The season is now complete and the final objective finished just out of reach as the Buckeyes were unable to do much of anything against Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship Game.

But what a long and strange journey to get to this point. At the risk of overstating it, the Ohio State football program went through numerous highs and lows when it came to this football season, and we are not talking wins and losses, but rather the fact that we were never quite sure if there was going to be a season in the first place and once one was finally put back in place, if this team was going to play week-to-week based on testing numbers and other various variables that were never part of the equation in any past seasons.

Throughout the season, we have been charting the snap counts as the Buckeyes played their eight-game season. Numbers at the end of the year look a little off when people don't remember that starters had to miss games at various points if they tested positive for COVID-19 or were in contact tracing protocols.

Ohio State would end up running 597 offensive plays and 570 defensive plays over the course of the eight-game season, and it should come as little surprise that Justin Fields played the most snaps on offense while Shaun Wade played the most on defense.

How did the snaps break up last night and what do they look like over the course of the entire season? We take a look with help from our friends at PFF.com as we update the snap counts on our final weekly Snap Count feature of the season.

This was going to be the Justin Fields show all along, whether we were talking about the Alabama game specifically or the season in general. We know that Fields was not 100-percent in this CFP Championship Game but he toughed it out the best that he could but you could tell he was just not as "on" as he was against Clemson.

The question now will be about who is next in 2021 as Fields saw 96.8-percent of all of Ohio State's snaps this year. And yes, he still does have another year of eligibility left, but there is about zero chance he comes back to use that last year and now it will be on the group of Jack Miller, CJ Stroud and Kyle McCord to battle it out for the starting nod in 2021.

Things did not go as planned here, obviously, against Alabama when Trey Sermon was knocked out of the game on the first offensive series and that forced the Buckeyes to scramble and change on the fly. The Buckeyes would only rush for 147 yards, well off their season number and the ball was spread around between Master Teague and Marcus Crowley as Miyan Williams was unavailable and in Columbus.

Ohio State will have an interesting battle at this position next year as two superstar backs enter the program with TreVeyon Henderson and Evan Pryor. We know that Sermon is gone as a one-year graduate transfer (technically, he could come back with this year not counting against eligibility, but don't count on it) and it should be a fun competition to watch.

The Buckeyes had their receivers and tight ends but it was just a night where the passing game was not nearly as sharp as in past weeks and while Chris Olave led the team with eight of the 17 completions, the fact that there were only 17 completions is an issue.

It was a one-two punch all year with Olave and Garrett Wilson and those two led the team last night in catches and led the team in snaps, to little surprise. Jameson Williams cemented himself in that third role at receiver and another offseason should do wonders for someone who will be called upon in a larger role as Olave (expectedly) moves on.

The class of 2020 receiver class will also be in focus next year as both Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Julian Fleming saw more than 100 snaps this season. Gee Scott Jr. was used sparingly but the 2021 receiver room should present a much larger opportunity for the talented wideout.

Jeremy Ruckert and Luke Farrell have both proven to be NFL-caliber tight ends and both saw a lot of snaps along the way.

It was pretty obvious who the first team line was here as four of the linemen had more than 500 snaps on the year. Of course there was the Michigan State game where the Buckeyes had to roll three linemen in due to positive tests.

Matt Jones was a pleasant surprise as he came in for Harry Miller late in the season and got the start in the CFP Championship Game. Miller would enter the game as would Paris Johnson as players were dealing with the sheer physicality of the game and had to come off.

It will be interesting to see what this line looks like next year with several players either running out of eligibility or ready to make the next step to the NFL.

Looking at the list and seeing a "zero" for Tommy Togiai and Tyreke Smith hurts if you are a Buckeye fan but it kind of is what it is. Neither made the trip and were rumored all week to be back home due to COVID testing.

But it was a next man up situation and guys like Haskell Garrett and Jonathon Cooper saw more than 60 snaps in this game. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson spread some things out where he could but losing two major playmakers did not allow for some of his top players to come off the field much and Alabama surely did its best to wear the Buckeyes down, especially in a 28-point second quarter.

All four Ohio State linebackers saw more than 50 snaps in this game with Pete Werner topping out at 75 as the Buckeyes made the decision to have a 4-4 alignment out there for much of the game.

All four of these guys are seniors and again, we don't know if anyone would opt back in for one more year but you would have to expect that it is the end of the line for them at Ohio State and that will open up some serious competition to step into those roles next season.

Shaun Wade, Sevyn Banks and Josh Proctor had long nights, not only in terms of what they faced but how much they faced, all checking in over 80 snaps in the game. Marcus Williamson was there at 51 snaps as well as the Buckeyes had an extra linebacker on the field for much of the game.

Lathan Ransom started to see more action as the season went on and you have to like his chances to really make an impact in 2021.