4 thoughts on Ohio State football's pickup of Mississippi transfer RB Quinshon Judkins

Ohio State is bolstering its backfield with Quinshon Judkins, a transfer running back from Mississippi who announced Monday that he will transfer to join the Buckeyes. Here are four thoughts on the pickup:

Quinshon Judkins is more than a depth piece at Ohio State

The Buckeyes needed to address running back through the transfer portal.

That’s because they lost three of their five scholarship running backs from last season with Evan Pryor and Chip Trayanum transferring and Miyan Williams declaring early for the NFL draft.

It’s a backfield that could see its depth shrink even further if TreVeyon Henderson also forgoes his remaining eligibility to enter the draft.

While Judkins fills a position of need on the roster, he also provides potential star power after having been one of the leading rushers in the Football Bowl Subdivision in each of the past two seasons.

The Buckeyes have not had a running back with multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons since J.K. Dobbins, who left for the NFL four years ago. In Judkins’ two seasons with the Rebels, he totaled 2,725 rushing yards and 31 touchdowns.

If depth remains an issue, Judkins has proven he can carry a heavy load. He surpassed 270 carries in both 2023 and 2022. Only five FBS backs saw more last fall.

The upside for the Buckeyes is Henderson returns and forms a backfield tandem with Judkins that could stake claim as the nation’s best.

Even as college football has become more pass happy in recent decades, the ground game still matters. Michigan’s duo of Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards was among the biggest reasons Ohio State’s archrival captured its first national championship since 1997 earlier this week.

But if Henderson moves on, the Buckeyes have a major piece in the fold.

Ohio State run-game diversity could expand

Judkins, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound back, has traits that would complement Henderson’s home run ability.

He is physical running up the middle, gaining 62% of his career rushing yards between the tackles, according to data from Pro Football Focus.

The vision for when to cut downhill helps, but so do elusiveness and strength, which make him difficult to bring down.

Per PFF, Judkins forced 78 missed tackles last season, the fourth most among all FBS running backs, and in other instances he often broke tackles, generating 871 of his 1,159 rushing yards after contact.

The strength of Henderson is his quickness, a back who can bounce outside, leading to explosive runs. He had 10 runs of at least 20 yards last season, including touchdowns of 75 yards against Minnesota and 61 yards at Notre Dame, compared to six by Judkins.

But only a third of Henderson’s 926 rushing yards were between the tackles.

The physical element to Judkins' running style should add a different flavor to the Buckeyes’ rushing attack.

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Quinshon Judkins' efficiency has dropped

After breaking out in 2022, running for the most yards by a freshman in the Southeastern Conference since Georgia’s Herschel Walker more than four decades ago, Judkins had a slight dip in production last fall despite a similar workload.

He rushed for 1,158 yards, fewer than the 1,565 yards rushing he had in the previous season.

Judkins’ yards-per-carry average was 4.3, compared to the 5.7 mark from his debut season.

Among 45 FBS running backs who surpassed 1,000 rushing yards last season, none of them had a lower average.

A priority for the Buckeyes will be reversing this trend.

Will Dallan Hayden’s path remain blocked?

Intrigue has surrounded Dallan Hayden since he burst onto the scene at Maryland in 2022, emerging as injuries piled up in the backfield to run for three touchdowns in a win over the Terrapins.

Hayden stepped up in a similar situation at Purdue in October.

But if Henderson returns along with Judkins, he could remain crowded out on the depth chart.

The Buckeyes figure Hayden, a reliable north-south runner, into their long-terms plans at the position, a reason he redshirted as a sophomore last season in order to preserve eligibility, leaving him with three moving forward.

It might take more time, though, before a larger role arrives.

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch and can be reached at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Quinshon Judkins to transfer to Ohio State: 4 thoughts on pickup