COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Some Ohio State fans were upset this weekend that the buildup for the Heisman Trophy ceremony in some circles focused on Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray and treated Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins as a third-class citizen/finalist in New York.

The voting bore that out, as Haskins finished a clear third, with 783 points, as Murray won with 2,167 points and Tagovailoa finished second with 1,871 points. The Murray-Tua hype was just a reflection of the battle that had already played out on ballots that were due at 5 p.m. Monday.

Haskins should have been used to it.

He was a secondary story on his own team this season, as the world tracked the indefinite leave, possible firing, eventual suspension, sideline anguish, serious health issues and eventual retirement of Urban Meyer.

National college football didn’t understand Haskins for several weeks, because most were watching to see if the Buckeyes would fall apart. Instead, Haskins' extraordinary arm and poise saved what easily could have been a 9-3 season in what turned out to be Meyer’s last go-round with the Buckeyes.

What will almost certainly be Haskins’ one and only season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback will always be linked with Meyer’s farewell. Haskins didn’t win a national championship, but he was responsible for sending out a national championship coach on a high note.

Meyer said if the Buckeyes win the Rose Bowl, he’ll make sure this 13-1 team is properly honored in the section of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center saved for the greatest OSU teams. If it happens, that will be because of Haskins, and his every-down excellence.

He saved everything.

When many parts of this Ohio State team weren’t quite up to the usual standard, Haskins lifted them all with the greatest single season of passing in Big Ten history. He didn’t win a trophy in New York on Saturday night. But someone should give Haskins one for that.

Haskins and his family were ideal representatives of Ohio State all season and again on ESPN’s Heisman show. For the first time in 12 years, a Buckeye was back in New York, and the program could not have chosen a better ambassador.

Calm and confident, tall and strong, Haskins was 100 percent himself and 100 percent in control on national television, just like he had been all season. All along the way, Meyer held back with his words. Asked about his quarterback, the coach shifted talk toward the receivers or the offensive line. Meyer knew how good Haskins was. He also knew that Haskins knew it.

So Meyer didn’t say it all that much. All year, I thought I noticed that. Sunday, just before he finished his news conference after the Buckeyes were announced as heading to the Rose Bowl, I squeezed in a final question for Haskins that I’d wanted to ask all season.

Haskins had just said of Meyer, “He does a great job of keeping me humble and doesn’t really give me too much praise,” acknowledging what I’d thought I’d seen for months.

So I asked Haskins if he’d felt that, too, that Meyer was a little stingy on the compliments when it came to the player at the heart of it all.

“Yeah, everyone sees how well we do on offense, and the last thing he wanted to do was for me to get big-headed, and he didn’t want me to stop getting better,” Haskins said. “It was my first year starting, and the last thing he wanted me to do was for me to stop thinking of my teammates, stop thinking of the coaches, and think it was all about me. So he did a great job with that.”

Haskins did this all year without the usual praise. So he can keep doing it without a trophy.

Certainly, he would have embraced that honor Saturday if he’d won. But I think I’d say this more about Haskins than any other Ohio State football player I’ve covered.

He didn’t need the Heisman. He knows how good he is.