Cade Stover earns spot on John Mackey Award preseason watch list
COLUMBUS — Ohio State tight end Cade Stover was named to the John Mackey Award preseason watch list Friday.
The John Mackey Award is given annually to the best tight end in college football. Georgia’s Brock Bowers won the award last year.
Stover was a semifinalist for the accolade last season after breaking out as a receiving weapon in the Buckeyes’ offense.
Stover made his full-time return to tight end last offseason after switching to linebacker late in the 2021 season — he played there versus Michigan and even started in the second level against Utah in the Rose Bowl.
Stover emerged as an NFL prospect at the tight end position in 2022, becoming the first Ohio State tight end to register at least 30 receptions in a season since Ben Hartsock in 2003. Even more impressive, his 36 catches for 406 receiving yards were the most by a Buckeyes tight end in 28 years.
But the third-team All-Big Ten honoree was sidelined when it mattered most. He left the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal against Georgia in the first quarter after suffering a fracture of a small bone protrusion off his lower spine while hurdling a Bulldogs defender. Stover was transported to an Atlanta hospital and learned about the Buckeyes’ blown lead and defeat when he got out of his MRI.
That ending, plus Ohio State’s second straight loss to Michigan, played a significant role in Stover deciding to run things back for one final season in Columbus.
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“Those two games really hurt me,” Stover said at Big Ten Media Days. “They really bothered me. That’s something you wake up thinking about. You work out, you’re thinking about it. It’s something you hold on to. So that really drives you. But you look and you got your boys with you again? It’s hard not to go hard.”
So Stover is back and determined to build on his promising 2022 season, during which he added another wrinkle to an already dominant Ohio State receiving corps.
The Mansfield, Ohio, native actually started his Buckeyes career as a defensive end before moving to tight end ahead of the 2020 season.
He was in the shadow of Jeremy Ruckert, though, and then, in 2021, helped an injury-riddled linebacker room. Now, of course, he’s the face of the Ohio State tight end room.
Stover was a team representative at Big Ten Media Days. He was named and Iron Buckeye for his impressive winter and summer workout performances.
And now he’s on the John Mackey Award preseason watch list.
