Ohio State suffers devastating loss with season-ending injury to running back Evan Pryor

The Ohio State Buckeyes are down a running back for the season after second-year back Evan Pryor suffered a severe knee injury on Monday. The devastating news, confirmed by On3’s Spencer Holbrook, was first reported by Austin Ward on Tuesday morning.

Pryor was looking at a significant role in the run game this season alongside returning star TreVeyon Henderson and vet Miyan Williams. He appeared in four games last season, maintaining his redshirt and totaling 98 yards and a touchdown. His most productive game came on Oct. 23 versus Indiana. The Buckeyes won 54-7 with 11 carries, 48 yards and two receptions from Pryor.

Coming out of high school, Pryor was a four-star prospect and the No. 95 player overall in the 2021 signing class, per the On3 Consensus. There were only five running backs ranked higher than the Buckeyes running back in 2021.

Buckeyes lose third back in three-headed rushing attack

Last season, TreVeyon Henderson led the Ohio State rushing attack with 184 of the team’s total carries. Behind him, Miyan Williams posted 71 carries and Master Teague, now in the NFL, had 66 carries.

Without Pryor healthy to take those snaps behind Henderson and Williams, the Buckeyes could turn to first-year back Dallan Hayden.

Hayden enrolled at Ohio State this summer after graduating from Christian Brothers in Memphis. He was a four-star prospect and No.19 running back in the nation in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Consensus. So far, the Buckeyes like what they see from the freshman.

“He goes full speed, that’s one thing,” running backs coach Tony Alford said of Hayden. “We’re not going to have to ask him to go faster. 

“He goes 100 miles per hour; sometimes we have to try to pull the reins on him and back him down a little bit and slow him down. That’s probably the thing that’s impressed me the most. He goes full speed. He only knows one speed.”