As the Buckeyes were celebrating their fourth-consecutive Big Ten Championship on Dec. 19, a familiar face wasn’t on stage nor the field.

Junior wide receiver Chris Olave was deemed unavailable on No. 3 Ohio State’s status report an hour before kickoff against then-No. 14 Northwestern, and the Buckeyes offensive game plan had be retooled.

"I’ve never played a game without him, so since I got here, he’s been here," sophomore wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. "He’s been a big impact on our offense. It was definitely different not having Chris out there. Some of the play calls you usually see called don’t get called."

Quarterback Justin Fields missed the wideout's presence on offense, and had to rely on Wilson to take on greater responsibility and others such as sophomore Jameson Williams and freshman Julian Fleming to step up against the Wildcats.