To Master Teague, the last three years “kind of went fast” and were “long at the same time.” Back in 2018, he left Tennessee to join an Ohio State running back room that included J.K. Dobbins, Mike Weber, Brian Snead and Demario McCall. Only one of them remains on the roster with Teague, and the straggler – McCall – happens to now be playing defense in an attempt to revive his playing career.
Teague, a redshirt junior, is the bridge between generations in the running back room.
“It's a little weird being an old guy, now being the veteran,” Teague said.
It might be weird to him, but it’s the truth.
No running back other than Teague has played more than two seasons for the Buckeyes. Marcus Crowley and Steele Chambers are entering their third season of college football, Miyan Williams is a second-year tailback and TreVeyon Henderson and Evan Pryor just enrolled in January. Teauge is, without question, the elder statesman. While the other five scholarship running backs have accounted for a combined 536 yards and two touchdowns in their careers, he has racked up 1,409 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground to help him earn third-team (2019) and honorable mention (2020) all-conference honors from the Big Ten.
Put all that together and it’s understandable why running backs coach Tony Alford said in late March as spring camp just got started that if a game was played that day, Teague would have started.
“He’s the incumbent starter,” Alford said. “He’s played the most and had the most reps of anybody in the room.
A lot can change between now and Sept. 2 when Ohio State kicks off its season, though, which Alford certainly understands.
“There’s other really good players here too,” he said.
Teague, whenever preseason camp gets underway, can be expected to get the first-team reps. Whether he can hold onto them is another story entirely.
The cavalry isn’t just on the way. It’s in the backfield right now.
A year ago, it was largely just Teague and newly added Trey Sermon vying for carries. This preseason, it’ll be Teauge and five others. Two in particular – Williams and Henderson – would seem to be the most likely candidates to either supplant him as a starter or wedge their way into some sort of a rotation.
Williams spent a portion of spring camp running with the starting offense and going first through position-specific drills due to Teague’s undisclosed injury that caused him to sit out the spring game and left him limited in several practices. Quite clearly, he has risen up the depth chart in the mind of Alford, who landed him after whiffing on several significantly higher rated tailbacks in the 2020 recruiting cycle. The size-quickness combination at 5-foot-8 and 227 pounds was on display in the Sugar Bowl against Clemson. Every time he has touched the ball, he has looked like he has something to prove. The more time passes, the more it looks like he’ll be a significant factor in the 2021 backfield.
“Here’s a guy that he had a smattering of carries, a very small sample size, but what he did, he was very successful in those opportunities,” Alford said.
Henderson brings the total package as an explosive tailback with track speed albeit with less experience than Teague and even Williams. The true freshman enrolled in January, went through his first winter workouts then took part in his first spring camp as a Buckeye. He was the No. 1 running back recruit nationally. Crowley and Chambers, now healthy and in their third years, have outside shots to factor into the mix as well.
It’ll be up to Teague to hold them off. If he does, he could begin the second straight season as the starting running back.
“Of course I want to be that guy,” Teague said. “But we continue to make each other better, compete and my role, whatever is gonna be best for the team, that’s gonna be my role. But like I said, we’ve got a lot of depth, a lot of guys and that helps us in practice and helps us stay fresh so I can just do that for the overall health of the unit and the team, too.”
The question with Teague, at this point in his career, is what Ohio State can expect of his ceiling as a running back.
Never should the Buckeyes ever feel as though they’re settling for anything in the backfield. This program recruits at the highest level and boasts a history littered with legendary running backs with Archie Griffin, Ezekiel Elliott, Eddie George, Howard Cassady, Beanie Wells, Keith Byars, most recently J.K. Dobbins and a host of others. Too many studs have passed through Columbus not to chase greatness at tailback at every turn.
Teague, who has averaged 5.5 yards per carry across his career and 4.9 yards per rush last season, has been described as a “genetic freak” by both Ryan Day and Alford. Mickey Marotti has said there are “very few” people as physically fit as him. He runs a sub-4.4-second 40-yard dash at 5-foot-11 and 226 pounds, and his muscles bulge out from under his pads.
Still, it’s unclear whether Teague can take an appreciable step forward as a ball-carrier. His subpar change-of-direction and agility has seemingly put a cap on his production over the past couple of years, and if those areas don't get better by the time this fall rolls around, it would be fair to wonder whether Ohio State has more impactful options in the backfield.
It’ll be up to Teague to show why he thinks he can be the bellcow once the preseason camp starts and the competition gets ramped up. By now, it’s clear that Williams, Henderson and the rest of the tailbacks are coming for his carries.
