What the loss of Trey Sermon means for Buckeyes in the future

COLUMBUS – The early games left doubts as to whether Trey Sermon actually had a role at Ohio State.

By the latter, the Buckeyes couldn’t live without him.

Sermon needed a little time to get comfortable after arriving as a transfer graduate in the midst of a pandemic and after a knee problem. But once the tailback settled into his role, the only opponent who could slow down a record-breaking and seemingly unstoppable run was an injury during the first practice of the national championship.

“Trey outgoing, sure he’s been hot the last few weeks,” said Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. “But we have the competitive excellence mentality, and when one man breaks down we have to raise the next one.

“But we would have liked to have Trey there. He’s a baseball player, he’s a warrior, but he couldn’t play with us. With or without it, we still have to run.

The Buckeyes will have to do this permanently now that Sermon’s prolific and abridged run with the program is now over. What does the loss of Trey Sermon mean for the state of Ohio? Lettermen Row is breaking it down in the backfield.

What Trey Sermon Meant for the State of Ohio

There might not have been another Big Ten Championship trophy at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center without Trey Sermon, and it would have been a difficult concept to understand in October. But once Sermon was able to get ahead and allow the state of Ohio to move away from a two-man rotation, the offense became much more explosive over time. And once the play call realized that Sermon was doing something magical in Indianapolis and started feeding him constantly, he put on a performance for the ages by setting a new one-game racing record for the program. who dragged them across the finish line. in college football qualifiers.

Sermon was the perfect all-rounder for what Ryan Day likes to do with his offense, and he was a dynamic addition to Justin Fields in the backfield in those high-stakes postseason games. Losing him to Alabama wasn’t the only reason Ohio State failed in the title game, but the offense was clearly never the same – a stark reminder of how important Sermon was to the program during its short period.

What will Buckeyes’ backfield look like next year?

Trey Sermon would have been the headliner, but there would have been no dearth of competition for the races arriving at spring camp. Miyan Williams started pushing late in his first season, and his absence was also felt by the Buckeyes in the title game. Marcus Crowley is finally in good health after dealing with a knee issue dating back to the end of his freshman campaign, and his potential has been extremely optimistic since arriving on campus. Add to that the arrival of the nation’s top running back to TreVeyon Henderson and four-star dynamo Evan Pryor and running back coach Tony Alford has the embarrassment of wealth on hand even without a Sermon.

The Buckeyes will also still have the services of Master Teague, who came off the bench to score a pair of touchdowns in the title game. And his leadership and veteran presence is certainly invaluable for a unit that will have relatively little experience, although it’s fair to wonder at this point if the state of Ohio has seen the ceiling of what it can provide and if it focuses on the most interesting options.

Assessing the impact of the loss of Trey Sermon

Graduate transfers are almost always short-term rentals, so this move certainly comes as no surprise to the state of Ohio. From Sermon’s perspective, he proved exactly what he wanted with his late-season emergence and shouldn’t be blamed at all for not wanting to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility that the NCAA gave to. everyone during the pandemic. Both sides maximized the situation despite difficult circumstances, and Sermon ended up being the perfect bridge between the JK Dobbins era and the future for the tasked group of Alford.

Conclusion: Trey Sermon certainly could have helped Ohio State again next year, but the fullback is in a good position to succeed without him.