Buckeyes star wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. wins Biletnikoff Award
COLUMBUS — Marvin Harrison Jr. finished runner-up in the Biletnikoff Award voting last season.
He wasn’t about to miss the chance to win the award the second time around. Harrison finally won the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the college football season’s outstanding FBS receiver, on Friday night.
He is the first Buckeyes wide receiver to win the award since the late Terry Glenn in 1995. Harrison Jr. and Glenn are the only two Ohio State players to ever win the award, which has been handed out since 1994.
Marvin Harrison Jr. finished the 2023 regular season with 1,211 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns. He also ran for a touchdown. That production came with a spotlight on him as the focal point of the Ohio State offense, leading to plenty of double-coverage efforts from opposing defenses. Of course, it didn’t matter. Harrison still finished with eight 100-yard receiving games this season.
The Biletnikoff Award is the latest in his long list of accomplishments:
- 2022 and 2023 Big Ten Wide Receiver of the Year
- 2022 Unanimous All-American
- 2022 Biletnikoff Award runner-up
- 2023 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year
- 2023 Heisman Trophy finalist
- 2023 Biletnikoff Award winner
- 2023 AP Big Ten Player of the Year
- Holds record for most 100-yard receiving games in Ohio State history
- Became only Buckeyes player to ever have back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons
Harrison is hard on himself, though, and even though he won the Biletnikoff Award, among other honors, he has an 0-3 record against Michigan and hasn’t had the chance to play in the Big Ten title game.
It certainly weighs on the superstar junior wide receiver.
“Yeah, it’s tough. It’s been real tough, really,” Harrison said Thursday. “Because, like I said before, that’s kind of the one goal that you have. And I’m definitely blessed to be getting all the recognition that I am for these different awards and everything like that, but I think I would trade it all for a win against ‘The Team Up North,’ get to Indy and play in the Big Ten Championship.
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“So it’s been tough dealing with it. But we stick together as a team. As a group, we support each other, lift our heads up, and we just got to move on with life. Figure out how we can get better for next year and what we can do to get that win.”
That motivation to beat Michigan, win the Big Ten and find a national title is keeping Harrison torn between returning to Ohio State or going to the NFL.
But Marvin Harrison Jr. has officially accomplished one of his individual goals and become just the second Buckeyes wide receiver to ever win the Biletnikoff Award.
He wasn’t going to let that award get away from him twice.
