Ohio State Football: No position room, a Heisman room

All teams have “position rooms,” but the 2022 Ohio State football team could have their very own Heisman room. One at three key positions could flex on the nation.

We hear it all the time, especially at Ohio State. The “position rooms” can be loaded. The Buckeyes for years now have a great wide receiver room and in years past we’ve had a great running back room or defensive back room.

Sometimes we see teams have two players who could make a Heisman argument from one program in a single season, but next season the Ohio State Buckeyes could have their own “Heisman room.” OSU could theoretically have a quarterback, a running back, AND a wide receiver on a Heisman watch list in 2022 at one time that would create the program’s very own Heisman room.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud will most definitely come in as a major favorite for the award after what the nation saw in his first year under center where he was a Heisman finalist at the end. We got to see the growing pains and the successes.

There were also times of sheer brilliance like in the Rose Bowl when he set records both for the program and in the history of the famed game in Pasadena. Stroud threw for 573 yards and six touchdowns. He finished the season with 4,435 yards, 44 touchdowns, on 71.9% and he’s just getting started. That screams Heisman favorite!

Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is another player for the Buckeyes who will most likely be in the conversation at some point in the preseason or next regular season. Now former fellow wideouts Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson mentioned that Jaxon is actually the most talented of the three of them which is mind-blowing knowing how special those two were in their time at Ohio State.

Smith-Njigba finished this past season with 1,606 receiving yards and nine touchdowns while having to share the passes with Olave and Wilson. He will undoubtedly be the number one target for C.J. in 2022. Let’s not forget about JSN’s own record-setting performance in the Rose Bowl as he had 15 receptions for 347 yards and three touchdowns. His ball skills and route-running ability will have him open always, so go ahead and put him in the room with CJ Stroud.

Next up is running back TreVeyon Henderson, yet another player for the Buckeyes who just finished up his freshman year and is a kid just getting started. In a season that was pass-heavy due to the talent on the outside and a season where some people felt we went away from the run too early and easily in games, Henderson still finished the season with 1,248 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns in his own right.

The raw ability to run the ball whether it be over you or around you, along with his patience this early in his career makes his upside so big that the word Heisman isn’t crazy. If the Buckeyes gameplan leans even a little more on the rushing attack next year it would be worth it to put TreVeyon in that Heisman room at Ohio State also. In the 2021 season, the kid averaged almost seven yards per carry on 183 attempts.

Three key pieces at three key positions at Ohio State have all proven they can be elite and they are all still so young that the future is brighter than the sun. If they all three live up to the potential that they’ve shown thus far, the Ohio State football team could have their very own Heisman room inside the program at one time.

Only one could win the award, but what a feat it would be nonetheless. After the first loss in a long time to that team up there, you can be certain they are going to come out next season ready to take over the Big Ten again and their sights on the college football world as a whole. This is going to be fun to watch!