OHIO STATE head football coach Urban Meyer undoubtedly is glad that running back Ezekiel Elliott didn’t follow in his parents’ footsteps in his choice of universities.

The noted running back during Saturday night’s game with the Minnesota Golden Gophers became the fourth all-time leading rusher in OSU history with 3,384 career rushing yards, passing Chris “Beanie” Wells who amassed 3,382 yards from 2006-08.

Elliott, a contender for the Heisman Trophy, had his 14th rushing touchdown of the season and 34th of his career on a 15-yard run in the second quarter against the Gophers, helping the Buckeyes to achieve a 28-14 victory. His running total for the game was114 yards.

Last season, his rushing total was 1,878 yards, second only to Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George who holds the record with 1,927 yards rushing over 13 games in 1995.

Although this St. Louis, Mo., resident didn’t attend the University of Missouri as did his parents, Stacy and Dawn, he apparently followed in their footsteps in regard to his intelligence and athleticism.

Both of them were student-athletes with his father playing football and his mother on the track and field team.

After Saturday’s game, Elliott said he wouldn’t be able to do anything without the offensive line, noting how hard the other players work at practice during the week and their Saturday performances.

The junior marketing major’s continued success for the Buckeyes shows he knows what he’s doing in regard to athletics, and he’s also is known for his achievements in the OSU classrooms.

He has been named an OSU Scholar-Athlete twice and had Academic All-Big Ten honors last season.

Meyer in his postgame press conference said, “Offensively, we were sloppy and not executing at a high level,” but he did have high praise for Elliott.

Asked about Elliott’s consistency and how he counts on him all the time, the coach replied, “He’s an animal. I love that kid. He’s a team player. You can see how he was holding onto the ball, because they were trying to strip it there at the end. And he’s excellent in pass protection again tonight. And, yeah, he’s a workhorse that we’re very glad he’s going to be with us for a while.”

Not only is Elliott on a streak, but the Buckeyes now have won the 29 Big Ten regular season games in a row, extending their own Big Ten record, and won the nation’s best 22-consecutive games.

Although Meyer had some criticism of how the Buckeyes played, he did comment, “And then once we got going, we had some big plays and scored enough points to win the game.”

The Buckeyes now are preparing to face Illinois next Saturday in a noon game in Champaign.

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A GIGANTIC birthday cake was evident during the halftime show Saturday, but it wasn’t edible. The OSU Marching Band formed a cake to honor Brutus Buckeye on his 50th birthday anniversary. One of his predecessors who was a large buckeye head with legs also was present. It’s reported the present-day mascot wears the actual hat from Woody Hayes’ first-ever game that he coached at OSU.

Pokas can be reached at bettypokas@yahoo.com.