Legend Bey entered the Ohio State season with plenty of buzz, but the freshman running back’s path has taken a sharp turn.
Bey flashed in the spring before getting hurt ahead of the Spring Game, and that was about as bright as things have been for him so far. He was suspended when fall practice opened, scored a touchdown in the opener against Ball State, and then mostly disappeared from the rotation. After the Illinois game, his situation looks even more precarious.
He did not play at all against the Fighting Illini. Bey also was limited by an ankle injury against Kent State, where he had just one carry, but he was not listed on the availability report with any injury designation. The clearest read is that Ryan Day simply chose not to use him.
That’s why the “doghouse” label fits. Devin McCuin handled kick returns instead of Bey, another sign that the freshman is sliding out of the picture. Day wasn’t asked about Bey after the win, but the message from the usage was hard to miss.
Whatever the reason, Ohio State has made it clear that trust is carrying more weight than raw ability right now. The Buckeyes have given carries to Bo Jackson, Ja'Kobi Jackson, and Isaiah West instead, and they’ve turned to someone else on special teams too. For a player billed as one of the team’s most explosive offensive pieces, that’s a steep fall.
There’s also a bigger issue hanging over it: if this keeps up, Ohio State could lose Bey to the Transfer Portal after the season. He was brought in to be a playmaker at running back, even though he was a starting quarterback in high school. He also arrived as Ohio State’s second program after originally signing with Tennessee.
That said, the door is not closed. Carson Hinzman worked his way out of Day’s doghouse after reaching it near the end of his freshman year. After starting at center in 2023, he didn’t start at any position in 2024 until injuries forced the issue because of podcast comments.
Hinzman is now the starting center and one of the team’s leaders, which shows there is a path back if Bey earns the staff’s trust. The challenge is that discipline can be hard to sustain in the NIL era, when players are often quicker to move on from adversity.
How Bey handles this stretch will go a long way toward defining his time with the Buckeyes, whether that time ends up being short or long.
In Other News...
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The next wave looks just as promising, if a little different in how it is forming. Ohio State has five commitments in the 2028 class, four of them top 100 prospects, led by quarterback Christopher Vargas at No. 4 nationally, and even the 2029 class already has a foothold with wide receiver Austin Miller, ranked No. 50. For a program that has long built its roster on blue-chip talent, the real question is how this early momentum will translate when the class rankings and the pressure both start to rise. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Has A Growing Running Back Problem Behind Ja'Kobi Jackson
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What followed was more revealing than the box score. Day publicly singled out sophomores Bo Jackson and Isaiah West, questioning their effort when compared with Ja'Kobi Jackson, and the backdrop here is not just one uneven afternoon but a position group dealing with injuries and inconsistent play. For Ohio State, the bigger concern is whether there is a reliable answer behind Ja'Kobi Jackson, because right now the depth chart looks far less settled than a contender would prefer. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Won Big But One Problem Should Worry Buckeye Fans
Ohio State handled Illinois 42-19 at home and kept the Illibuck Trophy where it belongs, so the result never really felt in doubt. Even so, the Buckeyes left the field with a familiar concern hanging over an otherwise comfortable conference win: the run defense was soft in spots, and Illinois found enough room to keep drives alive and make the game less clean than the final score suggested.
Aidan Laughery and Calil Valentine both popped some meaningful runs, and the problems did not stop there. Ohio State also had trouble getting off the field on third down, piled up penalties, and had a few individual miscues, including some from Jermaine Mathews Jr., that will not sit well with a defense aiming higher than a routine October win. [Read more 🡒]