The X-Factor of Ohio State Buckeyes' Future on Offense

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A year ago, there were no shortage of questions surrounding Torrance Gibson.

What position will he play? Would the 4-star prospect be able to handle the transition from being the star of his high school team to just one of many on his new roster? And would that roster ultimately be Ohio State's?

One year later, many of those same questions still exist.

After ultimately sticking through with his commitment to Ohio State and signing with the Buckeyes over the likes of Auburn, Tennessee, Miami (Fla.) and LSU, Gibson found himself a surprising nonfactor in the debut season of his college career. Beyond redshirting, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native found himself a distraction off the field as well, as rumors swirled that the onetime highly coveted player was seeking a midseason transfer.

Away from online message boards, highlights were nonexistent this past year for Gibson, who also dealt with an ankle injury throughout the season. Perhaps the most telling moment of his freshman campaign came when a reporter asked head coach Urban Meyer about the 6'4", 205-pounder, prefacing his question with comments made by Gibson in the Ohio State locker room following the Fiesta Bowl.

"Torrance Gibson?" Meyer asked. "I didn't know you guys got to talk to him. That's great."

Maybe Meyer was confused why reporters would want to talk to a player who didn't play in the Fiesta Bowl, let alone the rest of the 2015 season. Or perhaps he had hoped Gibson wouldn't be allowed to talk to reporters until he had "earned the right" to do so, a tactic he has previously invoked with players whose names had been attached to baggage.

But as Meyer talked out his answer, his tune soon changed. In his mind, Gibson was one of the Buckeyes' success stories of 2015—even if it didn't seem that way on the field.

"Torrance had a 2.7 [grade point average]. He worked his rear end off at a highly competitive university," Meyer said. "Probably September-ish is when he really grew up. I love Torrance Gibson, I love his talent. I love the fact that he did well academically. I think it's a future without—I use this comment sometimes—I don't see a ceiling."

Exactly where on the field that future is at remains to be seen.

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After arriving at Ohio State as a U.S. Army All-American selection at quarterback, Gibson found himself as one of six scholarship signal-callers on the Buckeyes roster before Braxton Miller made the transition to wide receiver over the summer. The natural move seemed to be for Gibson to make a position change as well, considering his combination of size and speed made him as natural a fit as a pass-catcher as it did a pass-thrower.

But as the Ohio State staff found itself peppered with questions pertaining to Gibson's position as soon as national signing day, the company line seemed to be that he was sticking at quarterback.

"His future is nowhere but the quarterback position," asserted Buckeyes wide receivers coach Zach Smith, who served as Gibson's primary recruiter.

That sentiment, however, had changed less than a week into fall camp when the Sunshine State product began running routes with rest of the OSU receivers. At the time it was explained as a way to get Gibson on the field as a freshman, something that wouldn't have happened at quarterback with the battle between Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett ongoing.

As an injury bug hit the rest of the Buckeyes wideouts, the move made even more sense, and Gibson seemed to be making progress. Availability at Ohio State's fall practices was often limited to the media, but the sizable wideout could be spotted making impressive grabs in the school-released highlight packages.

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Gibson's promise was apparent and appeared to be much more than a mere message board myth. But if the goal of his position switch was to merely get him on the field, then it'd be tough to label it as anything but a failure in 2015.

As both Gibson and Meyer alluded to, making the move to college life off the field may have been even more difficult than the transition he was going through on it. As the Buckeyes beat Penn State in mid-October, Gibson was absent from the sideline, the result of academic troubles, according to Meyer.

"You have to earn the right to dress," Meyer said. "He didn't do it last week."

By season's end, Gibson hadn't played a snap, even though injuries continued to plague Ohio State's wide receiver corps. An offseason transfer seemed likely, if not inevitable, but immediately the Fiesta Bowl, he had reaffirmed his commitment to the Buckeyes program.

While the plan may have always been for his move to wideout to be temporary, the reality of Ohio State's depth chart is that his future will likely always be at wideout.

Barrett still has two years of eligibility remaining for the Buckeyes, who also possess redshirt freshman Joey Burrow and redshirt sophomore Stephen Collier on their depth chart entering 2016. Ohio State doesn't have a quarterback currently committed to its 2016 class, but remains in the running for 4-star prospect Dwayne Haskins, with 2017 commit Danny Clark set to arrive on campus in a year.

Still, Gibson hasn't ruled out the possibility of once again taking snaps behind center.

"Maybe a Wildcat quarterback, something like that. You never know," Gibson said. "Keep your eyes open."

Meyer, too, can envision Gibson making the move back to quarterback in the future. After all, the fifth-year Ohio State head coach knows just how valuable a signal-caller with Gibson's ability on the ground can be, given his work with Josh Harris, Alex Smith, Tim Tebow, Miller and Barrett in the past.

"I would love to use him as a quarterback-slash [athlete]," Meyer said. "Because he's that good of an athlete."

In a best-case scenario, Gibson could become the version of Cam Newton Meyer never truly got to coach at Florida, perhaps as soon as 2017 should Barrett opt to turn pro after his junior season. But what's much more likely is for the American Heritage product to see the majority of his playing time come at receiver, with Wildcat snaps keeping opposing defenses off balance.

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In order to make that work, however, Gibson is going to have to make progress on the field while maintaining the same off of it. The skill may be natural, but the transition is not yet complete and the opportunity will certainly be there on an Ohio State offense replacing eight starters, including all of its top skill players.

"This spring is going to be big," Meyer said of Gibson's development.

But as high as his ceiling is, Gibson's floor is equally is as low.

Will he be a "what could have been?," as he appeared poised to be at times during his freshman season? The next 12 months will tell the tale. But Gibson insists that 2016 will provide positive answers when it comes to his still unknown future in the Buckeyes offense.

"I'll be ready next year," he said. "I guarantee I'll be ready."

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.