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From Ole Miss to Ohio State, Quinshon Judkins rolled the dice for shot at national title
By David Wasson
Published:
There are pivotal times in every person’s life that a critical decision can be boiled down just this way: Do I sacrifice my personal greatness for more lasting greatness within a team?
Quinshon Judkins is just barely 21 years old, and yet he has faced down just such a life decision … a choice that might have looked quizzical at the time. But now, Judkins and his Ohio State teammates are just 60 minutes of football from proving his decision was the correct one and also forming a legacy that lasts a lifetime – as the Buckeyes face Notre Dame for the College Football Playoff national championship Monday night in Atlanta. The Buckeyes are favored by 8.5 points, per FanDuel Sportsbook.
Judkins didn’t begin his career in Columbus, alas. Instead, following the same routine as what feels like many if not most football players in the current era, Judkins entered the transfer portal in January 2024. Unlike many of those portal-bound players, though, Judkins was different – he wasn’t seeking more playing time elsewhere.
Judkins was already getting plenty of touches at an elite level, having earned torched the Southeastern Conference for 2 seasons at Ole Miss. As a freshman in 2022, Judkins rumbled for a league-high 1,567 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns on 274 carries en route to becoming a freshman All-American. Among SEC backs, only former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker at Georgia ran for more yards in his first season.
A year later, Judkins recorded 1,158 rushing yards on 271 carries and 15 touchdowns. That earned Judkins his second first-team All-SEC honors in as many years. The problem, though, is that the Rebels weren’t winning quite enough – following an 8-5 record in 2022 with an 11-2 mark in 2023 but again falling short of reaching the SEC Championship or Playoff.
So Judkins – perhaps the best running back in the SEC – hit the portal, and in just a couple days announced that his destination would be Ohio State.
“I’m looking forward to being a part of a winning culture, and helping to do my part to beat the (Michigan) and bring a Big Ten championship and national championship to Columbus,” Judkins wrote in a graphic shared on his social media accounts.
Judkins packed his bags and headed from Oxford to Columbus, to go from being The Man for the Rebels to being half of a 1-2 punch for the Buckeyes. Judkins knew heading into 2024 that he would be sharing the backfield with TreVeyon Henderson – but also knew that he would probably have a better shot at getting to exactly the spot that he finds himself in Monday night.
That validation has obviously come with Ohio State’s collective result – a march through the Playoff from the first round to the title game – but also came because Judkins sacrificed personal glory for collective gain. He has carried the ball 183 times through 15 games in 2024 and has racked up 960 rushing yards with 12 touchdowns. That equals a 5.2 yards-per-carry average – which is almost a yard more than his 2023 mark at Ole Miss.
But when you combine Judkins’ output with Henderson’s (967 yards on 132 carries with 10 TDs), the Buckeyes have a powerful 1-2 rushing combination that gives defenses fits.
“Both bring different things to the table, but both are very, very talented,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day told reporters before the 2024 season began. “They know they need each other. … They want to win.”
And while Judkins has amassed modest yardage numbers during Ohio State’s 3-game Playoff run to Monday’s title game, he has made his touches count – popping for 2 touchdowns in a 42-17 first-round destruction of Tennessee, rolling for 85 yards on 17 carries in a 41-21 Rose Bowl win against Oregon, and scoring twice more in a 28-14 victory over Texas in the Cotton Bowl semifinal.
Monday’s championship game, of course, is the primary reason Judkins jumped from Ole Miss to Ohio State. He could have easily stayed in Oxford and been RB1 in a pass-happy offense led by Rebels quarterback Jaxson Dart or transferred to a program where he would have gotten a higher volume of touches.
Instead, Judkins read the field and rolled the dice on the Buckeyes – in the process enduring a regular season-ending loss to Michigan and rebounding with a 3-game march to the precipice of greatness. And beside Henderson in the Buckeyes’ backfield, who also projects to have a bright NFL future, Judkins found the culture of greatness he wanted at Ohio State.
An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.