Miyan Williams is entering next year's NFL draft.
Williams, a redshirt junior running back who led Ohio State in rushing a year ago, announced his draft declaration on Monday.
"It's time for me to embark on my next chapter and making my dreams of playing in the NFL a reality," he wrote in a graphic shared on his social media accounts.
After rushing for 825 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, Williams was held back by a knee injury this fall and underwent season-ending surgery in October .
Appearing in six games, he rushed for 158 yards and three touchdowns, finishing with less than half the number of carries as last season.
Prior to the knee injury, Williams appeared to have fallen behind in the rotation behind TreVeyon Henderson and Chip Trayanum , but he saw a heavy workload in the Buckeyes' 20-12 win over Penn State on Oct. 21 when Henderson was unavailable. Williams ran for 62 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries against the Nittany Lions.
Williams was not a high-profile recruit out of Winton Woods High School in Cincinnati , and as the Buckeyes targeted other higher-ranked prospects in his class, he did not receive an offer from Ohio State until he was a senior in 2019.
But after flipping his commitment from Iowa State and redshirting as a freshman in 2020, Williams made a quick impact. He ended up starting the season opener in 2021 and rushing for 507 yards and three touchdowns as a complement. The 5-foot-9 back gave the Buckeyes a hard-nosed runner out of the backfield .
Signs had pointed to Williams moving on as he took part in senior day festivities before Ohio State's final home game against Minnesota .
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on Facebook and X , the platform formerly known as Twitter. He can also be contacted at jkaufman@dispatch.com .
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football running back Miyan Williams declares for NFL draft
