Despite reaching the College Football Playoff and winning 11 games, the 2022 Buckeyes had quite a few forgettable moments.
Even as the offense scored 44 points per game, good for second-most in the country, injuries to top-2 tailbacks TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams put a ton of pressure on the passing game and unproven running backs in the ground game.
Expecting Henderson and Williams to be the top running back duo in college football heading into the season, head coach Ryan Day instead saw his two top ball carriers on the field and fully healthy at the same time in just four of 13 games.
Ohio State played seven games without at least one the Henderson/Williams combo and of course the biggest games on the schedule were casualties. Henderson missed the Michigan and Georgia games entirely while Willams played but wasn't healthy for either contest, logging 11 total carries for 42 yards.
The pair combined to log a combined 20+ carries just five teams over the entire season and only once in the final six contests.
Sure, guys like Dallan Hayden, Chip Trayanum and even Xavier Johnson took the challenge to fill in admirably but Ohio State missed having its two top guys particularly in those final two season-defining matchups.
Real-time, we all knew it was bad but I was curious just how much Ohio State missed having its top two guys in comparison to other years so I took a quick glance at the availability and rushing production Henderson and Williams accounted for last year in comparison to other Buckeye seasons since Ryan Day joined the staff in 2017.
| SEASON | TOP 2 BACKS | COMBINED % OF GAMES PLAYED | COMBINED % OF CARRIES | COMBINED % OF YARDS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | WILLIAMS/HENDERSON | 73% | 50% | 56% |
| 2021 | HENDERSON/WILLIAMS | 88% | 60% | 75% |
| 2020 | SERMON/TEAGUE | 94% | 64% | 67% |
| 2019 | DOBBINS/TEAGUE | 96% | 66% | 75% |
| 2018 | DOBBINS/WEBER | 96% | 71% | 84% |
| 2017 | DOBBINS/WEBER | 93% | 50% | 59% |
As depicted on the chart, the Williams and Henderson combo played in fewer games last season than any other OSU duo over the last six campaigns while also accounting for the smallest percentage of the team's total rushing attempts and rushing yards.
The pair also accounted for the second-worst percentage of games played during the six-season span with 88% of games played in 2021.
Henderson played all 13 games during the 2021 season and while he logged less than 10 carries in five different contests due to some nicks and game situations, he did record double-digit carries in five of six matchups versus ranked opponents. In those, he averaged 16 carries for 87 yards.
Williams started the season opener as a way to ease the true freshman Henderson into things but played in just 10 of 13 games with 71 carries compared to Henderson's 183. To his credit, Miyan averaged more yards per carry than Henderson and his 7.2 yards a pop marked just the fifth time since 1970 that an OSU running back averaged at least 7.0 yards a pop on a minimum of 40 carries. Ohio State was fortunate Henderson proved such a game-breaker almost right out of the gate as Williams dealt with nagging injuries for a notable portion of the season.
The 2020 duo of Trey Sermon and Master Teague stayed healthy over an eight-game pandemic-impacted season with Sermon playing in all games and Teague missing one. They were on a path to pretty meh production before Sermon exploded out of the blue in a late-season three-game stretch including 331 rushing yards in a B1G championship game win over Northwestern and a 193-yard performance as the Buckeyes downed Clemson in a CFP semifinal.
J.K. Dobbins went absolutely bonkers in 2019, playing in all 14 games and rushing for 2,003 yards. Teague saw action in 13 games logging an impressive 783 yards on the ground. With the running backs healthy and Dobbins thriving, quarterback Justin Fields enjoyed an incredible season of his own as the Buckeyes averaged nearly 47 points and 530 total yards per game.
The 2018 season saw Dobbins and Mike Weber appear in a tie for the highest percentage of games (27 of 28) by Ohio State's top two backs over the last six seasons while accounting for the highest percentage of the team's rushing attempts and yards. Of course the fact quarterback Dwayne Haskins didn't look to run was a huge factor as Dobbins rushed for 1,053 yards but on just 4.6 per carry while Weber went for 954 on a more respectable 5.5 per tote.
Finally, Dobbins and Weber managed just 50% of the rushing attempts in 2017 as Dobbins played in all 14 games and Weber 12 but that was largely due to Day not yet being in position to modernize the offense as quarterback J.T. Barrett was the team's second-leading rusher logging nearly 12 carries a game for 57 yards per contest with 12 touchdowns.
Fast-forward to 2023 and with Day breaking in a new starting quarterback, it feels critically important both Henderson and Williams stay healthy to take some pressure off the new signal-caller.
