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Former Ohio State DE Chase Young lands on best 25 college football players of last 25 years

Spencer-Holbrookby:Spencer Holbrook•05/20/25•

SpencerHolbrook

Chase Young by Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Ohio State defensive end Chase Young looks on before the 2019 Fiesta Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal against Clemson. Young went on to be the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. (Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State has had some of the best players in all of college football during the last 25 years.

But according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, former Buckeyes defensive end Chase Young is the only Buckeyes player to be among the 25 best players from this time period, the first quarter-century of the new millennium.

Young was elite in 2018 before putting together an all-time season in 2019, a year in which he set the program’s single-season sack record with 16.5 and finished as a Heisman Trophy finalist; the award was won by LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.

Feldman has Young as the No. 16 best player of the last 25 years, behind other now-Big Ten legends such as former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota (No. 15), former former Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh (No. 3) and USC running back Reggie Bush (No. 2). Former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton is ranked as the best player of the last 25 years.

Here’s what Feldman had to say about Young’s inclusion:

The Buckeyes have had almost as impressive a run of elite D-linemen as they have had with stud wideouts. The 6-6, 270-pound Young was at his best in 2019 when he became a legit Heisman contender after he dominated a top-15 Wisconsin team that had allowed only 10 sacks in its first seven games. Ohio State got half of that in a 38-7 blowout win, with Young producing four of those sacks and five TFLs.

According to Pro Football Focus, Young produced five of the top nine highest-graded games by a pass rusher in the FBS in 2019, including the top three. He won the Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and keyed the nation’s No. 1 defense that allowed fewer than 260 yards per game, and he finished fourth in the Heisman race despite missing two games.

– Bruce Feldman, The Athletic

This continues a week-long series from The Athletic detailing the best of the best from the first 25 years of college football this century.

On Monday, three Ohio State teams made the cut of the 25 best teams of the first 25 years of the century so far from The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel.

Notably, the 2024 national title team did not make the list due to the criteria, which included season-long dominance and losses to mediocre teams. Of course, this most recent Ohio State team lost mid-season on the road at Oregon, which was the top team in the country, and also to close the regular season against a mediocre Michigan team at home.

The breakdown of the best 25 teams since 2000, which included three Ohio State teams, can be found here.

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