Ohio State Buckeyes: Veteran trio named captains for 2023
Aug. 19—Ohio State football announced three players will serve as captains for the 2023 season: Tommy Eichenberg, Cade Stover and Xavier Johnson.
Eichenberg, a senior linebacker from Cleveland St. Ignatius, and Stover, a senior tight end from Mansfield Lexington, were both also captains last year.
They are the 16th and 17th players to serve as Ohio State captains in multiple seasons.
Johnson, a sixth-year senior receiver from Cincinnati Summit Country Day who began his career as a walk-on, will be a captain for the first time.
The trio form the first group of Ohio State captains all from Ohio since 2006 when Piqua grad Quinn Pitcock joined Doug Datish (Warren Howland), David Patterson (Warrensville Heights) and Troy Smith (Cleveland Glenville) in leading a team that won the Big Ten but lost to Florida in the first BCS National Championship Game.
This is also a smaller group of captains than Ohio State has had in recent years. The last time the Buckeyes had fewer than six was 2011 when interim head coach Luke Fickell had four.
The captains were announced Saturday afternoon following the team's second major scrimmage of the preseason.
Head coach Ryan Day said earlier in the week he hoped to have a good idea what his team's strengths and weaknesses would be and to be able to start looking ahead to the start of the regular season.
Ohio State is set to kick off the season at Indiana on Sept. 2.
