If Saturday’s 34-17 victory over Navy in Baltimore was any indication of what we can expect to see from the Ohio State Buckeyes ground game in 2014, it will be markedly different than last season’s approach. Carlos Hyde took the Big Ten by storm in 2013 en route to conference running back of the year accolades, and Braxton Miller utilized his exceptional rushing ability as a quarterback to give opposing defenses an added dimension of dread. Both players are gone for differing reasons this season, meaning new personnel with varying levels of experience (from some to none) will have to step up.
Just between the two of them, Hyde and Miller accounted for slightly under 60 percent of Ohio State’s 635 rushing attempts over the course of last year’s campaign. If you include Kenny Guiton’s contribution to the rushing attack filling in for the injured Miller during a few games, that percentage of attempts between quarterback and feature running back increases to 66 percent. National championship finalist Auburn had an almost identical amount of carries distributed between dual-threat signal caller Nick Marshall and Heisman Trophy finalist Tre Mason (67 percent) who, like Hyde, will begin competing for reps in NFL backfields come Sunday.
During his meeting with the media on Monday, coach Urban Meyer emphasized that the nature of the running game this season will most likely differ somewhat from the 2013 campaign, where Hyde carried a majority of the workload while getting a bit of help from his quarterback. “Last year we had a guy that was a 20, 25 carry guy. We have some pretty capable players. We also don’t have that body type to go just slam it in there so many times on the offensive line,” Meyer said.
There are a few primary reasons for the move towards a multi-pronged approach in the backfield. Firstly, you have the sheer number of talented players on the roster capable of contributing. At the same time, a majority of these players lack the raw size and physicality that Hyde possessed, which enabled him to have such high volume games from a rushing attempt standpoint. Finally, with an offensive line on the deficient side with respect to starting experience, it will take a ton of pressure off that unit, especially late in games, to have a committee of backs that can stay fresh and use their own speed and elusiveness.
Not including redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett, whom we’ll get to later, four players should figure prominently into the Buckeye backfield as the season progresses. Don’t start calling them “the Four Horsemen” just yet, but if they all stay at Ohio State until they graduate, they have a combined 14 years of eligibility remaining, including this year, so there’s plenty of time for them to make a run at greatness. Let’s meet them.
Dontre Wilson – sophomore, 5’11”, 188 lbs
Wilson was the most productive of the Buckeye backs against Navy, racking up 166 all-purpose yards (43 rushing, 46 receiving, 24 punt return, 53 kickoff return). The DeSoto, TX native has tremendous accelerating ability and should be a dangerous weapon all year lining up as a receiver on bubble screens. This guy has big-play ability written all over him, and is the kind of player you want returning punts and kickoffs in a close game.
Ezekiel Elliott – sophomore, 6’0″, 225 lbs
Built in the mold of the recently departed Hyde, Elliott led all returning Ohio State backs in rushing yards last season, but gained most of it in a blowout of Florida A&M. Expect Meyer to have the most confidence in him from an attempts per game standpoint given his size. It’s possible they could eventually settle on a tandem backfield with Elliott and Wilson getting the bulk of the carries, but don’t sleep on the first freshman to be profiled.
Curtis Samuel – freshman, 5’11” 196 lbs
The yardage distribution in the run game on Saturday in Baltimore was spread pretty evenly between the aforementioned sophomores and Samuel. As such, I could see the Buckeyes going all “Earth, Wind, and Fire” like the New York Giants from years past. Samuel impressed in his first ever outing in the Scarlet and Grey, averaging 6.4 yards per carry on 45 yards rushing.
Jalin Marshall – freshman, 5’11” 205 lbs
Marshall and Wilson are ideal hybrid-back players who are utilized often in the passing game in addition to running the ball. Wilson finished up spring practice ahead in part due to a knee injury Marshall suffered in March, which required minor surgery. His explosiveness is unquestioned, especially since he won the 2012 state title in the long jump at Middletown (Ohio) High School.
How does Barrett figure into the running equation, especially coming off his first start? Though it might be too much to ask him to put up Braxton-like numbers, his 50 yards on the ground against the Naval Academy led all Buckeye rushers in a game where the coaching staff focused on fairly vanilla play-calling and getting the above four backs involved in varying degrees. His skill set from the standpoint of mobility outside the pocket is a prime reason why he was recruited by Meyer as an eventual successor to Miller.
Saturday’s primetime tilt in Columbus with Virginia Tech, anticipated to set an attendance record at Ohio Stadium, will be a challenge for this unit as well as the entire offense as a whole. Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster is a veritable savant when it comes to putting together complex blitzing schemes and coaching up a physical brand of play that will pose a prodigious challenge to a Buckeye offensive line that is far from battle-hardened. The four starters in the secondary combined for a whopping 15 interceptions in 2013. Not the unit you want to face if you’re starting only your second career game in Barrett’s case.
Virginia Tech will be highly motivated, in search of a program-defining upset victory that signals the program’s return to the upper echelon of college football. That said, the hostile environment that is the Horseshoe will pose a challenge for a Hokie team with their own relatively inexperienced quarterback in Texas Tech transfer Michael Brewer. The defensive front seven for OSU, full of potential next level talent, will get their first chance to face a conventional offense after struggling at times, particularly in the 1st half, to hold back Navy’s triple option.
If the Buckeye running game can continue to progress under this new system that attempts to take advantage of the quantity as well as quality of athletes in the backfield, that unit will play a significant role towards keeping the program in the hunt despite the preseason uncertainty associated with Miller’s season-ending injury.
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