Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis mark it down with the players they think will earn trees in Buckeye Grove.
Listen to Buckeye Talk, your favorite Ohio State football podcast, five days a week with Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It’s another Mark it Down Monday as Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis discuss who they think will be the nextWill a defensive player earn the honor after not having a single player do so for the past three seasons?
The defense is the question, but like even with the defense, like, I don’t think that there were any like particularly gaudy stats. Like we talked about this defense only having 11 turnovers last year. You know, there wasn’t a huge sack getter on the defensive line. Like even if you look at Jack Sawyer and you know, every week he was just kind of like, wow, Jim Knowles is praising him again for, you know, being in the right spot and doing literally everything right.
Guys like Justin Fields and CJ Stroud and Dwayne Haskins, know, because quarterback, you only get one first team All -American. Sometimes the quarterbacks don’t get on there. So this run of quarterbacks that we’ve seen in Ohio State, no trees for those guys. But still, guys like Chase Young and Nick Bote. No, Nick Bote doesn’t have a tree, no. Ryan Shazier, AJ Hawk, throughout history, those guys have trees. Marvin Harrison Jr., the only one to get a tree last year.
Davis and Ibn Osin is the opposite of that. And I’ve kind of been making this case that I think the NFL’s opinion of Davis and Ibn Osin might be higher than everybody else’s opinion of Davis and Ibn Osin. And then I think that people are really going to evaluate him and go, wait a minute, why are we talking about Denzel Burke when we should be talking about Davis and Ibn Osin because he projects better as an NFL player. And that has kind of been my point all along.
Denzel Burke is already coming in with it and this is not giving away my list because I haven’t, no one has showed up on my list yet. It’s just more of a, Davidson Ibn Nosen is still at best considered the second best corner on his team coming into the season. And I think if he plays the exact way he played last year, 59 tackles, one and a half tackles for loss, five fast breakups, two fumble recoveries. And as I mentioned, on his 71 targets, he only gave up 36 catches. That’s a 50 .
getting the same level of appreciation and acknowledgement, whether it’s from an All -American standpoint or an NFL standpoint, the same way. So no consideration for me from Jordan Hancock. I give the consideration for you.No, you’re right. I think if there was a slot cornerback designation, yes, but it’s just, it’s so difficult to do that. you know, it’s so difficult to kind of qualify that because like there are teams in football that.
then literally everybody else in the linebacker room has played combined. And some of these guys have been here for two years already. And then Sonny Stiles played all season last year at either nickel safety or banded safety. And now he’s moving down the linebacker, Stephane, any consideration to either one of those linebackers.Yeah, I considered Cody Simon.
and we’ll be really helpful. you know, you look at the guys last year, like the all American team for the AP was to Vandrea sweat and Jerson Newton. Like those guys are first second round players. think Tyler Williams is in that ballpark. Like those are guys that got named to all first team, all American last year. And I think that Tyler Williams is probably in that ballpark of just talent.
across these various poles and things of that nature. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up being a first team guy.What if this just essentially comes down to the first and second team list or just Ohio, state and Michigan guys, which like Tyler Williams, Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant and like Jason Moore just becomes the beast this year. I’m not against it. I think that would be hilarious. Next up JT Tui Malauau.
makes him a top five cornerback. And then outside of that, I think actually I might say Denzel Burke is four because I can’t think of a fifth name right now outside of those four last year, 48 targets, only 25 catches and overall raw stat numbers. He had 24 tackles, three tackles for loss. He had one interception and nine pass breakups in a forced fumble. That forced fumble is what got Tyleek Williams a defensive touchdown last year.Yeah, I Denzel on my list.
You also have to take out the people who are not at power five schools who are going to be considered for all Americans in those situations. So that list, you probably cut it by half. We’re talking about all American lists, which now brings us to our number one defensive guy and our number one overall guy. And I’m assuming our second unanimous Jack Sawyer, our first unanimous all American, meaning all three of us picked them plus our Texas picked them.
in terms of being a first team All -American or being potentially the best safety in the country. I have little doubt about that with Caleb Downs.think he’s just a lock Andrew to be a first team All -American this year unless something goes drastically wrong and he takes a step back but nobody’s really anticipating.I’m not going to put the L word on it. I’m not going to put lock on it. And here’s why. Caleb Downs had 107 tackles last year and two interceptions.
Right. Donovan Edwards is maybe in that conversation as well. There’s plenty of guys that you could throw in that conversation, but that’s a preseason conversation. This is a, what are things going to look like in December conversation? And I’m very, very happy that we didn’t do this pod until we talked with the quarterbacks. And we also got to talk to some players on the roster. And. So far, I think we talked about this on a pilot one point. If a team has so many good players.
play where it’s like, hey, is Will a Heisman Trophy winner? Hey, is Will Howard the best quarterback in college football? Whether he is or not, the NFL will tell us that. But he just might have some numbers because of all the talent around him that puts him in a position where only one quarterback makes it. But we’ve seen years where even if a quarterback wins the Heisman, a couple of the guys sprinkle in some first team votes. I remember in 2021, Bryce Young won the Heisman, but Kenny Pickett.
that high. I don’t think he can reach that ceiling. Because like I said, with the corner conversation, you also have to look at like, who’s in the country as well. Like who else can can kind of make that leap? Nobody saw Jaden Daniels coming last year.
When you go on the field with Quinn Ubers and vice versa and all down the list in that situation Continue to make all the up the list here up next I mentioned I put the wide receivers in these two get three categories of there’s the safe pick. There’s the See we’re coming from big and then the very irresponsible pick that everybody wants to talk about but Ryan Day any consideration for Mr. JJ Smith from either one of you guys I did not put him on my list.
single season receiving touchdowns record. maybe he would have made one anyway, but it would have been a little bit more difficult to be the prominent receiver he was had Jackson not gotten hurt. And then last year, the reason why he’d been a unanimous All -American regardless, that was the best wire receiver in the country. But what got him to New York, what got him that extra layer was a Mecca being hurt.
And so you had some good moments, Andrew, but you also had some rough moments. I’m wondering if this year he takes the top of a step where it’s like, can he show up on one All -American list at a position that gets five All -Americans? So that’s 25 chances to make one spot. I think Joshua Simmons can do that.I have him, I have him on my list as well with you.
Can you imagine like after the Indiana game, Steven, if you, me and Nathan were like, this is an all American level player in 365 days, that would have been crazy. So he started out at a certain level. He got better as the year went on, but I don’t think anybody looked at him at the end of the year and went like, this is one of the best tackles in college football.
Like first off, how can you differentiate between it? Like I think Stefan is right. I think if I had to pick one, I’m leaning Quinchon, but it is very difficult to be like who’s going to get the more carries because like Quinchon might get more carries, but Trevion also might have more plays out of the backfield, the passing game that matter. And like he might also put up some numbers in the receiving gate. Like I, I just think they’re going to cannibalize each other.
Cause that’s just not how I’ll say it’s offensive line works. That’s how this offense has worked really since Justin Fields. If they’re not giving up sacks and trade on Henderson and Quintin Judkins are running wild in the run game. I think that’s a formula for Ohio state’s offensive line ones, the Joe Moore award. And I think the Joe Moore award winning offensive line has two offensive linemen who make at least one Stefan of the five major all American lists. And that’s Josh Simmons.
We’ll have a conversation about that when we get there. But right now I get why you acknowledge a Mecca Bucca. I just didn’t want to put a receiver on my list to predict something like this because I’m not sure any of them end up as a first team All -American because they all might be so good that they cannibalize each other. So our official list, I have Will Howard, Joshua Simmons, Donovan Jackson, Jack Sawyer, Denzel Burke and Caleb Downs.
or on this team because again, it’s hard to split up the Benerik and the Nagurski just because it doesn’t make sense for me to be like, I think he’s going to win the Nagurski, but not the other one. Or I think he’s more likely to win the Nagurski than the other one because like they’re the same qualification. But I think that Caleb Downs might be the best defensive player in college football. He’s one of them at the very least.
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