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Collegiate legacies are drafted before the recruiting battles even begin. They are published once the tearful Senior Day tributes or early NFL declarations take place years later, and Zeke's did not diminish during that span. 

It took skill, determination, and luck. He was an NFL Pro Bowler during what would have been his final year of eligibility at Ohio State, and not Missouri or anywhere else. The fairy tale ending is the one we hope for on Signing Day when the newest Buckeyes make it official.

Eastern Kentucky Colonel Noah Spence. Yeah.

But as we all know those are hard to come by. Brio'nte Dunn began his legacy by choosing Urban Meyer's future one year after Brady Hoke's staff informed every Ohioan that Ohio State wouldn't have one after Jim Tressel. Dunn's career ended up taking place mostly on the sideline before ending quietly on the newswire. He wasn't the next Carlos Hyde, after all.

Dunn's ending was anything but a fairytale. The opposite case - the ultimate rarity in all of college football - was Cardale Jones, who accepted an Ohio State grayshirt, went to Fork Union Military Academy, came to campus, got famous for a bad reason, rode the bench, was thrust into the spotlight unexpectedly and stayed when he could have left after the most incredible and impossible debut in college football history.

There can only be one. It was him. Cardale is the whole damn list.

But for all the guys that were supposed to be Zeke or even Zeke-like from the start, there are a handful that showed that greatness albeit without a scarlet and gray fairytale ending. Busts are routine. Failing to meet expectations is commonplace. Starting at Ohio State and soaring elsewhere is rare.

Here are five - from the current century - who could have triumphed in Columbus to the end.

5. EJUAN PRICE 

Ejuan Price destroying Penn State's Trace McSorely in 2016.  Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Price was a Buckeye for almost 120 days, all of them offseason ones. He appeared in no games for Ohio State after signing up to join Tressel's final class in 2011.

He chose Ohio State one season after Jordan Hicks chose Texas and in the same recruiting year Trey DePriest chose Alabama - Ohio State needed stud linebackers and it got one in Price (and Ryan Shazier). He picked the Buckeyes over his home school Pittsburgh in which a signing day coin flip took place to help him reaffirm the decision he had made earlier in the year.

When 11W talked with him that January it was hard not to get excited about his potential:

Now that your recruitment is over, how does it finally feel to officially be a Buckeye?

It just feels good to finally know where I'm going--like a weight is lifted off my chest. So now I can just focus on preparing myself.

The Bucks now have 3 elite LB prospects in yourself, Ryan Shazier, and Conner Crowell. How does it feel to be part of such a special group?

It feels good. They'll provide good competition to make me better and vice versa.

Did any of the current players (like your cousin Dorian Bell was or other Western PA guy) push hard for you to come to OSU? Have you spoken to any of the other commitments during the recruiting process? [Ed. Bell was later named OSU's recruiting bust of the decade by BTN]

Not really. Everyone kind of understood that it would be my decision, and my decision only. They really respected that.

What are going to be some of your goals in the 3-5 years you'll be calling Columbus home?

I want to be All-Big Ten, All-American, win a National Championship. I want to get bigger, stronger, faster and bigger, stronger, faster again. [laughs]

Price would have gotten that national championship had he stayed with Ohio State instead of transferring to Pitt, where he ended up at defensive end, twice a 1st Team All-ACC performer and a 2016 All-American while leading the nation in sacks. His career ended up just fine.

While he denied Tatgate was the reason for his transfer at the time, Price was widely viewed as the biggest scandal casualty outside of Ohio State's head coach, the vacated 2010 season, the wasted 2011 season, and...

4. TERRELLE PRYOR

Reunited. Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

Pryor was the MVP of both a Rose Bowl and a Sugar Bowl entering his senior season. He had been the fastest player on one of college football's fastest team for years. Pryor was the perfect analgesic for those 3rd-and-9 plays that Tresselball almost felt ordained to produce multiple times during games, and he was beset by having Nick Siciliano as a QB coach. He was a transformational player despite everything.

Eleven Warriors sold a No. 2 shirt back then that simply stated LEBRON IN CLEATS - and it didn't feel like hyperbole. He could do anything despite his throwing mechanics, and Ohio State was a title contender with him on the field. He was a leading Heisman Trophy candidate on a loaded team. You already know what happened next.

Pryor was LeBron in Cleats - he was too big, too gifted and too good. A constant mismatch in Ohio State's favor.

There would be no Heisman campaign or loaded team, largely because Tressel chose to discipline Pryor and other players by his own rules instead of the NCAA's. Pryor is remembered as a disloyal disrupter who ratted out the program, leading to the second NOA that ultimately produced a postseason ban. This isn't about any of that - it's about what could have been.

Pryor wound up being the only pick in the 2011 NFL Supplemental Draft and will spend his seventh professional season with the Washington Redskins on a one-year, $8 million contract, a season after completing a five-year ban from campus and piling up over 1,000 receiving yards for the Cleveland Browns. He really can do anything, despite his throwing mechanics.

It was a tough ending and legacy for a flawed and exceptional player who did nothing but gush about Ohio State (and still does). This isn't about getting Urban Meyer out of the whole ordeal; Pryor was a generational college football player and one can only imagine what his senior season might have produced.

3. NOAH SPENCE

Spence was arguably the best Viper the Buckeyes have ever had. He's the prototype for that position.

He was a 1st team All-B1G defensive end, Academic All-Conference and a two-time scholar-athlete before an ecstasy addiction derailed his Ohio State career and the conference made him permanently ineligible. Try to imagine the 2014 Buckeyes with Spence and Joey Bosa on the edges. Yeah, they ended up pretty decent anyway but still.

Spence ended up at Eastern Kentucky where he was dominant despite being an obvious focal point for offenses. He finished his rookie year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 5.5 sacks, but the highlight of his season might have been when he dislocated his shoulder during a game and simply popped it back in and finished playing. 

He will always have to fight addiction. But he landed on his feet, and whew it would have been something to see him finish his career in Columbus before heading to the NFL.

2. JEREMY CASH

There was no reason for Christian Bryant to even be on the field, but he was, and the injury he suffered late against Wisconsin in 2013 left Ohio State's secondary without its quarterback. That group was feasted upon for the remainder of the season, ultimately getting torched by Michigan State in the B1G Championship and then again by Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

Cash had already left Ohio State by then. Here he is on Signing Day 2011 gushing about the school he had already enrolled in:

By the time Ohio State was making history in 2014, Cash was already doing the same at one of college football's biggest wastelands. He was the face of Duke's emergence in not-basketball. However, the Buckeyes probably could have used the ACC's best safety during the 2013 season - especially after Bryant was lost.

Perhaps things might have gone differently had Ohio State had any depth in its secondary. Cash eventually became Duke's MVP and was a consensus All-American.

1. MAURICE CLARETT

This one is both easy and historic. They've literally made movies about it.

Ohio State got part of one championship season out of Clarett, who made the Buckeyes' 2002 title march and title game both possible. He is equal parts legend and cautionary tale in college football history, and 15 seasons after he arrived in Columbus is still the measuring stick for freshman impact. That's not likely to fade away or be replaced anytime soon.

His departure impacted the program for several years - off the field but also very much on it. Between him fizzling out off college and the tragic death of Drushaun Humphrey Ohio State's rushing attack was rudderless in both 2003 and 2004. That 2003 team was arguably stronger than the 2002 edition and Clarett in the backfield might have very well produced a repeat title; the Buckeyes were poised to clinch the BCS Title Game berth had they won in Ann Arbor.

Unfortunately, they could not run the ball - a problem that plagued them all season. Lydell Ross had 22 yards on nine carries against Michigan. Craig Krenzel had 19 yards on nine carries. Brandon Joe had 12 yards on four carries.

Clarett had 1,341 yards from scrimmage and 18 touchdowns in his first exposure to college football - he made everyone else trying to do what he did look foolish. Ohio State's 2003 season - and at least the one that followed - would have played out much differently had No. 13 stuck around long enough to contribute.

As for Clarett today, he's doing just fine. Ironically his fairytale ending didn't involve football after all.