in 1955.

Finalists for the Maxwell Award will be announced Nov. 27, and the winner will be awarded Dec. 11 during the College Football Awards Show on ESPN.

Other award lists for Ohio State

Ohio State has a trio of defenders on the semifinalist list for the Lombardi Award that was released on Tuesday.

Linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles are both semifinalists for the award, as is senior defensive end Caden Curry.

The Lombardi Award is given annually to the nation’s top offensive or defensive front seven player. No Ohio State player has won it since linebacker AJ Hawk in 2005.

That came on the same day last week that Reese was named the Chuck Bendarik National Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Buckeyes 38-14 win over Penn State to begin November. In that win, Arvell Reese had 12 total tackles, five of which were solo, with a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss, helping the Buckeyes shut out the Penn State offense in the second half of a four-score win to stay undefeated on the season.

He was the second Ohio State defender to win the Chuck Bendarik National Defensive Player of the Week honor this season, joining defensive end Caden Curry, who earned the honor after his three-sack, five tackle-for-loss performance in the win over Washington on Sept. 27.

The honor for Reese came on the same day that he was named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, given annually to the nation’s top linebacker. He and fellow Buckeyes linebacker Sonny Styles were both semifinalists for that award that will be given out in December.