Ohio State football: Most important player not named Justin Fields

The Ohio State football team had a chance last year to beat the Tigers and move on to the National Championship, but big plays ended up ending their season early. This year the Buckeyes will need to make sure that they keep Clemson from creating big plays and Josh Proctor is the most important man to make sure that happens.

One of the most gut-wrenching plays in last year’s battle against Clemson was seeing Trevor Lawrence take a quarterback draw over 65 yards to the house. On this particular play, Ohio State had a chance to stop Lawrence after a modest gain, but a poor angle and missed tackle sprung the play wide open. This year, Lawrence is again back, and with that comes his ability to break a play wide open using his legs.

Ohio State has the benefit this year of facing a weaker Clemson offensive line, but in order to capitalize on that, they need to make the Tigers work for every yard. That means limiting the big plays, especially on broken plays or quarterback runs. The more Clemson has the snap the ball, the higher chance Ohio State is able to break through and create a negative play.

This year the player that will be responsible for limiting the damage is safety, Josh Proctor. As a safety, his job will be to mitigate the damage done by taking correct routes and angles and stopping Clemson players before they get too far downfield. When Lawrence leaves the pocket, Proctor is going to be called on to come up and make a play.

There are a lot of important players in this game, and every one of them will need to step up for the Ohio State football team to win, but if Proctor can do his job and make Clemson fight for every yard it gives all the other players on this defense a better chance.

Proctor needs to play the best game of his career on Friday, and it will be easy to see how he does based on how many big plays Clemson is able to achieve.