Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day Believes Running Back Trey Sermon Has High NFL Ceiling

Day cited Sermon’s record-setting performance in the Big Ten Championship Game.

It took running back Trey Sermon a little bit of time to get comfortable with his role in the Ohio State offense after transferring from Oklahoma, as he rushed for just 344 yards and one touchdown in the first five games of the 2020 season.

He broke through in a big way, though, when he set the school single-game rushing record with 331 yards and two scores in a come-from-behind win over Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship Game.

That game – coupled with Sermon’s performance the Buckeyes’ Sugar Bowl victory over Clemson, when he rushed for 193 yards and one touchdown in a 49-28 win – is why Ohio State head coach Ryan Day believes Sermon has the potential to be a star in the NFL.

“That was a hard game,” Day said during an appearance on ESPN’s Greeny with Mike Greenberg this week. “Pat (Fitzgerald) and everyone at Northwestern – the coaching staff, the players – they do a great job and they made it hard for us. That was not an easy game for us and we had a hard time finding a rhythm.

“But then somewhere along the game, Trey and our offensive line really did get into a rhythm. I had never seen anything like that. The thing that made it amazing to me was almost how unexpected it was, it kind of came out of left field. He just started running unbelievable and really ran the same way against Clemson.”

Sermon’s season came to an abrupt and premature end when he suffered a collarbone injury on the first offensive play of the national championship game loss to Alabama. But he’s now 100 percent healthy and ready to contribute for whatever team drafts him next week, especially given his light workload that saw him carry the ball just 116 times in 2020.

“It was a very unique year for Trey,” Day said. “He came off that (ACL) injury last year and we didn't really have a preseason, so it kind of took him a while to get his feet underneath him. 

"The thing about Trey is, he doesn't have a lot of mileage on him, does not have a whole bunch of carries. I think that's a huge positive for him and I think he has a huge ceiling. Whoever drafts him is going to get somebody who is very versatile and runs very hard with low mileage on his body.”

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