Three yards and a cloud of dust. That was the old adage at Ohio State. Key word “was.”
College football used to be a grown man’s game where a ball-carrier gets behind some pretty tough guys who were focused on roughing up the guy in front of him. You’d get up, and do it all again. But then the forward pass became a thing, and offenses have continued to evolve to take advantage of space and athletes that can make things happen on the edge and in matchups.
With that, quarterbacks have gone from being game managers and precision passers, to oftentimes the most athletic player on the field. There are still some drop-back passers that dissect opposing defenses, but there’s no arguing the fact that the quarterback has become by far the most important player on a football field.
It’s been that way for a while, but we really started to see this thing begin to swing around under center at the turn of the century — or millennium — however you want to look at it.
On that note, ESPN took a look at the best quarterbacks since the year 2000 and ranked them (subscription required) up to No. 60. Ohio State used to be a program that relied on running the ball with a traditional running back, but it too has become a destination place for playmakers and gunslingers calling the shots.
All in all, three guys that once wore the scarlet and gray have been recognized by the worldwide leader in sports programming, and we’re sure you wonder who they are and where they were ranked.