The safety will make plays on defense and special teams, and could even see a couple of offensive snaps on the way to becoming a Heisman finalist.
As preseason camp begins this week, Land-Grant Holy Land is diving into its final theme every week of the off-season. This week is all about making predictions that may or may not be reasonable, in fact, some might say they are bold. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”Bold Predictions” articles here.
Is it bold to predict one of the nation’s best returning players will be a Heisman Trophy finalist? Usually not, but what if that individual plays on the defensive side of the ball? Maybe it’s a little more of a spicy take at that point.
With more than 130 FBS college football teams made up of thousands of players nationwide, it feels a little bold to predict a defensive star to get some love for the Heisman. Yet here I am, predicting that Ohio State safety Caleb Downs will be a finalist for the historic trophy.
Downs has some challenges ahead. He’ll be playing under his third different defensive coordinator in three years, and he’ll be trying to build chemistry with a lot of new starters on the defensive side of the ball. But the positives are off the charts. Downs is great at diagnosing plays, adept at tackling in the open field, and he can create turnovers. We’ve already seen against Indiana (pictured above) what he can do on special teams.
It won’t be easy for Downs to get some Heisman Trophy push. He tends not to rack up giant numbers because teams tend to stay away from him. His coverage is outstanding, and he apparently did not allow a touchdown last season.
PFF’s Top 50 College Football Players for the 2025 Season:
#2: Caleb Downs, Ohio State
ZERO TDs Allowed Last Season pic.twitter.com/a2HPukU83u
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 5, 2025
Because teams stayed away from him, Downs only recorded two interceptions in 2024. However, he saved them for the biggest moments, as those picks came against Michigan and Texas. Downs recorded 82 tackles in 2024, with 49 of those solo stops and 33 assists. That total didn’t even put him in the top 100 among all college football players a season ago, as 47 individuals recorded 100 or more tackles.
Additionally, he wasn’t asked to blitz in passing situations much, so he recorded just half a sack. He broke up six passes (again, no one is throwing at him much), tallied one quarterback hurry, did not force a fumble, and did not recover a fumble. In short, he built a reputation as a great player without putting up the gaudy stats normally associated with one.
So, it will take something special for Downs to become a Heisman finalist.
One thing that helps is his ability on special teams. Downs only returned six punts last year, but he scored on one of them and averaged more than 16 yards per return, so there could be opportunities for him to make big plays — the kind that end up on SportsCenter highlights, where they can be seen by voters all over the country.
Aside from that, I think he’ll need to snag at least three to five interceptions and be involved in a few other takeaways (forced fumbles and/or fumble recoveries), and he may need to score twice on defense to be in the final discussion. It will help if he can finish with more than 100 tackles, and with four new starters on the defensive line, it’s a good bet that he’ll be asked to make more stops at the second level. He also needs to continue to shut down the edge in short yardage situations as he did often in 2024.
Two-way player Travis Hunter won the Heisman last season, so perhaps that is a good sign for Downs, who will play primarily safety but will almost certainly return some kicks in 2025. There has been chatter in the past about Downs taking snaps on offense, and although that is still unlikely to see regularly, if he’s receiving Heisman buzz in the second half of the season, there is a chance Ryan Day will allow him to see the field on the offensive side of the ball as a wrinkle.
Should he add a touchdown run and/or reception on the offensive side of the ball, it may be enough to push him into the finalist conversation if he continues to excel on defense.
Prior to Hunter, Aidan Hutchinson was a Heisman finalist in 2021 representing the nation’s defensive players. Ohio State’s Chase Young was a finalist in 2019. Other defenders to be finalists since the year 2000 include Jabrill Peppers, Manti Te’o, Tyrann Mathieu, and Ndamukong Suh. That’s not a long list over a quarter of a century.
Again, I’m not sure how bold this prediction is, but given his statistics, I would not assume even a slight improvement alone to make Downs a finalist. But if he can be involved in more takeaways, make another play or two on special teams, and maybe even become a surprise scorer on offense, Downs has the talent to not only be a finalist, but to win the whole darn thing.