Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. tops Michigan duo for Big Ten preseason Offensive Player of the Year

Published Jul. 25, 2023, 5:20 a.m.
By Nathan Baird, cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football quarterbacks have dominated the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Year Award in recent years.
The voters in the 13th annual cleveland.com Preseason Big Ten Football Poll believe that will change in 2023. They overwhelmingly voted Buckeye receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. as the preseason offensive player of the year.
Harrison was named on 35 of 37 ballots and received 27 first-place votes. His 94 points were more than the combined total of the second- and third-place finishers, Michigan teammates Blake Corum (four first-place votes) and J.J. McCarthy (five).
Harrison, though, made a strong case last season that he should be favored to end that drought.
The unanimous All-American stepped up when Jaxon Smith-Njigba went down with a hamstring injury. He led the Big Ten with 14 touchdown receptions and ranked second only to Purdue’s Charlie Jones in receptions (77) and yards (1,263).
Corum had rushed into the Heisman Trophy conversation last season before suffering a late-season knee injury. He ranked second among Big Ten players with 18 rushing touchdowns, third with 121.92 yards per game and fifth with 5.92 yards per carry.
McCarthy returns from having led Michigan to its second consecutive College Football Playoff berth. He ranked second to Stroud among Big Ten players in pass efficiency rating (154.37) while throwing for 194.2 yards per game and 22 touchdowns against five interceptions.
Wisconsin running back Braelon Allen finished fourth. No other player appeared on more than five of the 37 ballots. Voters were asked to submit three names, with three points for first place, two for second and one for third.