Tommy Eichenberg (born January 11, 2001) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

Early life and high school career

Eichenberg grew up in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

and attended Saint Ignatius High School. As a senior, Eichenberg was named first team All-Ohio after making 126 tackles with eight sacks, 23 tackles for loss, and five passes broken up. He initially committed to play college football at Boston College, but re-opened his recruitment during his senior year. Eichenberg ultimately signed to play at Ohio State over offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, and Kentucky.He was a 4-star recruit.

College career

Eichenberg

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true freshman year after playing in four games. Eichenberg was named a starter at linebacker entering his junior year. He finished the season second on the team with 64 tackles. Eichenberg was named the defensive MVP of the 2022 Rose Bowl after making 17 total tackles as Ohio State beat

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

48–45.

Personal life

Eichenberg's older brother,

Liam Liam is a short form of the Irish name Uilliam or the old Germanic name William. Etymology The original name was a merging of two Old German elements: ''willa'' ("will" or "resolution"); and ''helma'' ("helmet"). The juxtaposition of these elem ...

, played college football at Notre Dame and currently plays in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

References

External links

Ohio State Buckeyes bio
2001 births Living people Players of American football from Cleveland American football linebackers Saint Ignatius High School (Cleveland) alumni Ohio State Buckeyes football players {{linebacker-stub