5. Will Howard
Howard also had a unique road to greatness. He endured arguably the worst loss in program history and then turned it around with the greatest run in college football history. Many of the guys on this list were kept from greatness by situations they could not control due to injuries, fluke games, bad officiating calls, a global pandemic, and cheating opponents.
The 12-team playoff gave Howard a second chance that many of these guys would have loved to have, and he seized it, led his team to a national championship with that second chance.
6. Troy Smith
Smith and Krenzel blazed the trail for the rest of the guys on this list. They showed Ohio State and Buckeye Nation that beating that team up north, winning the Big Ten, and playing for national championships is not only possible, but they made it the new standard at Ohio State. He finished his time at Ohio State as the Wolverine slayer. He had the most wins against Ann Arbor in 30 years and the most consecutive wins in 70 years.
7. Dwayne Haskins
I’ve long said that I believe that Dwayne Haskins is the greatest Buckeye quarterback of all time. I say that based on the insane records he broke and set. I’ll be surprised to see any of them broken in my lifetime. I also say that based on a belief that of the nine other guys on this list, if you put Haskins in their shoes, he’s going to win just as much as they did or more.
You give him the defense of 2002, 2014, or 2024, and he’s a national champion. It’s also because in 2018, he and the Buckeyes got screwed out of the playoffs, and had they been in like they should have, no one was going to stop him in December of 2018 and January of 2019. Fields, Stroud, and Howard and their prolific passing do not happen without Haskins.