Two Buckeyes make preseason watch list for Thorpe Award
COLUMBUS — Another day, another preseason honor for Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.
The unanimous All-American safety just keeps piling those watch list honors up, this time being named to the Thorpe Award watch list after making the list for the Nagurski Award and others during the buildup to August training camp.
Downs is a sure-thing first-round NFL Draft choice for next year, but he has at least one more year of college football before he can go. And he is among the best returning players, offense or defense, in the country entering this season.
He’s not the only Buckeyes star on the watch list for the Thorpe Award, though. Senior cornerback Davison Igbinosun joined Downs on the list.
Igbinosun has started all 29 games he has played across two seasons at Ohio State. He transferred from Ole Miss after starting 10 games as a freshman for the Rebels in 2022.
Sonny Styles, Arvell Reese on Butkus Award watch list
Ohio State is expected to have one of the top linebacker duos in college football this fall.
Both starting linebackers are racking up preseason honors to show for it, too. Senior linebacker Sonny Styles and third-year defender Arvell Reese were both named to the Butkus Award watch list on Wednesday. The Butkus Award is given annually to the country’s top linebacker.
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Buckeyes linebackers coach James Laurinaitis won the award in 2007. Andy Katzenmoyer won it 10 years earlier in 1997. They’re the only two Ohio State players to win the award that has been handed out since 1985.
Styles enters his second year as a starting linebacker and third as a defensive starter for the Buckeyes. He’ll be the leader of the group both on and off the field heading into his senior season. He is expected to be the Block O jersey recipient as a presumed captain of this Buckeyes defense.
Reese, meanwhile, enters his first season as a starter for the Buckeyes after contributing alongside Styles and now-Arizona Cardinals defender Cody Simon last fall.
Both are already garnering attention as two of the top linebackers in all of college football. The preseason watch lists show that.