Top 3 Ohio State Running Backs In the 2010’s

#1 Ezekiel Elliott

The final and best running back that played for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2010s is Ezekiel Elliott. While Zeke does not quite have the numbers throughout his career that Dobbins did, Elliott played as a backup in his freshman year. If he was given the starting job in his freshman year it is likely that he could have eclipsed Dobbin’s career rushing totals.

In his freshman season Zeke was sitting behind previously covered Carlos Hyde and as a result of that had the worst year of his career.

He only played in 7 games this season. He only had 30 carries for 262 yards for two touchdowns.

Receiving wise he only had 3 catches for 23 yards and 1 touchdown. Surprisingly this is the only receiving touchdown that Elliott had during his entire career at Ohio State.

As previously mentioned, the Buckeyes won all of their regular-season games yet lost the Big 10 championship game against Michigan State and lost in the Orange Bowl against Clemson.

In his sophomore season, Zeke showed that he deserved the starting spot that he was given and took the NCAA over.

He went from 20 rushes to 273 and went from 262 yards to 1878. Along with this, Elliott rushed for 18 touchdowns.

Zeke also became a bigger part of the offense in the passing game as well. He had a college career-high of both 28 catches and 220 yards.

It appeared that the Buckeyes would have a struggling season after being defeated by the Virginia Tech Hokies in only the second game of the season. However, they would not lose another game after that. They plastered the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big 10 championship 59-0.

This was enough to give them the fourth seed in the first college football playoff. They would go on to defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide where Zeke had the play of his career with an 80-yard run to seal the game.

They went on to defeat the Oregon Ducks to win the National Championship. In this three-game stretch, the Buckeyes took down all three Heisman finalists in consecutive games, with Melvin Gordon for the Badgers, Amari Cooper for the Crimson Tide, and Marcus Mariota for the Ducks.

In his final season, Zeke had another Heisman caliber season that was nearly identical to his sophomore season.

He ran for 1821 yards on 289 carries and had 23 touchdowns.

In the passing game, he caught 27 passes for 206 yards.

This may have been the best college football team of all time in terms of pure talent on the roster. However, even after being the previous winners of the college football playoffs, a three-point loss to Michigan State was enough to bar this team from making the playoffs. They proved their worth as a team by killing Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl by a final score of 44-28.

Zeke went on to be drafted fourth overall in the 2016 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He has proven himself as one of if not the best running back in the entire NFL and has established himself as one of the franchise players on the Cowboys.