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Ohio State Football: Trey Sermon will flourish in Buckeyes’ backfield

By Connor Muldowney

NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 28: Running back Trey Sermon #4 of the Oklahoma Sooners scrambles against the defense of the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 28, 2019 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Sooners defeated the Red Raiders 55-16. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 28: Running back Trey Sermon #4 of the Oklahoma Sooners scrambles against the defense of the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 28, 2019 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Sooners defeated the Red Raiders 55-16. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Trey Sermon decided to transfer from Oklahoma to Ohio State football and he’s about to flourish in the Buckeyes’ backfield in 2020.

There’s a saying that seems to apply to Ohio State more than most programs in college football: The rich continue to get richer. That was even more true on Sunday afternoon when Trey Sermon announced he would be transferring to Ohio State shortly after leaving Oklahoma.

While the loss hurts the depth in the Sooners’ backfield, he took a back seat to Kennedy Brooks and Rhamondre Stevenson last year. He had just 385 yards and four touchdowns, but his effectiveness showed, averaging a career-high 7.1 yards per touch. It was clear, however, that Lincoln Riley wanted to stick with Brooks as RB1.

That led to Sermon looking elsewhere to finish off his collegiate career as a grad transfer and Ohio State just made sense.

Why? The Buckeyes are losing JK Dobbins to the NFL and Master Teague just suffered an injury this spring that was going to keep him out of practices. He was going to miss some time and potentially fall behind where the Buckeyes needed him to progress.

Teague had a solid redshirt freshman season, rushing for 789 yards and four touchdowns on 5.8 yards per carry, but would he truly be healthy enough come fall?

And outside of Teague, the Buckeyes had some unproven rushers in Demario McCall, Marcus Crowley and Steele Chambers and it wouldn’t be a shock to see one of those three former highly-regarded recruits transfer with the added depth to the backfield.

Sermon, though, is going to flourish with the Buckeyes as the presumed No. 1 back until Teague is fully healthy — maybe even after he returns. He stands 6-foot-0 and weighs in at a healthy 220 pounds, making him a load to bring down. He has similar size as Teague and might even be a better athlete who can make defenders miss, has sneaky quickness and can catch the ball out of the backfield.

Behind Ohio State’s normally-solid offensive line, Sermon is going to put up some big numbers if he’s given a healthy amount of carries.

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Ohio State just got richer on Sunday afternoon and Sermon is going to show the country why he deserved more carries at Oklahoma than he actually got.

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