Not only was the Big Ten season shortened in 2020, but Ohio State also saw three of its games canceled the week of competition due to COVID-19.

For that reason, it's difficult to say that any of the Buckeyes truly saw more game action than anticipated prior to the season.

Still, there were Buckeyes who defied expectations nonetheless, compelling the Ohio State coaching staff to give them opportunities that many may not have seen coming for them in 2020.

We've selected five such players from the 2020 roster, and if this list leaves you curious about the other side of the spectrum, we wrote about five Buckeye we thought we'd see more of in 2020 on Friday.

It’s not about the amount of snaps (15) that true freshman running back Miyan Williams received in 2020, but rather when it was that he got them.

Williams, just a three-star prospect out of Cincinnati, Ohio, figured to be toward the middle or back of the running back rotation this season, considering the slew of more experienced players in the position room.

But when Master Teague suffered a concussion in the Big Ten Championship Game, it was Williams that got the nod as the second-string back behind Trey Sermon –– although Sermon didn’t need much of a reprieve during his record-setting postseason run.

Still, Williams was the beneficiary of several crucial carries against Northwestern and then Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, closing the season with 64 yards on just 10 carries and seeming to jump both Steele Chambers and Marcus Crowley on the depth chart.

Williams missed the national championship game due to a presumed COVID-19 case, but he might be well on his way to an increased role on offense in 2021.

Absences from week-to-week were never more prevalent in college football than they were with COVID-19 running rampant in 2020, but no one truly expects any one player to miss games prior to the season.

Ohio State guard Matt Jones saw his number called as a result of those ever-changing circumstances the season, and subsequently played the most snaps of any non-regular starter on the Buckeye offensive line this season.

When starting center Josh Myers missed the Buckeyes’ matchup with Michigan State, causing starting left guard Harry Miller to slide over, Jones took Miller’s spot up front.

Then it was Miller that was out for the Sugar Bowl, allowing Jones to show his talents on the big stage once again, and even when Miller was available for the national championship game, it was Jones that got the start.

With both Myers and starting right guard Wyatt Davis headed to the NFL this year, it’s safe to say Jones will be stepping into a starting job on one side or the other come next fall.

When Haskell Garrett was shot through the face in August, it seemed possible that he might never play football again.

For that reason, any time on the field at all this season could be seen as a fortunate surprise, but not only did Garrett return, he didn't miss a single game and may have been the breakout star of the entire defense in 2020.

The senior defensive tackle was primed to step into a starting role prior to the incident in August, and while it did cost him a start in the season opener against Nebraska, Garrett was majorly impactful in that game, foreshadowing the stellar campaign he would put together from that point on.

Garrett went from relative national obscurity to All-American by season's end, leading a run defense that finished No. 6 in rush defense and taking the Buckeyes all the way to the national championship.

If Garrett's performance was a surprise in 2020, it won't be next season, when Garrett will return for a fifth and final year in Columbus that figures to be even better than the last.

Following a November matchup with Indiana in which the Buckeye secondary gave up nearly 500 passing yards and five touchdowns to Hoosier quarterback Michael Penix Jr., it was evident that something needed to be changed in the defensive backfield.

To the surprise of some, a large part of that adjustment was inserting true freshman safety Lathan Ransom into the lineup for a key defensive role as Marcus Hooker, who began the season as Ohio State's starting single-high safety, saw his playing time dramatically slashed at the end of the season.

He may not have made an abundance of highlight-reel plays in his first year in the Buckeye secondary, but the fact that Kerry Coombs and company trusted the Arizona native in a time of doubt for his entire unit speaks volumes about his potential to be an impact player in 2021 and beyond for the Ohio State defense.

IMG Academy's Taron Vincent was a top 40 overall prospect and the No. 1 defensive tackle in the class of 2018, but a serious injury in his sophomore year threatened to slow his development quite a bit.

Vincent missed all of 2019 with a torn labrum, and in the lead-up to the 2020 season, defensive line coach Larry Johnson said Vincent was still in recovery mode as the onset of the pandemic slowed his rehabilitation process.

Johnson also said he expected Vincent's transition back to live-action to be a patient one, given all the time he had missed over the past 18 months.

But Vincent saw quite a bit of time in the defensive tackle rotation anyway in 2020, playing the fourth-most snaps among OSU DTs behind only Garrett, Tommy Togiai and Antwuan Jackson.

Without Togiai in the lineup next season, both Jackson and Vincent figure to take on even bigger roles on the interior of the defensive line.