Every day from now until the start of the season, Land-Grant Holy Land is highlighting Ohio State football players that you should be watching this season. Check out all of our ”Player to Watch” articles to get ready for the season opener against Texas.
With the losses of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins from last year’s Ohio State, the is a hole in the Buckeyes’ backfield that needs to be filled by a new running back room and a new RB1 on the depth chart.
The Texas native enters his sophomore campaign as the top running back on the depth chart, and is set to take a huge step in his second season after helping the main backs last season as a third option
Last year, Ohio State had a ton of success in the running game under offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. As a team, the Buckeyes ran for 2,662 yards and 34 touchdowns on 523 attempts, which is good for 5.1 yards per attempt.
Quinshon Judkins led the Buckeyes in rushing in his only season as a Buckeye, rushing for 1,060 yards and 14 touchdowns on 5.46 yards per carry. TreVeyon Henderson was close behind, rushing for 1,016 yards and 10 touchdowns on 7.06 yards per carry. Will Howard added 226 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.
Now, all of those runners are gone, and Peoples will be the workhorse that head coach Ryan Day and new offensive coordinator Brian Hartline will look towards to help compliment what should be an explosive passing attack.
Peoples was a four star recruit and the No. 7 running back in the 2024 recruiting class from Veterans Memorial in San Antonio, Texas. As a freshman in 2024, Peoples appeared in eight games and ran for 197 yards and two touchdowns on 49 attempts.
Along with Peoples, CJ Donaldson comes to Columbus from West Virginia, and has been very productive in his college career thus far. Donaldson was technically a tight end in…
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Publish date : 2025-08-07 13:31:00
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