With another college football season behind us, there is all the time in the world to reflect on what we saw in 2020 and think about how it will impact the future of the program at Ohio State.

To that end, one metric of particular interest is the season snap count for each position group, where one can get a sense for just how much experience a given player built up over the course of the year, and how certain position battles may be trending heading into the following campaign.

During a COVID-plagued schedule, there were far fewer snaps to go around for every individual, but just like any other season, some players had far less opportunity than others.

We’ve selected five Buckeyes that, even given the circumstances at hand, we were surprised to see used so sparingly on the field for Ohio State this past season.

*Snap counts don't include special teams

The Ohio State wide receiver room may be bursting at the seams with talent at the moment, but that doesn’t mean each player has seen equal distribution on the field.

Far from it in fact, as two former top 50 overall recruits have transferred out of the position group in the past couple years due to concerns over playing time, with Mookie Cooper and Jaelen Gill both opting to find new homes.

Another young Buckeye wideout we thought we’d see a bit more this past season, despite playing third fiddle to fellow freshmen Julian Fleming and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, was Gee Scott Jr.; the No. 57 prospect in the class of 2020, and the No.11-ranked WR.

At 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, Scott’s frame alone made him a standout in preseason practice, but the Washington native played just 14 snaps in his first season, and didn’t catch a single pass.

Scott’s path to playing time doesn’t get much easier in 2021 given that Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jameson Williams all return for the Buckeyes, but with his size and highly-touted talent, we’d be surprised if he goes another season without a reception in Columbus.

Before Marcus Crowley tore his ACL in November of his freshman season in 2019, it appeared the Florida native was well on his way to earning more significant playing time at the running back position in seasons to come with his eye-popping average of 9.5 yards per carry.

His recovery process ate into that opportunity this season though, and despite Crowley’s name being taken off of Ohio State’s unavailable list relatively early in the year, he wasn’t given a single snap until the very last game of the season.

With Trey Sermon suffering a shoulder injury on the first series and freshman Miyan Williams out with presumed COVID-19, Crowley saw 23 snaps against Alabama in his first action of the season.

Crowley gained just 14 yards on six carries, but expectations couldn’t have been too high for any player making their season debut against the Crimson Tide in the national championship game.

Suddenly in the blink of an eye, Crowley will be a junior in 2021, and with Sermon going to the NFL, his spot in the running back rotation will be a storyline to watch now that he seems to be completely healthy.

The crown jewel of Ohio State’s 2020 draft class, five-star offensive lineman Paris Johnson Jr. did get on the field enough by the end of the season that many expect he could win a starting job as a sophomore, even if it isn’t at his natural tackle position.

However, the bulk of his 26 snaps on the season came in the final two games, and while that bodes well for how the Ohio native’s prospects for playing time are trending heading into 2021, it didn’t exactly afford him a ton of time on the field throughout his entire freshman campaign.

The shortened Big Ten schedule was a major contributing factor for the shorter leash many freshmen received in regards to playing time at Ohio State this season, especially when compared to a 2019 season in which Ryan Day routinely went deep into the depth chart for long periods of time in one blowout after the next.

That was not the case during 2020, but even so, we don’t see it slowing down Johnson’s development or path to a starting spot whatsoever come his sophomore year.

A top 100 overall prospect and top 10 linebacker in the class of 2018, K’Vaughan Pope entered his junior season as one of several OSU LBs whose opportunities had been curtailed by the long-standing success of position room stalwarts like Tuf Borland, Pete Werner and Baron Browning.

What made Pope stand out from the pack was that he made several impressive plays in mop-up duty as a sophomore, notching two interceptions in as many games in 2019 –– the type of big play that turns heads during an otherwise uneventful end to a blowout contest.

But Pope saw significantly less playing time than some of his contemporaries, getting on the field for just 17 snaps while junior Teradja Mitchell tallied 95, and junior and sophomore Dallas Gant and Craig Young had 79 and 39, respectively.

While the reasoning for his short stint on the field this season is unknown, Pope’s prospects of serious rotational time, if not a starting job, will increase tremendously should he stick around in 2021, with the absence of Ohio State’s four top linebackers providing plenty of opportunity.

With the cornerback position in something of a state of flux entering the 2020 season, it seemed likely that Ohio State’s pair of freshmen at the position would see more chances than they might have otherwise.

Shaun Wade was the only returning starter in the Buckeye secondary, as starting outside corners Jeff Okudah and Damon Arnette were both selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, and after junior Cam Brown went down with a torn Achilles in Week 2, Day said himself that Ryan Watts and Lejond Cavazos would have to step up for Ohio State.

Cavazos’ first year was hindered by an injury that cut into his preseason preparation time and forced him out of early action this season, but even long after he was removed from the unavailable list, the former IMG Academy prospect never touched the field for a real defensive snap.

Meanwhile, Watts, the more highly-touted cornerback prospect of the two out of high school, was given 28 plays with which to work during his freshman year.

But Wade will be gone in 2021, and with no definite timeline on Brown’s return, the Buckeyes are liable to try out more options in the secondary in the coming year.