The Second Coming of JK
An Ohio State freshman with incredible athletic traits and a name steeped in Southern royalty.
He's an extreme competitor. There are a lot of big freaks out there, God gave them talent, but they don't possess the same competitiveness that LeBron does. I think he's a very good leader, but I'm a huge fan, so I'm very biased.
- Urban Meyer, former coach
*I’m assuming that whatever is happening behind the scenes currently will work its way out and Bo Jackson will be playing for the Buckeyes in 2026. If not, well, shit.
When asked about the Ohio State recruiting philosophy, Urban Meyer once said that the program saturates states with a lot of quality and quantity like Georgia, Texas and Florida, and then cherry picks at other positions because OSU is a national brand.
It’s true—when you look at OSU’s best rosters, the starting 11s are often layered with Sun Belt prospects such as Georgia’s Caleb Downs and Florida’s Jeremiah Smith.
Ohio, like many of the Midwestern states, has deteriorated somewhat over the last three decades on the football prospecting front. The dwindling populations of towns throughout this region have hit CFB recruiting particularly hard, forcing programs like Michigan, OSU, and PSU to formulate their rosters with mostly out-of-state talent in hopes of competing nationally.
Though, even still, there are a few elite prospects that come out of the Buckeye state each class (and most of them do end up at OSU). One such player with a name steeped in Southern football tradition—Bo Jackson, of no relation to the former NFL player—made his way to OSU this past offseason. The original Bo, of course, was a small-town Alabama high school football player who enjoyed a fruitful four year career at Auburn in the 80s.
Interestingly enough, comparing the freshman numbers of each Bo, the figures are pretty similar. OG Bo finished his first year at Auburn as a heavy rotation player, carrying the rock 127 times for 829 yards and nine scores. ‘25 Bo carried the rock 168 times for 1035 yards and five scores at the end of the season (including the conference championship game).
A major difference between the two is the receiving profile; indeed, in the 80s it was not expected for starting RBs to be catching a large volume of passes. Likely, given OG Bo’s athleticism and background in baseball, he probably had the capacity to unload more damage on the field via the air, but alas, it was a different time. He only caught 26 passes over his four year Auburn career. In contract, ‘25 Bo caught 19 passes this year alone, for a not-too-shabby 200 yards and another score.
However, despite the name, it wasn’t OG Bo who came to mind when thinking about player comps. While both runners stand out as taller RBs (6’1 for OG Bo and 6’0 for ‘25 Bo), it’s another Buckeye runner that has this writer drooling over the potential CFF outcomes here.
JK Dobbins, who was a high four star recruit out of Texas, came to OSU in 2017 and immediately led the team in rushing as a true freshman, accumulating 1403 yards on only 194 carries (7.2 avg). That efficiency is pretty otherworldly, especially given the workload. Bo Jackson’s this year was a measly 6.2 ypc average in comparison, which, jokes aside, is still very good, especially for a true freshman player.
Of course, OSU’s schedule this past season is probably the single worst slate I’ve seen of a top program in a long while, so while I’d like to give even more kudos to Bo for a stellar freshman season against top competition, that felt a bit disingenuous when looking at the below photo:
Ending the year against an IU squad that probably has a third of the talent (if that) on their roster is just the cherry on top.
Anyways, the parallel I’m haphazardly trying to draw here is that JK was an essentially a three year starter and Bo could be too. I don’t know if Bo will ever top JK’s 2019 season, who was one of four 2000-yard rushers (a feat no one else achieved until 2024 Ashton Jeanty), but the early warning signs of a future CFF Dawg are present here.
While OSU brought in CJ Donaldson from WVU this past offseason, and had rising sophomore James Peoples (who himself has been compared to JK coming from Texas), it was true freshman Bo who ended up leading the squad in rush attempts and yards.
He also led all RBs in receiving on the team with his aforementioned 200 yards. Pretty impressive stuff.
Even more impressive is that—while he was only rated a mid-four star, 150-250 ranked prospect by 247 Sports, it was Alabama and Georgia who were OSU’s primary competitors for Bo’s signature last year.
In fact, unless my memory has deceived me (prone to happen during the holiday season; I blame the eggnog), at one point it looked like Bo was headed to Athens to play for the Bulldogs. And what a cruel twist of fate that would have been for Auburn fans.
Clearly, the big boys of CFB did their homework here and probably—dare I say—were a step ahead of the hard working evaluators of 247 Sports; who do a great job by the way, but it always makes me laugh when people think there is some sort of rankings conspiracy that has recruits committed to big programs seeing a bump in rating.
Is it not possible that enterprises such as Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State, who’ve made billions of dollars in the business of college football, might have scouting and evaluation professionals that are better than those of ON3 and 247 Sports? And that really, most, if not all, in this business are just playing catch up to the evaluations coming from those programs’ departments?
Anyways, I fear I may have veered into unrelated tangent territory. Coming back to the topic at hand, I’m just so excited about what we may have on our hands with Bo in the coming years. And by the coming years I mean 2026 and 2027, as the chances seem slim he’ll be in CFB more than he needs to be.
The only hang-up I have, is whether the decision makers around Bo (cough, Ryan Day), will be sick enough to dish out PJ Fleck level volumes to our friend Bo. Indeed, on that note, let us look at some patterns..
Coaching & System
While we wait for OSU to replace Brian Hartline at OC, let’s concentrate on Mr. Day’s history. Indeed, it’s true that the legendary 2019 season under JK actually came under Day himself; but, basically, ever since then there have been split backfields.
TreVeyon Henderson also broke out as a freshman in 2021, but then regressed heavily over the next few seasons. He was pretty good in 2023 from an average production per game standpoint, as you’ll see in Table, he just didn’t play the full season due to injury.
In 2024, despite producing two 1000 yard rushers, there actually wasn’t a CFF producer in OSU’s backfield, because QJ and Tre cannibalized each other’s stocks, and if not for playing a whopping NFL-style 16 games, neither would have achieved the 1000-yard feat as both surpassed the mark in the finals vs. ND.
You’ll notice in Table 1. the PPG average of QJ (who was RB1), was only 12.7. I believe Table 2. below gives a more accurate portrayal of the state of OSU’s RB1s under Day:
From here we can see that you really have to go back to 2021 to find a strong season at the aggregate level. The 2023 year was a solid one as well. But my concern regarding workload for Bo still stands: there hasn’t been a runner who topped 200 carries, let alone 300, since 2019.
That’s fine if you’re just looking for a solid CFF asset, particularly in a bestball format, where you know the floor is pretty good and you don’t have to guess which weeks the player pops off, but I have visions of a greater asset in mind.
I don’t know what exactly happened to Tre, and why he regressed so noticeably from his freshman season—hopefully that isn’t the case with Bo—but with CJ running out of eligibility, and Peoples already being passed up on the depth chart, the path is here for a fat pig to emerge once more in Columbus 2026.
In fact, looking at the carry share figures of the RB1s since JK, the numbers are actually pretty good. The lowest and sole sub-30% figure was in 2022, with every other season clearing 35% at least.
Of course, 40+% is better, and we haven’t see that since JK and Tre’s freshman season. Part of the problem with big programs is that there are lot of mouths to feed, and so it is difficult to find players who are Cam-Cooking it at 75% of his team’s RB1 carry share.
Some Final Thoughts (For Now)
Given the pedigree of what the OSU RB1 has (and hasn’t) done over the past few seasons, I’ll be surprised if Bo manages to work his way into first round consideration in your typical CFF drafts in 2026.
Particularly with the number of RBs coming back this season (and likely even more so if the five for five bill is passed), Bo Jack feels more like a round three-to-five type of asset in the mind of this writer. Of course, it’s currently only January, so things are subject to change.
Because the workload will be a major question mark, most drafters will not feel comfortable unloading a very early pick on him. And for good reason, if he’s strapped at around 200 carries once again, then he’s not going to be one of the best RBs in CFF.
The receiving workload can offload this; I’ve said it many times, it doesn’t matter how the player gets the touches, so long as they get them. So, a scenario where Bo ends up with say: 190 carries and another 30 touches in the air feels very plausible.
But I’m hoping we see more. It would be great for another 250+ carry gangster to emerge in Columbus. It’s high time, I tell you, high time! ◾
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