COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State football defensive end Chase Young might be the best player in college football.

It’s up for debate, but the way he’s played in the first two weeks of the season at least puts him in the conversation. Against Florida Atlantic, he had five total tackles, 1.5 sacks and 1.5 tackles for loss. A solid day’s work for the preseason All-American.

In a shutout win over Cincinnati, the former five-star recruit was everywhere. Defensively he recorded three tackles, 1.5 sacks and 1.5 tackles for loss. On special teams, he kept the Bearcats scoreless in the first of three red-zone visits with a blocked field goal.

He was a jack-of-all-trades and played an almost perfect game. Against Cincinnati, he showed that the only thing he isn't capable of is catching a football.

There are only two things as a defensive player that Young has yet to accomplish. He's still without an interception and hasn't reached the end zone for a defensive touchdown. He potentially had the chance to check off both in the same play, which is why it'll haunt him for at least the next 24 hours.

“That’s what my teammates were telling me, but it’s all cool though,” Young said “I had it. I wish they would’ve called a fumble or something.”

It’s rare for defensive players to score and even more unusual for a defensive lineman to get an interception. That’s why when it looked like Young had it in his hands, head coach Ryan Day was beside himself on the sideline.

"I almost blew out my Achilles' jumping up and down because I thought we had that," Day said jokingly. "Still feel a little loose there."

Instead Young will have to continue to hunt down the final two stats he needs to cross off of his list.

What he can say is that he has been a part of multiple Ohio State games where the Buckeyes have shut out an opponent. He was a true freshman the last time OSU accomplished that feat against Rutgers in 2017. Though he didn’t have the type of role, he has now. Then he was behind the likes of Nick Bosa and Tyquan Lewis. He registered three tackles in that game.

Now as a junior and the vocal leader of the defense he's pleased with how things have looked and optimistic with how things could look. The defense has been good, but Young thinks that they haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

“I don’t think we’ve touched the surface yet, to be honest,” Young said. “We still had some little mistakes that we can fix. If we do that, we can tap into our potential.”

Ohio State spent a lot of time during the offseason stating that the defense would be better and so far it has been. The expectation for Young to look like a future pro has existed for much longer. That started to come into fruition at the end of last season. So far he's picking up right where he left off.

"I feel like I am unblockable," Young said. "I'm going to try to keep displaying that every week."

He's a physically gifted athlete that has fine-tuned his fundamentals and technique by learning from associate head coach Larry Johnson. There isn't much that he can't do. But as almost 105,000 fans in Ohio Stadium learned on Saturday, even players as dominant as Chase Young have their random flaws.

“I’m still mad about it,” Young said. “D-line you don’t really get a chance to get an interception or a score. I had a chance to do both.”

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