Although they are competing for the same starting job, C.J. Hicks and Sonny Styles were both named to the Butkus Award watch list on Tuesday.
Styles and Hicks, who are battling to be Ohio State’s starting Will linebacker this season, are among 51 linebackers on the preseason watch list for the Butkus Award, which honors college football’s best linebacker.
Ohio State is one of seven schools with two linebackers on the watch list along with Alabama (Jihaad Campbell and Deontae Lawson), Iowa (Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson), Kentucky (Jamon Dumas-Johnson and D’Eryk Jackson), Oklahoma State (Nick Martin and Collin Oliver), South Carolina (Demetrius Knight Jr.