Marcus Crowley wasn’t ready.

After tearing his ACL against Maryland in 2019, doing a large chunk of his rehab from home during last spring’s quarantine period, and not registering a carry for the entirety of the 2020 regular season, the sophomore running back was not at 100 percent at any point last fall.

But with no Trey Sermon and no Miyan Williams in the College Football Playoff National Championship, Ohio State turned to Crowley for his first carries of the season.

According to running backs coach Tony Alford, everyone-- including the sophomore himself-- knew he wasn’t back to full form.

“We’re playing in the Alabama game, he has a couple carries, things happen, he gets tackled, he comes to the sideline,” Alford said on Tuesday. “He looks up and he goes, ‘Man, I apologize.’-- this is the middle of the game. I said, ‘Apologize? What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘You’ve been saying I wasn’t ready. I’m not. You’re right.’”

Crowley finished with six carries for 14 yards in the loss, a far cry from the 9.5 yards per carry (on 25 attempts) he averaged as a freshman.

Though he admits he was far from perfect health last season, the young back didn’t shy away from taking the field against Alabama in the biggest game of his career.

“I wasn’t really surprised because I knew I was putting in the work,” Crowley said. “I wasn’t surprised, because that was the ultimate goal-- to get back on the field as soon as possible and try to make an impact.”

COVID-19 played a large part in extending Crowley's ACL rehab process; in March, the virus sent everyone at Ohio State home for the spring and much of the summer.

That includes Crowley, who had to abandon his daily treatment in Columbus and do the bulk of his recovery work in Florida. As one would expect, it instantly became harder to return from a serious knee injury without seeing a full medical staff every day.

“Going into the spring, they shut everything down-- it was a global pandemic-- so we weren’t allowed at the school,” Crowley said. “Everybody had to be home. I didn’t have the same treatment back home that I would have up here. Up here I would be doing treatment every day, working on necessities, and back home, I had to do everything kinda on my own.”

All of that, from the knee injury to the pandemic to a season on the bench, leads both Alford and Crowley back to that January night in Miami, Florida.

According to Alford, Crowley's ability to accept his own limitations in that single moment was a major step forward in his recovery process.

“It took him playing, kinda getting knocked off balance because he wasn’t strong enough, things like that, before he was like, ‘Yeah, I see it,’” Alford said. “Sometimes those are hard conversations, but they’re real conversations, right?

“But now he is ready. I think he’s getting better.”

Amidst a room full of capable running backs, Crowley may present the most intrigue.

He has already showcased plenty of tantalizing potential, but after a damaging injury and more than a year without consistent touches, can he stand out in a pool of so much talent?

Time will tell, but it appears he is on the right track.

“He’s done a good job of committing himself or trying to commit himself to getting stronger,” Alford said. “More girth, more strength, so he doesn’t get knocked off his feet as easily.

“Marcus is a competitive kid and he’s had a really good off-season.”