Ohio State football: Mike Weber made the right decision for 2018
By Ryan Rosko
A healthy Mike Weber will be a great addition to Ohio State’s offense this fall.
Throughout his Ohio State football career, Mike Weber has been very good. According to sports-reference.com, Weber has racked up 1,722 yards and 19 touchdowns with a 6.1 yard per carrying average.
Those are impressive numbers but to think they could have been even better.
Weber is a redshirted sophomore who had a decision to be made regarding his future. In 2017, the expectation was that he would have continued to progress following an impressive 2016 season where he nearly ran for 1,100 yards.
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Progress was seen but just not in the box scores.
With a hamstring injury hindering Weber at times throughout the 2017 season, luckily Ohio State had freshman J.K. Dobbins to lean on. It is already evident that Dobbins can do it all and the flaws in his game will be fixed, not if they will be.
Had Dobbins not been a Buckeye, perhaps their season wouldn’t have ended up in the Cotton Bowl.
That said, despite his injury issue and the fact that he had to share the workload, Weber made his NFL decision via his Twitter account:
One more year.
— Mike Weber (@mikeweberjr) January 7, 2018
If he did go pro, Weber wouldn’t have gone as early as some would expect because the 2018 running back class is loaded. From Penn State’s Saquon Barkley and LSU’s Derrius Guice to USC’s Ronald Jones and Georgia’s Nick Chubb, Weber would have plenty of competition to overcome.
Even with the hamstring injury and workload playing out the way it did, it is not as if Weber had a bad season. Far from it, in fact as Weber ran for 626 yards and 10 touchdowns to pair with a 6.2 yard per carry average.
Now, the 626 is low but again that was partly injury related and part the workload Weber went from (182 carries to 101 carries).
Ohio State doesn’t rebuild, rather they reload. With that in mind, their stellar running game will continue to be a big part of their offense.
If Weber can get back to his 2016 numbers, he would be healthy which would result in his draft stock increasing. Ohio State’s offense is always full of talent and with a two-headed running attack (not to mention the multiple recruits coming in), Weber’s decision will help not only him but the team as a whole.
Next: OSU needs a QB but who will it be?
One aspect to watch for is Weber’s blocking this fall. I want to see better reactions from him with defenders coming off of blitzes and then some this fall. Weber’s in a competition for carries but it’s all for the best long-term.