In a program where four- and five-star prospects rain from the sky each year, it’s often no great struggle to drop the next talented player into a vacant roster spot for the new season. But you don’t simply replace a man that has done what no Buckeye in history has before.

That’s what the Ohio State coaching staff is tasked with in replacing J.K. Dobbins, the first Buckeye to rush for 2,000 yards in a season despite the program boasting a stacked back catalog of some of the sport’s greatest running backs.

Ohio State had to replace those ones too though, and have oftentimes done so without more than a half-beat skipped. Here’s how the Buckeyes handled losing each of their top five career rushing leaders.

By the start of the 1975 season, Archie Griffin had already set Ohio State’s single-season rushing record in consecutive years, and capped a 1,695-yard 1974 campaign with a Heisman Trophy.

He did it again in ’75 to become the only two-time winner of the award, though his 1,450 yards and four touchdowns were the least he put up since his freshman season.

In fact, Griffin took just 35 more handoffs in 1975 than junior fullback Pete Johnson; a hand full in short yardage and goal line situations who racked up 1,059 yards and 25 touchdowns that year. The latter of which still stands as the program record.

Johnson scored 19 more in the Buckeyes’ first year without Griffin, but it was junior Jeff Logan who stepped in at tailback to lead the team with 1,248 yards on 218 carries. It was his only year as Ohio State’s primary ballcarrier, but Logan helped earn the Buckeyes a share of the Big Ten title and finish the season with a respectable No. 6 ranking in the AP Poll to begin the post-Griffin era.

After two years behind running back Calvin Murray and quarterback Art Schlichter as a rushing option for the Buckeyes, Tim Spencer emerged as a prolific starter in 1981, rushing for 1,217 yards and 12 scores.

He outdid himself the following year, as his 1,538 yards on the ground were the third-most in a season by a Buckeye at the time, trailing only Griffin’s ’73 and ’74 campaigns. Spencer also finished the year at No. 2 in all-time Buckeye rushing yards, though the Buckeyes failed to capture a second-straight share of the conference title.

They’d have no better luck in their first season without Spencer, but Ohio State did find its next star running back in 1983.

Keith Byars received just six carries in his freshman season, but made the most of his 222 as the new starter in ’83, rushing for 1,199 yards and 20 touchdowns.

It was the first act before he surpassed Griffin with 1,764 yards for the most in a season in 1984, when he finished second in Heisman voting as a junior.

Only a foot injury his senior year stopped Byars from potentially winning the award and ascending past Spencer in all-time rushing yardage. His 46 career rushing touchdowns still sit No. 2 behind Johnson in program history.

Senior running back Eddie George was gunning for all the records in 1995.

Not only did he become the first Buckeye since Griffin to win the Heisman, his 1,927 yards were the most in Ohio State history until Dobbins bested him in this past year’s Fiesta Bowl. Not to mention, George’s 24 rushing touchdowns were one away from tying Johnson’s single-season record.

George became the first Buckeye to rush for 300 yards in a game when he ran for 314 against Illinois –– a mark that has yet to be topped –– and his 328 carries on the year remain second only to Byars in ’84.

It was a seemingly irreplaceable season that still ranks highly in the pantheon of Ohio State feats, but the Buckeyes still managed to stick a 1,000-yard rusher into his vacant position the very next year.

Junior Pepe Pearson ran for 1,484 yards and 17 touchdowns in 1996, and his Buckeyes finished higher in the final AP Poll (No. 2) than any team George was on.

Sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott already had nearly 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns when the regular season ended in 2014, but the legend of Zeke began thereafter.

Elliott launched himself into icon status with three straight games of 220-plus yards and two or more touchdowns to propel Ohio State to a national championship in 2014, putting the nail in Alabama’s coffin with an 85-yard fourth-quarter run and chewing up 246 yards and four touchdowns against Oregon.

Clad in a crop top jersey with a make-believe spoon and bowl never far from his mouth after a big play, Elliott’s encore in 2015 was another 1,800-yard season with 23 touchdowns to boot, but the talented team failed to get to the promised land to defend its title.

Elliott ran his way into becoming the fourth overall selection in the 2016 NFL Draft, and it took more than one man to replace his production at Ohio State.

Three different Buckeyes ran the ball nearly 100 times in 2016, with redshirt junior quarterback J.T Barrett leading in attempts with 205. Barrett ran for 845 yards and nine touchdowns, but redshirt freshman running back Mike Weber led the way in the yardage department with 1,096. Versatile H-back Curtis Samuel tallied 771 yards and eight scores of his own.

Ohio State made it further in 2016 than Elliott’s final team with a return trip to the college football playoff, but couldn’t make it past the eventual champion Clemson Tigers led by Deshaun Watson.

Not once when replacing one of the program’s top four career rushing leaders not named J.K. Dobbins did Ohio State fail to have a 1,000-yard rusher the following season.

That trend bodes well for the Buckeyes heading into 2020, as does the addition of Oklahoma transfer running back Trey Sermon, who has come closest to reaching the 1,000-yard mark in his career out of any back on the Ohio State roster.

Sermon was largely overlooked in the Sooner offense in his final season in Norman, Oklahoma, but he figures to feature prominently in Ohio State’s scheme due to the shallow depth of the position room he walked into.

Redshirt sophomore Master Teague returns having registered nearly 800 yards on the ground last year, more than twice what Sermon had, but his injury status is still unclear after being ruled out of spring ball before the COVID-19 cancellations in March.

If both are healthy by the start of the season, replacing Dobbins figures to be a two-man job, though exactly what the splits will be in terms of carries and snap counts are still anyone’s guess at this juncture.