Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins named Big Ten’s most valuable player

Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins earned another major honor Friday.

The sophomore is the winner of the 95th Chicago Tribune Silver Football, representative of the Big Ten's most valuable player.

With 4,081 yards passing and 42 touchdown passes, he has already broken the Big Ten single-season records in both categories and been named the Big Ten’s offensive player of the year and quarterback of the year.

Earlier this week, though, he said he preferred team wins to individual awards.

“It’s a tribute to everybody,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Ryan Day said this week when asked about the potential of Haskins receiving multiple Big Ten honors for his record-breaking season. “He can’t do that without everybody around him. You talk about the senior leadership at wide receiver, the offensive line. Everybody involved in it. If something like that were to happen, it would be an indication of the guys around him. Obviously he had to do it himself but no way he could have done that on his own.”

Haskins certainly left a strong impression on voters with his last game, a 396-yard passing performance with six touchdowns against a Michigan defense that entered the game considered the nation’s best.

“Just throwing the ball obviously his accuracy and his anticipation is pretty special, but in the last few weeks he has changed his game a little bit,” Day said. “He’s run, he’s scrambled when he’s needed to. That changes how a defense approaches him. I think that aspect of his game has help the whole offense.”

The Silver Football has gone to an Ohio State player five times in Urban Meyer’s seven seasons as coach of the Buckeyes. Former Wayne High School standout Braxton Miller won it in 2012 and ‘13, running back Ezekiel Elliott won it in ‘15 and J.T. Barrett shared the award with Penn State’s Saquon Barkley two years ago.

Eighteen Ohio State players have won the award since the first one went to Illinois’ Red Grange in 1924.

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