Ohio State Football: Running back unit is loaded
J.K. Dobbins was one of the best running backs to play Ohio State football but he will now play on Sundays. Not to worry, the Buckeye running game will be fine.
Now that the Ohio State football team will be losing J.K. Dobbins to the NFL a year early, concerns about the state of the running back situation heading into the 2020 season are understandable.
Not helping matters is half the unit is rehabbing injuries. Master Teague is recovering from the Achilles injury he sustained in spring practice, Marcus Crowley is recovering from his torn ACL and transfer Trey Sermon is recovering from his torn LCL.
That is enough to give any coach heartburn.
Sermon is expected to be ready for fall camp. Crowley and Teague will probably need a little more time before they are fully recovered.
The outlier in the group is Demario McCall. The fifth-year senior has yet to make his mark on the field. I suspect he will be more of a return man than a major contributor in the run game.
Despite the injuries and lack of significant experience from Steele Chambers and incoming freshman Miyan Williams, the unit is in better shape than it has been in a long time.
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While there may not be a Dobbins or an Ezekiel Elliott among the group of players, running backs coach Tony Alford has four legitimate starters. That is a level of depth he’s been lacking.
If there was a season where lacking a workhorse was not worrisome, this is it.
Justin Fields, an offensive line that might go down as the best ever in Ohio State history and an elite-level receiving corps and tight ends will make up for any drop in production from the running game.
For the record, I don’t think there will be any regression. It will likely be close to or even better than last year.
The production will just be spread among the players, or Sermon will crush it.
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Ryan Day and Alford spent a lot of capital convincing Sermon to finish his career with Ohio State. That tells me they think he is going to deliver. Who can argue with that?