With the departures of Ezekiel Elliott, Braxton Miller, Jalin Marshall and Mike Thomas from Ohio State's offense, Curtis Samuel is finally well-positioned to become an impact player.
The question is where?
Samuel arrived at Ohio State having played running back his entire prep career but at 5'11" and a sturdy if not imposing 200 pounds, there's some question if he can take the pounding and handle the pass blocking assignments on an every down basis for the Buckeyes.
The soon-to-be-junior didn't look physically overmatched during his true freshman season when he carried it 58 times for 383 yards, good for a lofty 6.6 yards per carry but with Elliott's seismic stretch run to close the season, Samuel was moved to the slot for the 2015 slate.
The impact of the position change and the noted gaggle of skill guys needing touches had a slightly adverse effect on Samuel's sophomore production as he tallied 421 yards from scrimmage compared to 478 as a freshman.
The switch to serving primarily as a receiver saw his yards per touch balloon to 10.8 from 6.9 but also saw his touches decrease by 30, from 69 to 39.
| YEAR | G | RUSH | RUSH YDS | RUSH YPC | RUSH TD | REC | REC YDS | REC YPC | TD | TOUCHES | YDS | YDS/TOUCH | TOT TD |
| 2014 | 14 | 58 | 383 | 6.6 | 6 | 11 | 95 | 8.6 | 0 | 69 | 478 | 6.9 | 6 |
| 2015 | 13 | 17 | 132 | 7.8 | 1 | 22 | 289 | 13.1 | 2 | 39 | 421 | 10.8 | 3 |
| TOTAL | 27 | 75 | 515 | 6.9 | 7 | 33 | 384 | 11.6 | 2 | 108 | 899 | 8.3 | 9 |
The reality that an astounding 474 touches are lost from the departing foursome of Elliott, Miller Marshall and Thomas (334 rush, 140 rec) should put a big smile on Samuel's face even if it makes Urban Meyer sit in a dark corner with a barrel of bourbon.
In between pulls on the sauce, Meyer's challenge will be to determine how Samuel can be best utilized on a team with a promising yet unproven, conventional running back waiting in the wings in redshirt freshman Mike Weber and a talented but injury-prone slot back in Dontre Wilson.
If things break just right, Samuel could see a 40/60 to 30/70 split in his snaps between the tailback spot and the H which would be good news for Ohio State overall in that it would likely signal Weber living up to the hype, Wilson staying healthy and the playcalling taking advantage of Samuel's versatile playmaking ability. Still, it's hard to predict exactly how many carries per game such a scenario could bring.
Over the first four years of Urban's tenure in Columbus, the offense has averaged between 43 and 46 rushing attempts per game. Meyer is prone to saying he wants a more balanced attack but since 2012, the Buckeyes rushed the ball between 63-67% of the snaps each season signaling little reason to believe a wild swing is in order. That means, assuming J.T. Barrett tallies his two-year average of 12 carries per game, another 30-34 could be up for grabs.
Even if Weber does blow up as a first-year starter, averaging 20 carries is almost assuredly the top end considering Elliott's magical 2014 season as a first-year starter saw him average 18.2 carries while Carlos Hyde carried the rock 18.5 times per game in his first season as the starter in 2012. That could leave as many as a dozen carries for Samuel if Meyer chooses to deploy him as a multi-faceted player and/or the other pure running backs on the roster do not pose a better option.
Depending on how that scenario shakes out, which now includes the potential for Wilson to see some snaps at tailback following Meyer's Thursday media session, Samuel's skills as a pass catcher give Meyer additional cushion to insert him where he's needed most on a team littered with unknown commodities.
For slot perspective, Philly Brown hauled in 60 receptions in 2012 while the team's wide receivers and quarterback Braxton Miller cut their teeth on the idea of vertical passing. In 2013, Philly added another 63 grabs and in 2014, Marshall and Wilson combined for 59. Last year, Miller, Marshall and Wilson totaled 55.
If Weber does lock down the starting tailback job and Samuel were to see even half of the snaps at the H, that could realistically mean at least 30 receptions for year and with another roughly even eight carries per game, that could shake out to 134 touches over a 13 game season, or just over 10 touches per game.
With his career yards per touch average sitting at 8.3, a 134 touch season for Samuel could yield upwards of 1,110 yards.
Sure, a wealth of variables will play into Samuel's usage in 2016 but it feels like 1,000+ yards from scrimmage is a realistic stretch goal as Ohio State looks to replace those 474 touches and 3,966 yards (pdf) churned out by Elliott, Thomas, Miller and Marshall.
