The Ohio State Buckeyes put together a full-game performance in their 38-12 road win over the Iowa Hawkeyes. It was the kind of game Ohio State needed to win, and it gave the Buckeyes their first ranked win of the season by knocking off No. 14 Iowa.

Ohio State found success on both sides of the football and controlled the game after a slow start, when it led just 10-6 after the first quarter.

One storyline coming out of the win should be the status of freshman running back Legend Bay. Ohio State coach Ryan Day opened the door for Bey to return to the field earlier in the week, but that never came to pass.

Legend Bay was a healthy scratch again for Ohio State with no snaps played

Bey’s usage has dropped since the Week 1 game against Ball State. He seemingly lost some trust from the coaching staff after bringing kickoffs out of the end zone when a team captain told him not to.

Bey hasn’t played since the Week 3 Kent State game, when he had one touch. He didn’t play at all against Illinois, and he didn’t play again against Iowa. The Ohio State freshman isn’t on the availability report with an injury, so it was another healthy scratch.

At this point, the coaching staff is making it clear Bey isn’t ready to play at Ohio State.

Ryan Day’s comments on Bey didn’t translate to Saturday

Earlier in the week, Day was asked about where things stood with the freshman. He made it sound like Bay had a chance to work his way back into the mix:

“It’ll kind of be based on how practice goes this week, how he does,” Day said. “You know, we all know his ability level. Just going to continue to work to build trust, but we definitely would like to see him on the field.”

Well, that didn’t happen. Ohio State’s top three running backs are clearly Bo Jackson, Ja’Kobi Jackson, and Isaiah West. That trio carried the load against Iowa, and there wasn’t a spot in the rotation for Bey.

Bey is a player who can give defenses trouble in open space. The problem is he can’t get on the field to show it right now. It has to come down to issues during the week, whether that’s his practice habits or something along those lines. Day said it himself, the staff is working to build trust, and that trust doesn’t appear to be there yet.

The freshman season hasn’t gone how Bey would have liked to this point, clearly. Ohio State had to battle Tennessee to land the former highly touted recruit, and the expectation was that he’d carve out a role in the offense at some point this fall with the preseason buzz he had. 

Instead, the Buckeyes have rolled without him for multiple games in a row now. Ohio State has a tough schedule on tap the rest of the way, and the staff has shown it’s comfortable leaning on Jackson, Jackson, and West to a lesser degree. That makes it harder to find snaps for a freshman who is still trying to earn the coaching staff’s trust.

It makes you wonder if Bey is going to be out of the game plan for Ohio State the rest of the season. Day still talks about wanting to see him on the field, so you can’t rule anything out. The next couple of weeks will be telling on whether we see much more of the freshman this season.