Three Ohio State players finished in the top nine of this year’s Heisman Trophy vote.
Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith finished sixth and Ohio State safety Caleb Downs finished ninth in this year’s Heisman Trophy balloting, ESPN revealed Thursday night during a show unveiling the fifth-through-10th-place finishers in the 2025 Heisman Trophy vote.
The fifth through 10th spots in the 2025 Heisman balloting were released tonight on The Top 10 Heisman Trophy Finalists Show Presented by @nissanusa, which aired live on @espn.#Heisman | #MoreThanATrophy pic.twitter.com/aNpNiHE3XV
— The Heisman Trophy (@HeismanTrophy) December 12, 2025
Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin is one of four finalists for this year’s Heisman, which will be awarded Saturday night during a ceremony in New York, which will air on ABC from 7-8 p.m.
Ohio State is the only school to have multiple players finish in the top 10 of this year’s Heisman vote.
Smith, who has 80 catches for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, is the only receiver in the top 10 of this year’s Heisman vote. Smith, who’s tied for sixth nationally in both receptions and receiving touchdowns and ranks seventh nationally in receiving yards, is also a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, which honors college football’s top pass-catcher and will be awarded Friday (7-9 p.m.) during ESPN’s College Football Awards Show.
Downs, the leader of Ohio State’s top-ranked defense, is one of two defensive players in the top 10 along with Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, who finished fifth in the Heisman vote. Downs won the Lott IMPACT Trophy earlier this week. He is also a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which honors college football’s best defensive back, and the Chuck Bednarik Award, which honors college football’s best defensive player; both of those awards will also be awarded during Friday’s College Football Awards Show.
It’s the first time a school has three top-10 finishers in the Heisman Trophy vote since Alabama’s DeVonta Smith, Mac Jones and Najee Harris all finished in the top five in 2020. It’s the fourth time Ohio State has had three top-10 finishers in the Heisman vote, previously achieving that feat in 2019 (Justin Fields, Chase Young and J.K. Dobbins), 1973 (John Hicks, Archie Griffin and Randy Gradishar) and 1969 (Rex Kern, Jim Otis, Jack Tatum).
Sayin will be joined in New York on Saturday night by Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia and Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. It’s anticipated that Sayin will finish somewhere between second and fourth, as Mendoza is viewed as the frontrunner to win the Heisman after he led Indiana to a Big Ten Championship Game win over Sayin and the Buckeyes last weekend, securing the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff for the 13-0 Hoosiers.
The other top-10 finishers in this year’s Heisman vote were Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton (7th), Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (8th) and Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King (10th).
