COLUMBUS, Ohio — How do you compare a 5-foot-8 player from the leather helmet era who inspired the building of Ohio Stadium to a modern quarterback with eye-popping statistics and NFL success?
This impossible question sits at the heart of the latest Buckeye Talk podcast as hosts Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik, and Andrew Gillis tackle their bracket to determine the greatest Ohio State player of all time.
The hosts find themselves constantly wrestling with factors that make cross-era comparisons nearly impossible: physical evolution, rule changes, positional value, and even the role of coaching versus playing contributions.
No matchup better illustrates this challenge than their debate over Chic Harley versus Justin Fields, where a player from 1916-1919 goes head-to-head with one of the most statistically impressive quarterbacks in recent memory.
“I understand it’s a different era and this was why it was so hard,” Gillis explains, “Because Chic Harley, 1916, 17 and and 19, he was a consensus All-American. Justin Fields was the second team All-American in 2019. The game literally was a hundred years apart. So it was one of those things where it’s like, ‘Oh, man. How do you do that?”
The physical differences alone make the comparison startling. As Gillis points out: “If you’re 5′8, 165 pounds and you say, ‘Hey, Ryan Day, I would like to play football at Ohio State,’ he’s gonna laugh at you and say, ‘Well, we have a position open as a team manager because you’re not gonna play football here.’ It’s just not gonna happen. And Chic Harley is one of the greatest Buckeyes of all time.”
The podcast also grapples with how to weigh different positions against each other. When discussing Orlando Pace versus Chris Olave, Gillis explains his voting rationale: “I think being the best ever at your position mattered to me. I don’t know how much of a debate we’re having for best tackle ever at Ohio State, frankly. Best offensive lineman ever at Ohio State. So to me, that mattered.”
The hosts face additional complexity when considering coaching contributions versus playing careers. As Krajisnik notes: “I think part of the reason we decided not to is because Woody Hayes had however many years it was like to build his greatest Buckeye resume. Whereas, Archie Griffin had four years to build greatest Buckeye resume. That’s kind of why. So that’s why I struggle with it.”
This fundamental challenge of comparing across eras isn’t unique to Ohio State football, but it’s particularly acute for a program with such a rich history dating back to the early 1900s. How much weight should be given to historical significance? Does a player who inspired the building of Ohio Stadium automatically rank higher than someone with better statistics but less program-defining impact?
As the hosts whittle their bracket from 32 players to the next round, these comparisons only become more challenging – and more revealing about what truly makes a Buckeye great.
Curious to hear how the hosts navigate these impossible comparisons? Listen to the full Buckeye Talk episode to discover which legends are advancing in their bracket and the passionate cases being made for players spanning over a century of Ohio State football.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
_Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Buckeye Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions._