Replacing an Ohio State legend like Justin Fields wouldn’t be easy for anyone. However, C.J. Stroud won the starting job to be the signal-caller for the Buckeyes and didn’t look back. After playing through the pain of an injured shoulder early in the season, Stroud came back to lead the No. 1 ranked offense in the country.
Big Ten voters took notice and named Stroud the Graham-George Offensive Player of the Year, the Griese-Breese Quarterback of the Year, and the Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year. It is the first time in the illustrious history of the Big Ten conference that a player has won all three awards in the same season.
Having great talent around the freshman certainly helped ease the learning curve, but ultimately the quarterback has to get the ball where it needs to be. And Stroud did that all season long. In playing 11 of the 12 games, Stroud threw for 3,862 yards with 38 touchdowns and only five interceptions, while completing over 70 percent of his passes.
No matter how you slice it, those are impressive stats, especially for a kid who had never thrown a pass in a college game before this season.
keep ‘em coming ‼️@CJ7STROUD is the first athlete to win all three @B1Gfootball awards in the same season.#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/1RIpz43bMk
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 1, 2021
Stroud is almost certain to get an invite to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist. Unfortunately, he will not have another game to make his case to take home the most coveted individual award in college football.
Voters will be making their decision after conference championship games and the Heisman winner will be announced on December 11 on ESPN.
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