Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 1,878 yards and 18 touchdowns last season while playing with an injured left wrist. He tweeted Wednesday that his wrist finally is fine.
Elliott (6-foot-0, 225 pounds) broke his left wrist in camp last August and had minor surgery. Elliott played with a cast on his left wrist last season, meaning he carried the ball exclusively with his right arm.
"I was just out there basically playing with one hand. I was one-handed," Elliott told reporters in April. "I couldn't carry the ball in my left hand, I couldn't punch with it. I couldn't do much with it. I was pretty handicapped."
He had more surgery on the wrist after last season ended, which kept him out of spring practice, and Wednesday's tweet came after what appears to be his final after-surgery visit.
Elliott was the focal point of Ohio State's offense in the Buckeyes' three-game run to the national title last season; he had 220 yards in a rout of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, 230 in an upset of Alabama in a national playoff semifinal and 246 (and four TDs) in a victory over Oregon for the national championship. His "emergence" coincided with the injury to Ohio State starting quarterback J.T. Barrett, who was hurt in the regular-season finale against Michigan and didn't play again. Elliott averaged 16.4 carries per game when Barrett was the quarterback and 25.3 per game when Cardale Jones replaced Barrett.
Elliott's yardage total was a single-season high for a runner during Urban Meyer's entire head-coaching career.
He is expected to be one of the nation's top players this fall as a junior. Elliott is a physical runner with speed, and he also was effective as a receiver last season, finishing with 28 receptions. Still, it will be interesting to see his carries-per-game average if Barrett regains the starting quarterback job. Barrett is a better runner than Jones and is adept at the read-option, which generally has been a staple of Meyer's version of the spread offense.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
