Ohio State Football: Master Teague could become a star in 2020
By David Wysong
The Ohio State football team will no longer have Buckeye legend J.K. Dobbins in its backfield this year, but now it is time for Master Teague to become the man.
Running back for the Ohio State football team J.K. Dobbins had a historic year in 2019, running for 2,003 yards and 21 touchdowns as he helped lead the Buckeyes to a College Football Playoff appearance.
Dobbins has since declared for the 2020 NFL Draft, but fear not because the Buckeyes have another elite back to replace him in Master Teague.
Teague had a solid year backing up Dobbins in 2019, running for 789 yards and four touchdowns. I think next year, however, he will have a breakout year and possibly become one of the best backs in the nation.
Last year, Teague only carried the ball 135 times as he was not a main focus of the Buckeye offense, he just came in to either give Dobbins a breather or for garbage time. However, the last two star running backs at Ohio State both became two of the best backs in the nation once they carried the ball around 200 times in a season, and I think Teague will get that many carries in 2020.
Dobbins carried the ball 194 times his freshman season and had a breakout year, running for over 1,400 yards. Then in his sophomore year, he ran 230 times for 1,053 yards and in 2019 he ran 301 times for 2,003 yards.
The other top back from Ohio State’s recent history is Ezekiel Elliott who is now one of the top backs in the NFL. Elliott only carried the ball 30 times as a freshman for 262 yards but as a sophomore, he carried it 273 times for 1,878 yards and then as a junior he carried it 289 times for 1,821 yards.
Teague averaged 5.8 yards per carry in 2019. If he would have had 200 carries this past year, then he would have run for over 1,100 yards based on that 5.8-yards-per-carry average. Personally, I think he will improve as a running back so that average could only improve in 2020, and I think he will have even more than 200 carries as he will be the main focus in the backfield.
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Teague had a solid year in 2019 and has big shoes to fill in 2020, but I think he can end up being a star for the Buckeyes.