8. Justin Fields
Fields is another guy who would probably be higher if not for the situations he was in that were out of his control. A horrible officiating call ended his 2019 season, and a worldwide pandemic held him back in 2020.
I’d love to see him in a full, normal 2020 season. He probably wins the Heisman Trophy and maybe even beats Alabama in the national championship. Still, Buckeye fans will never forget him shredding that team up north in 2019 and Clemson in the Sugar Bowl.
9. Terrelle Pryor
The NCAA owes Pryor 12 wins, a senior season, and an honest NFL Draft. People complain about NIL and some of the growing pains of this era, but allowing players to earn money from their hard work is much more preferable (chaos and all) than the previous system, which would crush a player and team for engaging in legal and lawful activities.
Pryor’s life, football career, and Buckeye legacy are much different if the petty, greedy tyrants of the NCAA had seen the light without the freaking Supreme Court of the United States forcing them to. Pryor’s play and winning in 2008, 2009, and 2010 should be remembered as the greatness that they are.
10. CJ Stroud
You know you have an elite group of quarterbacks when one like CJ Stroud is this far down in a list of the ten best in the past 25 years. Only two things could stop CJ Stroud: a rival that committed the greatest cheating scandal in college football history, and a defensive coordinator who couldn’t maintain a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. Stroud still always fought to the end for the Buckeyes.