The only two-time Heisman Trophy winner in college football history nearly never got the opportunity to see the field again after his first series.
Next Friday, Archie Griffin will have a new statue of himself unveiled outside of Ohio Stadium on the day before Buckeye football opens its 2024 campaign in Columbus. That will serve as the second sculpture representing one of the most legendary running backs in college football history after the one unveiled earlier this month by the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation outside the iconic venue's Court of Champions.
But such a decorated career nearly never got started because Woody Hayes held the same appetite and patience for fumbles that Bill Belichick did as head coach of the New England Patriots.