Ohio State was hopeful that a certain tradition would continue.

In 1955, OSU tailback Howard Cassady earned the Heisman Trophy. In 1975, Buckeye great Archie Griffin earned the second of his two Heisman Trophy awards. In 1995, Eddie George earned college football’s top honor, as well.

In 2015, Ezekiel Elliott was left off the ballot.

Despite the fact that the Buckeye tailback was fifth in the country in rushing yards and second in touchdowns, Elliott was not among the Heisman Trophy finalists.

Instead, Derrick Henry (Alabama), Christian McCaffrey (Stanford) and DeShaun Watson (Clemson) got invitations to New York.

The Buckeye tailback only failed to eclipse the 100-yard mark once in 2015, but it came in the loss to Michigan State in which he got two second-half carries. Elliott fell just 23 yards short of the 1,695 yards Griffin ran for in 1974.

While Elliott won’t earn any hardware next Saturday, he did already pile up a bunch of B1G accolades. He was unanimously named first-team All-B1G and won the conference’s offensive player of the year award.

Elliott will look to lead the Buckeyes one more time when they take on Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.