The Buckeye Battle Cry will be counting down the Top 25 players of the past decade all spring/summer. Every Monday and Thursday, Jim will be announcing a new player. Our #1 player will be presented on Monday, August 30th. Three days later, the 2010 season officially begins. To view the previous entries in our Top 25, click here.
Antonio Pittman (2004-2006)
Antonio Pittman’s career at Ohio State was overshadowed by the emergence of Beanie Wells during the 2006 season and in subsequent years.
Beanie’s sophomore year in 2007 cemented him as the best Ohio State back of the decade, quickly erasing many fan’s thoughts of Pittman and his outstanding career.
While many fans will remember Wells as the premiere back at Ohio State from the past decade, Pittman’s contributions should not be overlooked.
In fact, it would be a disservice to one of the best backs in Ohio State history if we did not acknowledge Pittman’s role in Ohio State’s excellence during the Tressel Era.
It 2004 Pittman arrived at Ohio State as a relatively unheralded freshman out of Akron, Ohio. He was thrown onto the field (perhaps a bit prematurely) almost immediately due to a lack of depth and a lack of production from the starters (in their defense, it was partly due to injury).
While Pittman was undersized and unprepared for the beating that backs take in the Big 10, when healthy and on the field, Pittman provided a spark to the worst rushing offense that Ohio State fielded in some time.
Pittman ended up carrying the ball 72 times over the course of 11 games in 2004. He was second on the team in rushing with 381 yards and 1 TD. Most impressively, he averaged a very respectable 5.3 yards per carry.
While those numbers don’t exactly jump off of the page at you, Pittman’s trial by fire as a freshman in 2004 prepared him for one of the best two year runs (no pun intended) for a RB at Ohio State.
Due to graduation, Pittman was basically the only option at running back in 2005. Many fans were cautiously optimistic about what Pittman could bring to the table as the full time starter based on the limited carries he received as a freshman.
That cautious optimism was surpassed beyond anyone’s wildest imagination as Pittman exploded for 1,331 yards rushing and 7 TDs in 2005, the 2nd best sophomore rushing performance ever (at the time) at Ohio State behind only Archie Griffin.
Pittman came back in 2006, and despite the emergence of Beanie Wells (104 carries) he was still able to put up 1,233 yards on the ground and 14 TDs, becoming just the 5th back in Ohio State history to post back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons.
Ultimately, the emergence of Beanie led to Pittman’s early entrance into the NFL (at least in my opinion) and like many of the players on this countdown, artificially losing a year of eligibility hurt Pittman’s bid to be considered one of the best ever.
Despite leaving early, Pittman’s 2,945 career rushing yards are the 9th most at Ohio State, and his 15 career 100-yard games are the 5th most, behind only Griffin, George, Wells, and Byars.
Pittman was drafted in the 4th round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints and quickly moved to the St. Louis Rams. Unfortunately, he has yet to make a significant impact in the NFL and is currently a free agent.
Despite his lack of production in the NFL, Ohio State fans can think fondly of two outstanding seasons from an underrated Buckeye.
For putting together only the 5th back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons at Ohio State, for his 15 career 100 yard games, for putting up the 6th best average rushing yards per game at Ohio State, for being a top 10 all time rusher for the Buckeyes, and for various other outstanding accomplishments that no one seems to remember, Antonio Pittman is #14 on our countdown of the top 25 Buckeyes of the last decade.
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