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Archie Griffin ‘evades’ question regarding Mt. Rushmore of OSU RBs

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Archie Griffin is an all-time legend at Ohio State as a 2-time winner of the Heisman Trophy and the program’s all-time leader in rushing yardage. Recently, he sat down with current head coach Ryan Day to discuss a number of topics.

During the latest “Tradition Talk” segment, Day began the conversation by asking Griffin about an Mt. Rushmore list of running backs at Ohio State. Griffin admitted he was going to evade the question and explained he hates the idea of trying to shorten what is a long list of legendary backs for the Buckeyes.

“I hate that question… I’m going to evade that question because Mt. Rushmore has 4 presidents on it. You cannot boil Ohio State’s tradition of running backs down to 4. I mean we’ve had a boatload — or a trainload — of great running backs here at Ohio State University,’ said Griffin. “You gotta go all the way back to Chic Harley, the guy that everyone says built Ohio Stadium because of his performances. A lot of times, you see these Mt. Rushmore lists leave guys like that off.”

Griffin also said he’s not a fan of the idea because a lot of lists lean heavily on recent players at the expense of legends that played a long time ago:

“I just feel very uncomfortable leaving any of those guys out. A lot of time you hear about guys that were most recent,” Griffin explained. “Guys like Zeke (Elliott), (JK) Dobbins, folks like that, but there are some guys in between there that were fabulous… I can go on and on. I feel it’s unfair to pick a Mt. Rushmore of RBs because we’ve had some great ones.”

Here’s the full conversation with the RB talk the first topic addressed in the video:

While Griffin decided not to list a Mt. Rushmore, he is personally one of the all-time legends at the position in the history of college football. He finished his career with 5,589 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns while winning the Heisman Trophy in 1974 and 1975. Griffin’s 1974 performance with 1,695 rushing yards still ranks 6th on Ohio State’s list for most rushing yards in a single season.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.