With the 2023 college football season now complete, it’s time for one last look at who Ohio State’s best players were this season.
The Buckeye 20 is Eleven Warriors’ year-round ranking of the best players on the Ohio State football team’s roster. The rankings were updated after each month of the regular season, and the rankings page has now been updated with our final rankings for the 2023 season.
The biggest change between our post-regular season ranking and our post-Cotton Bowl ranking was the surge of Jack Sawyer, who climbed into the top five after ranking outside the top 10 throughout the regular season. Sawyer was Ohio State’s best player against Missouri, recording three sacks in the Buckeyes’ 14-3 loss, and our staff rewarded him with a seven-spot jump in the final rankings of the year.
Marvin Harrison Jr., Denzel Burke, TreVeyon Henderson and Tyleik Williams, Ohio State’s top four players from the regular season, retain the top four spots in our final rankings.
Overall, our rankings of Ohio State’s top 20 players for the 2023 season are dominated by the defense, which took 14 of the top 18 spots in the end-of-year Buckeye 20. Although four of Ohio State’s top eight players were on offense – all at the skill positions – the Buckeyes’ defense was its more complete unit this season by far, and that’s reflected by how many defenders rank among Ohio State’s best players for the season.
| Rank | Pos | Player | Previous Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WR | MARVIN HARRISON JR. | 1 | – |
| 2 | CB | DENZEL BURKE | 2 | – |
| 3 | RB | TREVEYON HENDERSON | 3 | – |
| 4 | DT | TYLEIK WILLIAMS | 4 | – |
| 5 | DE | JACK SAWYER | 12 | ▲7 |
| 6 | WR | EMEKA EGBUKA | 5 | ▼1 |
| 7 | DE | JT TUIMOLOAU | 6 | ▼1 |
| 8 | TE | CADE STOVER | 7 | ▼1 |
| 9 | FS | JOSH PROCTOR | 9 | – |
| 10 | LB | TOMMY EICHENBERG | 8 | ▼2 |
| 11 | CB | JORDAN HANCOCK | 11 | – |
| 12 | CB | DAVISON IGBINOSUN | 13 | ▲1 |
| 13 | DT | MIKE HALL | 10 | ▼3 |
| 14 | LB | CODY SIMON | 15 | ▲1 |
| 15 | S | LATHAN RANSOM | 16 | ▲1 |
| 16 | S | SONNY STYLES | 14 | ▼2 |
| 17 | DT | TY HAMILTON | NR | ▲5 |
| 18 | LB | STEELE CHAMBERS | 19 | ▲1 |
| 19 | WR | XAVIER JOHNSON | 20 | ▲1 |
| 20 | LG | DONOVAN JACKSON | 18 | ▼2 |
The Buckeye 20 was compiled by a voting panel of Eleven Warriors staff writers. Each writer was asked to rank Ohio State’s 20 best players for the 2023 season, and those votes were tallied (first-place votes were worth 20 points down to one point for 20th-place votes) to set our final rankings for the year.
You can read more about all 20 ranked players and their performance during the 2023 season on our Buckeye 20 page. Below, we highlight who made the biggest moves in our final rankings update of the season.
Who’s In: Ty Hamilton
Hamilton makes his first Buckeye 20 appearance of the season in our final rankings of the year after an excellent showing in the Cotton Bowl, in which he recorded six tackles with two tackles for loss and a sack. Hamilton was among the leading vote-getters who didn’t make the top 20 in all of our regular-season rankings, but his strong finish against Missouri propelled him into our end-of-year rankings at No. 17.
Who’s Out: Matt Jones
Jones’ move to center for the Cotton Bowl did not go well, and it cost him his place in the Buckeye 20 that he had held all season. Jones was one of Ohio State’s two best offensive linemen in 2023 along with left guard Donovan Jackson, who earned the 20th and final spot in the end-of-year rankings, but the sixth-year senior didn’t play well enough to save a unit that was Ohio State’s Achilles heel throughout the year, especially against Missouri.
Biggest Riser: Jack Sawyer
While the Cotton Bowl was Sawyer’s best game of his Ohio State career, his surge started late in the regular season. With 7.5 tackles for loss and five sacks in the final three games of the year alone, Sawyer finished the year as Ohio State’s leader or co-leader (tied with Tyleik Williams in tackles for loss) in both categories. No Buckeye player finished the season with more momentum, and he’ll have a chance to build on that momentum as he’s already announced he’ll return for his senior season.
Biggest Faller: Mike Hall
Unlike Sawyer, Hall never had the breakthrough performance Ohio State fans were waiting to see him have in 2023. He didn’t play poorly in the Cotton Bowl – his three-spot slide in the final rankings had more to do with Sawyer and Davison Igbinosun moving up – but his 2023 season as a whole lacked the dominant performances that he showed he was capable of during the first half of the 2022 season.
Visit our Buckeye 20 page for more analysis of how each of Ohio State’s top 20 players performed during the regular season. Bookmark that page to keep up with the rankings all year long. Our first Buckeye 20 rankings for the 2024 season will be published in February before the start of spring practices.
