The great artists in all disciplines evoke emotion and thought in a viewer, reader or listener through their work.
One can stare at Pablo Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror” and be hit with a sense of introspection. One can tune into The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Things Done Changed” and hear the desperation of someone surrounded by violence and poverty who feels his only two options to get ahead are to make it as a rap artist or return to a life as a crack dealer.
If I wasn’t in the rap game
I’d probably have a ki(lo) knee deep in the crack game
Because the streets is a short stop
Either you’re slingin’ crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot
There’s lots of thought and emotion evoked from Ohio State running backs coach Carlos Locklyn when he watches his freshman Legend Bey run the football. Like a great guitar solo, it’s the improvisations, the flair, the explosion that stood out from the first time Locklyn laid eyes on Bey’s high school tape. Even as he played quarterback.
“He was pretty much playing running back then, because I told Legend, ‘You were a fake quarterback,’” Locklyn said. “‘You were just dropping back running the ball.’ So he's been playing running back his whole life. And his ability to make people miss, the short area burst, it looks like art when he's out there running.”
After Ryan Day called Bey the “poor man’s Tyreek Hill” at the end of January, the hype train for the lightning-fast freshman kept rolling on Friday as Locklyn and Bey’s fellow ballcarriers heaped praise upon his shoulders.
“Extremely talented,” running back Isaiah West said. “I'm excited to see what he does this year. He's got his own things that he's got to work on, but make no mistake, he's going to be great.”
There was a lot of work involved to get Bey to Ohio State. Both from the Buckeyes and from Bey himself, even beyond the usual hard work it takes for any high school prospect to earn a Power Four scholarship.
Bey initially committed to Ohio State in November, but decommitted and flipped back to Tennessee, where he initially signed on Early Signing Day. That was despite a table decorated with Buckeye gear and his telling Ishmael Johnson of the Dallas Morning News that he was sticking with his commitment in the wake of Brian Hartline’s departure for USF. Then reports emerged that made the seemingly sudden change of heart make sense: Bey was coerced into signing with the Volunteers by his family.
Bey, who turned 18 later in December, ultimately secured a release from his scholarship agreement with Tennessee and signed with Ohio State. He finished as the No. 126 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings for the recruiting class of 2026. There was discussion as to whether he’d start as a receiver or a running back at the next level, but Lockyln is amped up to have him in his room.
“It's exciting seeing a kid like that with that type of juice,” Locklyn said. “Some days I want to choke him because of how he carries the ball, and then some days he has to stay at it because he's used to playing quarterback. He is a tough kid, though. He's not soft. But I just like seeing that speed, that change of direction because you can give him the ball, and the next thing you know, he's gone. But that's something that we need, and it's going to push the other guys in there as well. So I just like watching those type of runners.”
Locklyn sees some similarities between Bey and one of his former players, Kenneth Gainwell. Gainwell, now of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, rushed for 1,459 yards at a clip of 6.3 yards per carry with 13 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman at Memphis when Locklyn was an offensive assistant and director of high school relations in 2019.
“Legend has traits to Kenny,” Locklyn said. “You need to go back and look at Kenny’s redshirt freshman year at Memphis, what he did. He was a Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year from Memphis. I'm talking about a special skill set. Can run, can catch, high school quarterback down in Yazoo, Mississippi, just like Legend.
“The difference is, I think Legend is faster. I think Kenny was a little bit stouter. But similar skill sets. Legend might be a step faster, but Kenny was a tough son of a gun. But I see a little bit of Killer, as I called him, in Legend. I see a little bit of similar traits.”
Bey’s made an impression on veteran players, too. Seventh-year senior Ja’Kobi Jackson, a transfer from Florida this offseason, enjoys the artwork of Bey’s running just as much as Locklyn.
“I see he's very much explosive as a player,” Jackson said. “He's an exciting player. I feel like one-on-one versus anybody, he can make people miss, and he's an exciting player to watch.”
Perhaps even more notably, Bey has caught the eye of the man atop Ohio State’s running back depth chart after rushing for 1,090 yards as a freshman in 2025, Bo Jackson.
“Somebody that caught my eye really fast (this spring) was Legend Bey,” Jackson said. “He came here, immediately started making plays since the first day of spring.”
Bey still has more to prove in practice to see the field as a freshman. But if he does, Locklyn wants to see him and Bo Jackson on the field together in certain sets.
“I'm going to be stumping for that,” Locklyn said. “They can be. I know I'm going to be calling for it. But it could be Bo, it could be Isaiah, it could be Isaiah and Ja’Kobi. I'm confident in all of them. So hopefully we do get to some two-back situations.”
Whether Bey’s impact is felt this season or in later years, the hype train continues rolling for what many are projecting to be a great college career. Hopefully, he'll evoke plenty of thoughts and emotions from Ohio State fans.
