COLUMBUS, Ohio - It is hard to believe that the 2010s are over and done with and the sheer number of great players to come through Columbus through those years under coaches like Jim Tressel, Luke Fickell, Urban Meyer and now Ryan Day.

Whenever you get to the end of a decade, there is always a desire to reflect upon some of the major names and here at BuckeyeGrove, it is no different as we have been talking about going through and looking at who the best of the best have been.

Quite honestly, Ohio State's second team would likely be better than 95-percent of the first teams out there from a national standpoint, saving a few schools like the Alabamas of the world.

We went through the list of players who played at least one season over the course of the 2010s and really did not define any further criteria beyond that. We had some positions where we came to a quick agreement over and others where a consensus is still really not there as everyone came in with a bit of a different view as to what would propel a player to the top of the list and keep them there.

We start this two-day process with looking at the offense. We will admit it was much simpler on this side of the ball with some clear-cut players who rose to the top of the lists and while we couldn't name everyone, it was a fun process along the way.

Be sure to listen to our BIA Podcast as well, recorded just mere minutes after we drew up our final teams and get our fresh thoughts on why we picked the players that we did. Like who we picked? Don't like who we picked? Be sure to sound off in The Horseshoe Lounge and let us know where we were right and where we were wrong.

Right off the bat we were faced with a bit of a dilemma with one quarterback having what has to go down as an all-time type of career and another one having what has to be considered the best single-season to date.

It does not take any great insight to realize that we had to debate between JT Barrett and Dwayne Haskins. Look, it is going to be hard for anyone to catch some of his single-season numbers, just based on how Ohio State's offense was set up that season and how there is much more of a desire to have a better pass/run balance on the team. Quarterbacks in the system now or just outside the program like Justin Fields, Jack Miller, CJ Stroud and 2021 commit Kyle McCord are going to be much more dual-threat than Haskins was and with that, the amount of passing opportunities will not be there, short of Ohio State making some sort of wholesale change that nobody is expecting.

When it comes to Barrett, his numbers were certainly aided by the fact that he was a starter for most of his career, barring the injury at the end of the 2014 season and then the start of the 2015 year where Cardale Jones got the nod and then Barrett was turned into the red zone quarterback and eventually got the full job back.

For some odd reason, Barrett is always going to be a polarizing figure among Ohio State fans, especially with the love of "what was behind door number two" and the fact that everyone wants to have 20-20 hindsight vision in terms of things.

What can't be denied is that Barrett was a winner, he was tough as nails and was a competitor. While Ohio State's offense certainly morphed into a much more friendly quarterback system than some of his predecessors had seen, he was not handed anything and had to go out there and earn it.

We had some brief debate on which way we should go here but it was quickly realized that Barrett earned the nod here with his four years versus one year with Haskins. - Noon

On the offensive side of the ball, this position had the smallest amount of debate. While there were certainly other good running backs to come through Ohio State in the 2010s like Carlos Hyde and Mike Weber Jr., none of them came up in our conversations as it was clear which two would make our cut.

Depending on your historical ranking of Ohio State running backs, it's possible that two of the three greatest running backs to ever play for the Buckeyes came through in the 2010s.

Starting with Ezekiel Elliot, the Missouri product ran for 3,961 yards in basically two seasons of play. He had 30 carries in his freshman year for 262 yards, but it was his sophomore and junior years where he approached 300 carries that he took over college football.

Elliot was incredibly consistent throughout his two seasons, going over 1,800 yards in both years and averaging 6.7 yards per carry, but what he'll likely be remember for is his insane run during the Buckeyes' national championship season.

During Ohio State's final three games that season (B1GCG and two playoff games), Elliot rushed for 696 yards and eight touchdowns while averaging over nine yards per carry as he helped lead the Buckeyes through the first College Football Playoffs.

Elliot is littered throughout Ohio State record books, finishing third in rushing yards despite only having the 11th most carries, and has the fourth most rushing touchdowns among Buckeyes. He'll go down as one of the best running backs in Ohio State history, so his unanimous inclusion on this list is well deserved.

The other running back on our list, J.K. Dobbins, came in right after Elliot and attempted to pick up right where he left off.

Be honest with yourself; after 2018, would you have expected Dobbins to be included on this list? If you said no, don't blame yourself.

Dobbins shined in his freshman season, finishing with 1,403 rushing yards as he averaged 7.2 yards per carry. Unfortunately for Dobbins, his second season was marred by a changing offense and a pass-first offense as he finished with 1,053 yards despite 36 more carries than in 2017.

He took offense to his performance in 2018, and it resulted in one of the great rushing seasons in Ohio State history in 2019.

Dobbins exploded for the first 2,000 yard rushing season in Ohio State history, finishing with 2,003 yards, as he carried the ball over 300 times. Highlights from this past season included another dominant performance at Indiana (193 yards, 22 carries) and a career-high 211 rushing yards and four touchdowns at The Big House.

This career-best season from Dobbins resulted in him becoming the second-leading rusher in Ohio State history behind Archie Griffin, and with 4,459 rushing yards during his career, Dobbins cemented himself as not only one of the best from the 2010s, but one of the best running backs in Ohio State history. - Braden

While Ohio State has been able to hang its hat on legendary running backs throughout the past decade and beyond, the group of wideouts does not lack star power.

A lot of picks on this all-decade team felt rather obvious, and the first two selections at wide receiver fell in line with this theme. When thinking of an Ohio State wideout from this past decade, many will first think of Michael Thomas. Before he broke records in the NFL, Thomas was smoothly racking up catches with the Buckeyes from 2012 to 2015.

Thomas would excel in his final two seasons with the Buckeyes, hauling in 54 catches for 799 yards in 2014 and 56 catches for 781 yards in 2015. Thomas would also record nine touchdowns in each of those seasons.

Thomas made memorable plays for the national championship team in 2014, such as his incredible toe-tapping touchdown catch in the game against Alabama. Thomas would go on to be picked by the New Orleans Saints with the 47th overall pick, but from his performance in the NFL so far, many teams are most likely regretting passing on the Buckeye.

The next selection for wideout was also an easy one for us. Devin Smith played 53 games for Ohio State between 2011 and 2014, and he certainly made the most of his time with the Buckeyes.

While Smith was not a high volume receiver, he was a highly effective deep threat that seemed to always find a seam in a defense. Smith finished his career with 121 receptions, 30 of which resulted in six points. Only David Boston, who has 34 career touchdown receptions, has more receiving touchdowns than Smith at Ohio State.

The final spot was contested between us, but my selection of Curtis Samuel lost out KJ Hill. While Samuel finished with 1,286 rushing yards, 1,249 receiving yards and 24 total touchdowns in his career at Ohio State, his versatility could not outshine the catching ability of Hill.

Hill would finish his career with 201 receptions, the most in Ohio State history. Hill would add 2,332 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns to help boost his resumé.

With the group of talented wideouts at Ohio State now, the next all-decade team may be even more hotly contested than this one. - Keaton

Similar to our pick for kick returner that you'll see tomorrow, this is a position we filled because we had to.

Tight ends, especially under Meyer, were never a huge part of the passing game. With so many high profile receivers coming through Ohio State in the 2010s like Keaton mentioned above, the tight ends could be better utilized as additional blockers as the quicker and more athletic receivers took the top off of the defense.

While there was never a star tight end in the 2010s, Jeff Heuerman still was able to make a big impact over his final two seasons at Ohio State.

He finished his career with 52 receptions for 792 yards, and in his best season in 2013, he finished third on the team in both receiving yards (466) and receptions (26).

Heuerman was never one to take over games, never having more than five receptions in a single game, but he was a mainstay of Ohio State's offense in the mid-2010s and is the clear standout among tight ends.

As we discussed on the podcast, had Jeremy Ruckert come in a season or two sooner, it's possible he could have ended up on this list instead. Ruckert already has more receptions, yards and touchdowns than Heuerman did through his first two seasons, so maybe Ruckert will instead be on the 2020 All-Decade Team. - Braden

I really kind of wish that I had more than two spots here to use for offensive tackle. While Taylor Decker and Jack Mewhort are no-brainers, I still tried to make an argument for Mike Adams. Sure, maybe he did not live up to the expectations that many had for him, I totally get that. We could say the same thing about Alex Boone several years prior (and in a different decade)

But when it came to physical gifts, it was hard to take a lot of way from Adams and when he was fully engaged in the game, he was a monster. The problem is, he certainly did not have the consistency of some of the other great tackles from the decade.

When thinking back to Taylor Decker, it just blows my mind how he was under-recruited at one point by Ohio State, despite being from the state of Ohio. In this position of being a writer who covers recruiting, we can only raise so much of an alarm, and I was trying my best to get anyone to listen to me that they were missing out and letting this guy walk off to Wisconsin.

Fortunately, sanity won out and Decker would go on to have a great career with the Buckeyes and is still getting it done in the NFL.

Jack Mewhort is a player that I had a chance to see in high school and I was not really sure if he was a guard or a tackle at that point, but then again, if I were able to project that with 100-percent certainty, I would hope that I would have a job working for a team instead of writing about recruiting. It is also hard to believe that he only had five reported offers in his Rivals.com profile. Even if it were double that number, he was a player that was woefully under-recruited as well and while many programs did not bother to try and get in on an Ohio player once committed to Ohio State, he would go on to outplay his four-star ranking and cement himself as one of the better linemen in recent memory to play at Ohio Stadium. - Noon

In order to be as successful as Ohio State has been the past decade, the Buckeyes have needed to win the battle in the trenches consistently. With players like Billy Price and Andrew Norwell securing the inside, Ohio State has had no problems being bullies up front.

Starting with Price, the four-year player played in 55 games at Ohio State. Price played most of those games at the guard position, and he was named First-Team all-Big Ten at the position in 2016.

In 2017, the two-time captain was moved to center where he was able to excel. Price would go on to win the Rimington Trophy that year and become a unanimous selection to the All-American team.

Price was selected 21st overall by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Norwell, unlike Price, was not selected in the NFL Draft, but that does not diminish his place on this list. Norwell was named First-Team All-Big Ten two times in his time at Ohio State.

From executing at a high level on Saturdays, Norwell was able to continue his groove on the next level. While he was undrafted, Norwell has been able to find success in the NFL, where he was named First-Team All-Pro in 2017.

The presence of Norwell and Price on this all-decade team ensures that Ohio State would be able to run the ball behind this duo. - Keaton

Pat Elflein grew up as a neighbor to me. Well, we both lived in Pickerington at least, and while I can only remember a time or two that I bumped into his family out and about, he was a player that was a bit of an afterthought to me in his recruiting class. Once again proving that we all get it wrong from time-to-time in the game that is called recruiting.

I had him pegged for the transfer portal before the transfer portal was a thing and his start at Ohio State was a slow one as he was not able to maintain weight at first during his career.

But once he got on the field, he showed all the doubters (myself included) just how wrong we were. For Elflein to go from being an all-league guard and move to center and then win the Rimington Award for being tops at the position, that just says more than a thing or two.

Billy Price could have been considered here and Elflein could have been moved to guard based on what he did during his time at the position but it just felt better to have the players in this order, both of them more than earning their distinction as being players of the 2010s for the Buckeyes. - Noon