Even though C.J. Stroud has been mostly successful in his first eight games as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, there’s one question Buckeye fans have asked repeatedly this season: Why isn’t Stroud running the ball more?
Not including sacks, Stroud has run the ball just 14 times for 70 yards and never more than three times in a single game. At times, Stroud has appeared to pass up opportunities to run for first downs and forced throws downfield even when he seemingly had plenty of space in front of him to gain easy yardage with his feet.
Stroud, however, believes he’s been running the ball when he should be. In his postgame interviews after each of Ohio State’s last two games, Stroud has disagreed with the notion that he should be running the ball more, saying that he’s simply trying to run the plays that are called for him to the best of his ability.
“I mean, if it’s there, I’m gonna run. I feel like I do a good job running. But the plays that we call, I’m gonna run them to the best ability,” Stroud said after Ohio State’s Oct. 30 win over Penn State. “I’m not gonna go and do my own thing. That’s how you lose games.”
Ohio State hasn’t called many designed runs for Stroud this season, and that’s largely been an effort to keep him healthy. Stroud separated the AC joint in his shoulder in the season opener against Minnesota – an injury he appeared to suffer when he landed on his shoulder during a third-down scramble in that game – and Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said that has influenced the Buckeyes to put him in harm’s way less often.
“Quite honestly, there’s always the run option for him in some games, but with the shoulder the way he had it, we were trying to minimize some hits, risk and reward,” Wilson said Tuesday. “He’s a very capable runner. I just think coming off the shoulder that he had early, we just try to be smart.”
Even if Stroud was fully healthy, Ryan Day still wouldn’t want his quarterback to be running the ball a lot. While Justin Fields was a weapon in the run game for Ohio State in Day’s first two seasons as head coach, all four of the quarterbacks on the roster now – Stroud, Kyle McCord, Jack Miller and Quinn Ewers – were recruited for their passing ability far more than their running ability.
“Guys have run here before, and when it’s appropriate, we do. But also, it’s clear that we don’t run it as much as some of the other places. And I tell people that in recruiting. We’re not gonna come here and just run you into the ground,” Day said Tuesday. “It’s a long season. And we’ve got really good players on offense. So when the time is right and we need to do it, we gotta do it. But at the same time, putting our guys at risk for a long season is not something we do here. And I believe strongly in that. That quarterback position is a very important position.”
With that being said, both Wilson and Day said they haven’t told Stroud not to run on passing plays where tucking and running the ball himself could potentially be the best play. Day said Stroud ultimately needs to use his own best judgment when deciding whether he should take off and run in those situations, and for the most part, Day believes Stroud has done that well.
“It’s hard to tell somebody what to do in those situations because if you do, it won’t be the same situation as it was that time the next time. So you have to trust your instincts. And I think he’s doing a very good job of that,” Stroud said. “He keeps his eyes upfield. I think there are times where if he can make three or four yards and keep us on schedule, then he can do that. He’s done that before. And that’s just part of playing the game and getting a feel for it and managing the game. There’s times where he’s skated and extended routes and pushed the ball down the field and made some really good throws as well. So that’s just feeling the game and understanding where we are in the game. But keeping us on schedule again is something that we’re really hitting on this week.
“That’s all part of playing the position. I played the position, so I know it’s not easy. You can tell somebody what to do in the moment, but you have to trust your instincts. But I think the more he plays, the better he’s gonna feel in those spots and the more confident he’ll be.”
That said, Ohio State’s rushing offense has struggled in its last two games – especially last weekend against Nebraska, against whom the Buckeyes had just 90 rushing yards – and it’s fair to question how much of a factor Stroud is in that equation. The Buckeyes had their worst rushing season in recent history in 2018 when Dwayne Haskins was their quarterback, and Day acknowledged Tuesday that it is valid to compare this year’s offense with Stroud to the 2018 offense with Haskins.
Ohio State did call two third-down option plays on which Stroud ran the ball against Nebraska, one of which he turned into a first down with a 6-yard run on 3rd-and-4. And Stroud has flashed the potential to be a bigger weapon with his legs – most notably in his only rushing attempt as a true freshman in 2020, when he exploded through the Michigan State defense for a 48-yard touchdown.
With all the talk about CJ Stroud not running the football, it's hard to believe that this was his introduction to Buckeye nation last season: pic.twitter.com/Fu4NovkKCp
— Adam King (@AdamKing10TV) November 8, 2021
With more tough games coming for Ohio State down the stretch, including a third straight game versus a top-30 defense this week against Purdue, Day and Wilson said the Buckeyes need to do whatever they need to do win the game – and if that means Stroud running the ball more, they’ll expect him to do it.
“As these games get a little bit tighter down the stretch, there’s gonna be some great competition every week and games are close and those critical scoring zone situations, third down situations, we gotta incorporate every player,” Wilson said.
Day was noncommittal, however, when asked whether he thought Stroud needed to run the ball more to keep defenses honest.
“I don’t know,” Day said. “I think that’s all part of the conversations that we have. Is that the right thing to do? And there’s a lot of risk/reward with everything we do in that area. So we talk about that constantly, try to figure out what the right balance is.”
