Ohio State football: Who starts at RB vs. Clemson?

The Ohio State football team might have something of a running back controversy on their hands. Who should start at running back in the Sugar Bowl against Clemson?

The Ohio State football team was always expecting to have a one-two punch at running back this season. Master Teague and Trey Sermon were both expected to be a large part of the running game. Coming into the year, it was expected that carries would be split pretty evenly.

Then Teague took over the starting job and kept a stranglehold on it with his performances. Teague has run for 449 yards and 6 touchdowns on 89 carries this season. That’s good enough for 5 yards a carry. He has looked as though he deserves that starting spot.

But then the Trey Sermon game happened. Sermon went for a school-record 331 yards on 29 carries in the Big Ten Championship against Northwestern. He only had 344 yards rushing the entire season heading into that game. It was an unreal performance.

So that begs the question: who should start against Clemson? Should it be Teague, who has been the steady performer for most of the season? Or should it be Sermon, who is coming of a historic game and looks to have finally found the best version of himself?

In my opinion, you have to roll with Sermon for most of the game. He is the hot hand and has earned that starting spot. More important than that, he has earned the bulk of the carries in this game. He should be the featured back for this Sugar Bowl.

It doesn’t matter who starts at running back if Justin Fields doesn’t play better than what he did in Indy. He has to be a lot better because the Buckeyes can’t expect another 300+ yard performance from Sermon. He is going to need help.

We can only hope that Sermon can be half as good as he was on Saturday when the Buckeyes take on Clemson on New Year’s Day.