40 best Ohio State football players this century, ranked

Best Ohio State football players this century 3. Joey Bosa – Defensive End 2013-15

Joey Bosa was a force to be reckoned with from the time he got on the field at Ohio Stadium. In his freshman season, he had 7.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss. He became the starter relatively early in the season, earning freshman All-American honors from most publications. An injury to usual starter Adolphus Washington threw Bosa into the starting lineup, and he never really gave the spot back.

His sophomore year is when Bosa made a real name for himself. He was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after recording 13.5 sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss. He was constantly in the backfield as soon as the ball was snapped. He was also breaking the ball from everyone, forcing four fumbles on the season.

Bosa was recognized as an All-American for the 2014 season. His biggest play came in double overtime against Penn State. He flew through the line on the biggest run of the game, destroyed running back Akeel Lynch on his way to a game-ending sack of Christian Hackenberg.

Bosa missed the first game of the season his junior year after he was suspended for a reason that’s never been released. After that, he was basically double and triple teamed for the rest of the season. That’s why his stats went down to just five sacks as teams went all in on stopping him on passing plays. He did, however, get 16 tackles for loss. It was sad to see his time at Ohio State end in the Fiesta Bowl when he got a targeting penalty, but the Buckeyes still won the game.