Jaws dropped, eyes popped and records were laid to waste as a multitude of individual Buckeyes had spectacular performances during the 2021 season.
There was no shortage of individual feats worth highlighting over the course of Ohio State’s 2021 campaign, and we’re celebrating the very best of them as this past season is now in the history books.
Here’s a look at the 10 best single-game performances by individual members of the Buckeye football team during the past season, with a couple honorable mentions to boot.
WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Rose Bowl)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | REC | REC YDS | REC TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAN. 1 | UTAH | 48-45 (W) | 15 | 347 | 3 |
It was the best game any Ohio State wide receiver has ever played, regardless of the stakes, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba has the broken records to prove it. In his first game without Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson on the field to take any targets away from him, the sophomore star tied his own Ohio State receptions record (15) while his all-time best 347 receiving yards shattered Terry Glenn’s previous Buckeye high mark (253) by nearly a full 100 yards.
Smith-Njigba scored three touchdowns in the Rose Bowl, going 50, 52 and then 30 yards, and he would’ve had a fourth if not for a fumble at the goal line in the first half. Smith-Njigba set a FBS bowl record for receiving yardage, and it was also the performance that made him the new single-season record-holder for catches and receiving yards at Ohio State, which only underscores just how earth-shattering his showcase in Pasadena was.
QB C.J. Stroud (Rose Bowl)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | COMP-ATT | PASSING YDS | PASSING TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAN. 1 | UTAH | 48-45 (W) | 37-46 | 573 | 6 |
Perhaps slightly overshadowed by Smith-Njigba’s greatness, C.J. Stroud was the man that delivered him the ball in the Rose Bowl, and he wound up with an all-time great outing in his own right. Stroud’s 573 passing yards blasted Dwayne Haskins’ previous single-game Ohio State record (499) out of the water, and his six passing scores tied the most ever thrown by a Buckeye – a mark Stroud had already met once before earlier in the season. Despite passing the ball 46 times, Stroud finished with an 80 percent completion rate and single-digit misfires.
Not even an end zone interception to open the first possession of the second half could stop the comeback that Stroud engineered against Utah, as the redshirt freshman led the Buckeyes to a 27-10 differential in the final two quarters to bounce back from a 14-point halftime deficit.
QB C.J. Stroud (Michigan State)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | COMP-ATT | PASSING YDS | PASSING TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOV. 20 | MICHIGAN STATE | 56-7 (W) | 32-35 | 432 | 6 |
Had Stroud played all four quarters of Ohio State’s 56-7 rout of Michigan State on Nov. 20, it’s possible – if not likely – that he would’ve broken the Buckeyes’ single-game passing record well before the Rose Bowl. Stroud had 393 yards and six passing touchdowns by halftime alone against the Spartans, a game in which the Buckeyes took a 49-0 lead into the intermission, and the Buckeye quarterback completed 29 of 31 passes to that point, including a school-record 17 consecutive completions.
Stroud threw the ball only four more times the rest of the way, finishing the game 32-for-35 with 432 yards, but one can’t help but wonder what his final stat line might have looked like had the dogs not been called off. But Stroud’s first-half performance in this game alone would have been enough to land him a place among the best Buckeye performances of the year.
RB TreVeyon Henderson (Tulsa)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | ATT | RUSH YDS | RUSH TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEPT. 18 | TULSA | 41-20 (W) | 23 | 270 | 3 |
Fresh off a loss to Oregon, Buckeye fans were none too pleased to see Ohio State struggling to put Tulsa away at home on Sept. 18. But eventually that frustration gave way to awe as true freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson raced to the record books with a performance that put him in the same sentence as the great Archie Griffin. Henderson’s 270 rushing yards bested the two-time Heisman Trophy winner’s single-game freshman rushing record at Ohio State, and he managed to do it on just 23 carries.
Henderson scored touchdowns of five, 48 and 52 yards as he announced himself to the college football masses, ripping off 11.7 yards per carry in the process. It was the game that cemented Henderson as Ohio State’s clear-cut RB1 for the rest of the season, and the star-turning showcase might just be the tip of the iceberg for Henderson as his college career progresses.
WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Nebraska)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | REC | REC YDS | REC TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOV. 6 | NEBRASKA | 26-17 (W) | 15 | 240 | 1 |
The precursor to his Rose Bowl exhibition, Smith-Njigba gave fans a taste of what a higher volume of targets might allow him to be capable of when he torched the Husker secondary on Nov. 6. With Garrett Wilson sidelined due to concussion protocol, Smith-Njigba became the focal point of the Buckeye pass attack, and the end result was a performance that broke a 24-year old record in the Ohio State program.
@jaxon_smith1 is taking advantage of the extra targets today!
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 6, 2021
The @OhioStateFB WR take it 75 yards for the score to give the Buckeyes a 17-3 lead pic.twitter.com/D3lcdQJUQT
David Boston hauled in 14 passes against Penn State in 1997, but Smith-Njigba bested that mark by one catch against Nebraska, finishing with 15 for 240 yards – the second-most in Buckeye history at the time. Smith-Njigba’s defining highlight from the game was a 75-yard catch-and-run touchdown down the left sideline in the first half, and the entire performance was a sign of things to come in Ohio State’s season finale.
WR Garrett Wilson (Purdue)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | TOUCHES | TOT YDS | TOT TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOV. 13 | PURDUE | 59-31 (W) | 11 | 177 | 4 |
.@GarrettWilson_V is a cheat code.
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 13, 2021
That's three first half TDs. pic.twitter.com/dr3E19B0ww
Eager to make up for lost time, Wilson showed Ohio State what it was missing the week before when he returned from a one-game absence to throttle Purdue during a 59-31 Buckeye win in Columbus on Nov. 13. Having not reached the 100-yard mark in five games, Wilson had a season-high 126 yards with a career-high 10 catches against the Boilermakers, hauling in touchdown passes of 12, 21 and 24 yards before all was said and done.
His receiving work alone would have been impressive enough, but Wilson made it a truly special performance by adding a 51-yard rushing touchdown to his ledger as well in the second quarter, giving him 177 yards and four scores from scrimmage. With his open-field playmaking ability on full display against Purdue, Wilson had his finest performance in scarlet and gray and became the first Ohio State player to ever have three receiving touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in the same game.
LB Tommy Eichenberg (Rose Bowl)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | TOT TACKLES | SOLO TACKLES | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAN. 1 | UTAH | 48-45 (W) | 17 | 11 | 1 |
As if he had a point to prove after regaining his starting job for the first time since Week 3 (albeit due to injuries in the linebacker room), Tommy Eichenberg turned in a career-best effort in the Rose Bowl that doubled as one of the best defensive performances of the year by a Buckeye. As untouchable as many of Chris Spielman’s numbers appear when looking back at his run with the Buckeyes in the 1980s, Eichenberg managed to break his Rose Bowl tackle record with 17 on Jan. 1. Eleven of those were solo tackles, and Eichenberg also tallied a tackle for loss before being named the defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl.
Eichenberg’s performance was part of a drastic second-half turnaround for the Buckeye defense as it tightened up to allow just 10 points in the final 30 minutes of Ohio State’s comeback victory.
K Noah Ruggles (Penn State and Nebraska)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | FGM | FGA | XPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCT. 30 | PENN STATE | 33-24 (W) | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| NOV. 6 | NEBRASKA | 26-17 (W) | 4 | 4 | 2 |
Yes, we are cheating a bit here by rolling two performances into one, but the two-game stretch Noah Ruggles went on while the Buckeye offense experienced some struggles against Penn State and Nebraska simply cannot be ignored on this list. The first-year Buckeye kicker accounted for 15 of Ohio State’s 33 points in a nine-point win over the Nittany Lions on Oct. 30, knocking down field-goal attempts from 23, 25, 26 and 35 yards out and hitting three extra points to boot.
The very next week, Ruggles hit four field goals once again, and this time three of them were from 35 yards or longer. Ruggles hit a pair of 46-yarders, including one that iced the game in the final 90 seconds with Ohio State holding onto a six-point lead at the time. Ruggles became the first kicker in program history to knock down four field goals in back-to-back games, and the former Tar Heel was branded a “weapon” for the Buckeye offense by head coach Ryan Day for his reliability.
WR Chris Olave (Michigan State)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | REC | REC YDS | REC TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOV. 20 | MICHIGAN STATE | 56-7 | 7 | 140 | 2 |
Although Chris Olave never quite had one single performance that broke new ground statistically the way a few of his teammates did in 2021, the fourth-year wideout had more than a couple special moments in his penultimate game as a Buckeye that make him well worthy of a place on this list. In just one half of football against Michigan State, Olave hauled in seven passes for 140 yards and two scores. Olave’s second touchdown, a 43-yarder in the first quarter, broke David Boston’s career receiving touchdowns record, giving Olave his 35th and final score in scarlet and gray.
There it is. @chrisolave_ just broke David Boston's school receiving TD record (35) , and No. 4 @OhioStateFB is rolling. pic.twitter.com/9aIwYdxrBH
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 20, 2021
DT Haskell Garrett (Akron)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE (RESULT) | SACKS | TOT TACKLES | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEPT. 25 | AKRON | 56-7 (W) | 3 | 5 | 3 |
Ohio State’s sacks leader in 2021 racked up more than half of that production in one game alone this season. Haskell Garrett, who finished his final college campaign with a career-high 5.5 sacks, had three of those against Akron during a 59-7 Ohio State win on Sept. 25. The Ohio State defensive line had an absolute field day against the Zips, wrecking the Akron front to the tune of 12 tackles for loss and nine sacks, and no one lineman capitalized quite as much as Garrett.
The All-American defensive tackle had four of his five total tackles and two sacks in the first half alone as the Buckeyes forced five Akron punts in the opening two quarters. The Zips finished with just 229 yards for the game, and Garrett’s performance was emblematic of the defensive effort as a whole.
Honorable mentions
WR Emeka Egbuka (Maryland)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | KO RET ATT | KO RET YDS | AVG. YDS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCT. 9 | MARYLAND | 66-17 (W) | 4 | 166 | 41.5 |
The true freshman didn’t break Ohio State’s long-standing kickoff return touchdown drought, but his 166 return yards against Maryland during the Buckeyes’ 66-17 win on Oct. 9 were the second-most all-time by a Buckeye. Egbuka averaged 41.5 yards per return on four attempts and also grabbed three passes for 31 yards in the blowout. Egbuka seemed poised to take one to the house in the return game for Ohio State this season, but it didn’t quite happen despite his best efforts.
S Ronnie Hickman (Penn State)
| DATE | OPPONENT | SCORE | TOT TACKLES | SOLO TACKLES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCT. 30 | PENN STATE | 33-24 (W) | 15 | 6 |
One of Ohio State’s most consistent performers on defense all season, Ronnie Hickman deserves some recognition on this list, even if he didn’t put together one particular performance that demands a place on the top 10. The third-year safety did, however, notch a season-high 15 tackles in the Buckeyes’ single-digit win over Penn State, which might be his single most impressive feat during the first 100-tackle season for any Ohio State player in five years.
