{"id":87032,"date":"2026-04-23T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=87032"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:22:43","slug":"ohio-state-block-o-jersey-candidates-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/04\/23\/ohio-state-block-o-jersey-candidates-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State Block O Jersey Candidates for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ohio State is\u00a0full of traditions<\/a>. The Buckeyes are steeped in pageantry from Script Ohio to the Buckeye leaves covering their helmets. With the semi-recent inclusion of the number zero, the Buckeyes had a brand-new tradition fall right into their lap: The Block O jersey.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the Block O jersey represents Ohio State because it looks like a block letter \u201cO.\u201d The Buckeyes also use it to commemorate Bill Willis. As an edge rusher and offensive lineman from 1942-44, Willis exemplified what it meant to be a Buckeye. His number 99 is retired by the program, so they found a new way to honor Ohio State\u2019s first Black All-American.<\/p>\n

2026 will be the seventh season of the tradition. Jonathon Cooper, Thayer Munford, Kam Babb, Xavier Johnson, Cody Simon, and Sonny Styles have all been honored. This year, there are plenty of worthy Buckeyes to sport the special number. To this point, each player wore the Block O in their final season, and none were transfers. Five of the six players were in their fifth season as well (Styles was a true senior).<\/p>\n

Block O Jersey Candidates for the 2026 Season<\/h2>\n

Kenyatta Jackson Jr.<\/h3>\n

From a leadership and “pure Buckeye” standpoint, there may not be a better fit for the Block O than Kenyatta Jackson Jr.<\/a>\u00a0The redshirt senior had a bit of a breakout last year with 28 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, six-and-a-half sacks, and two pass breakups.<\/p>\n

His inclusion is two-fold. First, he was stuck behind Jaylahn Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer for three seasons and stuck with it. He was a highly coveted recruit in the 2022 class, so he would have had suitors based on his four-star, ninth-best EDGE rating.<\/p>\n

The other? He could have left for the NFL. Even though it took him until his redshirt junior season to break out, he likely would have tested well, causing some NFL teams to have some willingness to take a shot on him. Remember, he had more sacks and the same number of tackles for loss in one year than Shemar Stewart had in three seasons of regular playing time, and he went 17th last year.<\/p>\n

It may be unlikely, however. Jackson changed his number to two this offseason. If there is a number with more prestige attached to it than zero, it may be two.<\/p>\n

Brandon Inniss<\/h3>\n

Another consummate Buckeye who stuck it out is Brandon Inniss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Inniss was the second-best recruit in the 2023 class, just behind Carnell Tate, so there were some lofty expectations. For his first two seasons, he was buried on the depth chart. Considering the amount of talent in that room, it makes sense. He easily could have transferred out after a true freshman catapulted past him on the depth chart in 2024. Instead, he stuck around and was the Buckeyes’ fourth-leading receiver in 2025.<\/p>\n

His NFL prospects weren’t quite as high in potential as Jackson’s, but still. Inniss is one of the leaders in the receiver room and is likely the favorite to don the Block O this fall.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah Smith<\/h3>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Could Jeremiah Smith<\/a> be this year’s Block O? He’s arguably the best player in college football, could be the first-overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, and has been putting in the work behind the scenes, so why not?<\/p>\n

Everyone knows what Smith does on the field. He’s as good as it gets when it comes to route running and getting open to make Julian Sayin<\/a>‘s job easy. He led the Big Ten in receiving in both of his seasons with the Buckeyes and led in touchdowns as a true freshman. Heading\u00a0into his junior season with the Buckeyes, Smith has the chance to be at the top of the mountain all by himself.\u00a0He\u2019s only 43 receptions, 311 yards, and nine touchdowns away from owning the career records for each stat at Ohio State.<\/p>\n

In addition to that, he’s a leader off the field. The Buckeyes have a way of recognizing hard work with their “Iron Buckeye” honor. Players who exhibit \u201cunquestionable training, dedication, determination, discipline, toughness, and leadership” are honored as Iron Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

Since Smith enrolled early ahead of the 2024 season, there have been five groups of Iron Buckeyes announced (winter 2024, 2025, 2026; summer 2024, 2025). Smith was listed four times, only missing out on the first chance as an early-enrollee in March 2024.<\/p>\n

Not bad.<\/p>\n

Carson Hinzman<\/h3>\n

If you want a player who has gone through it, Carson Hinzman may be your guy. Yes, offensive linemen can’t technically wear the Block O jersey. However, just as Munford did in 2021, Hinzman could wear a commemorative patch recognizing him as the Block O recipient.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Hinzman was the starting center for the Buckeyes. However, after 12 games, he was benched and did not appear in the ugly Cotton Bowl loss<\/a>. His presence would not have flipped that to a win, but it may not have been as ugly. Either way, the benching came shortly after Hinzman went on a podcast and was a tad too candid<\/a> about the state of the program. It wasn’t like he was overly critical, but it was enough for Ryan Day to make a change.<\/p>\n

He could have transferred after that. But he didn’t. Instead, he worked his way out of the doghouse, earned a role in the starting lineup as a guard, and then he took over at center when Seth McLaughlin went down with an injury. He helped to lead the Buckeyes to a national championship.<\/p>\n

Last year, he was a leader on the offensive line as the starting center and is returning this year as the same. He enters 2026 with 34 starts and 39 total games played. He has a legitimate shot at breaking A.J. Hawk’s career games record (51).<\/p>\n

Main Image: \u00a9 Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ohio State’s Block O jersey is an honor. This year, there are a few players who stand above the rest as potential candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":87062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35609],"tags":[36064,6598,9966,32755,7240,34789,6382,33582,3348,32756,6321,33304],"class_list":["post-87032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-a-j-hawk","tag-bill-willis","tag-carnell-tate","tag-cody-simon","tag-jack-sawyer","tag-jaylahn-tuimoloau","tag-jonathon-cooper","tag-kam-babb","tag-ryan-day","tag-sonny-styles","tag-thayer-munford","tag-xavier-johnson"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87065,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87032\/revisions\/87065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}