COLUMBUS – The first games left questions about whether Trey Sermon really played a role in Ohio.
For the last few, the Buckeyes could not live without him.
It took Sermon a little time to get comfortable after arriving as a transferred graduate in the middle of a pandemic and coming out of a knee problem. But once the tailback was established in its role, the only opponent that could slow down an apparently unstoppable race and breaking records was an injury in the first race of the national championship.
“Trey leaving, of course he has been hot for the past few weeks,” said Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. “But we have the competitive excellence mentality, and when one man falls, we have to create the next.
“But we would like to have Trey out there. He’s a baller, he’s a warrior, but he couldn’t play with us. With or without it, we still have to perform. “
The Buckeyes will have to do this permanently, now that the prolific and abbreviated execution of the Sermon program is over. What does the loss of Trey Sermon mean for the future of Ohio? Lettermen Row is breaking in the backfield.
Ohio State’s running back, Trey Sermon, is heading to the NFL Draft. (Birm / Lettermen Row)
What Trey Sermon meant for Ohio
There could not have been another Big Ten championship trophy at Woody Hayes Athletic Center had it not been for Trey Sermon, and that would have been a difficult concept to understand in October. But once Sermon managed to move forward and allow the state of Ohio to move away from a two-man rotation, the attack became much more explosive in the end. And once the caller realized that Sermon was doing something magical in Indianapolis and started feeding him consistently with porters, he had a long-term role in setting a new single-game running record for the show that dragged them into the finish line for the college football playoff.
Sermon was the ideal all-purpose weapon for what Ryan Day likes to do with his attack, and he was a dynamic addition to Justin Fields in the backfield in those high-stakes postseason games. Losing him against Alabama was not the only reason the State of Ohio fell short of the title game, but the attack was clearly never the same – a stark reminder of how important Sermon had become to the program during his short term .
What will the Buckeyes backfield look like next year?
Trey Sermon would have been the headliner, but competition for porters arriving at spring camp would not have been lacking. Miyan Williams began making his effort towards the end of the freshman season, and his absence was also felt by the Buckeyes in the title race. Marcus Crowley is finally healthy again after dealing with a knee problem that dates back to the end of his freshman campaign, and there has been tremendous optimism about his potential since the moment he arrived on campus. With the arrival of the first running back in the country, TreVeyon Henderson, and the four-star dynamo Evan Pryor, running backs coach Tony Alford is ashamed to have wealth on hand, even without Sermon.
The Buckeyes will still have the services of Mestre Teague, who left the bench to score a pair of touchdowns in the title match. And his leadership and veteran presence is certainly valuable for a unit that will have relatively little experience, although it is fair to ask at this point if the state of Ohio has seen the ceiling of what it can provide and focuses on high-level options.
Assessing the impact of losing Trey Sermon
Graduate transfers are almost always short-term rentals, so this change is certainly not a surprise to Ohio. From Sermon’s perspective, he proved exactly what he wanted with his appearance at the end of the season and should not be blamed in any way for not wanting to take advantage of the additional year of eligibility that the NCAA granted everyone during the pandemic. Both parties maximized the situation despite the difficult circumstances, and Sermon turned out to be the perfect bridge of the JK Dobbins Era for the future for the charged Alford group.
Conclusion: Trey Sermon could certainly have helped the state of Ohio again next year, but the backfield is well positioned for success without him.