Over the past couple of seasons, the Ohio State football team hasn’t run the ball as much. A big reason why is because their best weapons have been on the outside. It doesn’t make sense to run the ball 35 times a game when you have Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jaxon Smith-Njigba catching the football.
The Buckeyes also had C.J. Stroud throwing them the ball. He’s now a member of the Houston Texans. The next Buckeye quarterback will have little to no experience starting college football games. Even though they have great weapons to throw to still, the number of pass attempts should be lower.
A commitment to the run should be greater this season. It’s not just that Ohio State has a new quarterback, it’s that they will finally have some healthy running backs. TreVeyon Henderson will be fully recovered from a broken foot. Miyan Williams‘ ankle will be healed too.
Having a healthy stable of running backs will allow the Ohio State football team to run the ball more often this year. A good running game will also help whichever quarterback ends up winning the job. Those guys will be much more effective than they were a year ago.
Whether it’s Brian Hartline or Ryan Day calling the plays in the Fall, a healthy running game needs to be incorporated into the offense. Henderson showed what he could do when healthy in 2021 as a freshman. I expect more of the same this year when he’s out there.
We’ll get more of a sense of how good the running game will be this year once they take on IU in the opener. The Spring Game didn’t give us much of a feel since there was hardly any tackling. I think it’ll be a good year for the Ohio State running backs.