COLUMBUS -- Nobody’s putting the Heisman committee on alert just yet, but there was a significant sigh of relief heard in Columbus Saturday while freshman quarterback Braxton Miller was doing an efficient and effective job of leading Ohio State to victory in the first start of his career.
While directing a 37-17 win over Colorado, Miller threw two touchdown passes with no interceptions, rushed for 83 yards, and demonstrated enough of the calm, cool, and collected persona to secure the job for the immediate future.
“He seems confident, and like any young athlete, as you get more and more experience, you get more confident,” junior tight end Reid Fragel said about Miller. “He’s young, but at the same time he’s got that confidence you need.”
Miller, who led Huber Heights Wayne to the Ohio Division I state championship game last year, was handed the starting job last week following the Buckeyes’ sloppy performance in a loss at Miami. Senior Joe Bauserman had started the first three games of the season for Ohio State (3-1), but was very ineffective against the Hurricanes.
“He gave us a lift,” Ohio State coach Luke Fickell said about Miller. “He gave us something that we needed.”
After going without a touchdown last weekend, the Buckeyes got four of them against the Buffaloes. Miller had scoring passes of 32 and 17 yards to freshman wide receiver Devin Smith, while Jordan Hall and Carlos Hyde scored on short runs, and Drew Basil kicked field goals of 47, 28, and 18 yards.
Miller broke from the pocket often enough that he had Colorado (1-3) guessing, and his running had a lot to do with Ohio State building a 17-0 lead by midway through the second quarter.
“He keeps the defense on their toes,” Fragel said. “It’s awesome to see when he takes off and runs, because you never know what he’s going to do once he gets out in some space.”
With Miller mixing things up, the Buckeyes took advantage of a sloppy Colorado punt and a fumble recovery by defensive tackle Adam Bellamy to work a short field for their first couple scores. Hall went in from a yard out to give OSU a 7-0 lead, and Basil followed with a field goal for a 10-0 first quarter advantage.
When Miller hit Smith over the middle near the back of the end zone midway through the second quarter, the lead was 17-0. A Colorado touchdown closed the gap, but Basil hit his second field goal just before halftime, following a Zach Domicone recovery of a fumbled punt at the 11-yard line, and the Buckeyes were up 20-7.
After five straight carries by Hall opened the second half for Ohio State, Miller hit Smith, who made a leaping catch on the edge of the end zone, to make it 27-7. Following a field goal by the Buffaloes, Hall returned a kickoff 90 yards to the Colorado five, and Hyde punched it in from there for a 34-10 advantage late in the third quarter.
Basil added his third field goal early in the fourth quarter for a 37-10 lead, then the Buffaloes mounted a 91-yard scoring drive later in the period for their final points.
The Buckeyes ended the game with their second-team offense on the Colorado 1-yard line.
Hall, who was forced to sit out the first two games of the season due to an NCAA-mandated suspension for taking $200 cash at a charity event, had 84 yards rushing and 147 yards in returns. He heaped praise on Miller for leading the Buckeyes to the important win.
“Braxton, he’s going to be special,” Hall said. “He made some good plays out there. He was calm in the pocket and he was in control. You don’t usually see that with a young quarterback. I just told him, ‘this is your huddle — take over.’ He did a good job of that.”
Miller finished with a relatively modest 5-of-13 passing for 83 yards, but after he and Bauserman combined to go just 4-of-18 for 35 yards at Miami, with an interception and no touchdowns, Saturday was significantly better.
“He was very good out there,” senior center Mike Brewster said. “He got it going, slinging the ball, and he made sure everyone in the huddle knew the play call before we went to the line. He stepped in and did his thing.”
Colorado coach Jon Embree said the Buffaloes found Miller to be slippery and elusive.
“I felt like our defense did a decent job, but we did not tackle him,” Embree said. “He did a good job on eliminating losses where we should have had them for negative gains. We had shots but just couldn’t bring him down behind the line of scrimmage.”
Contact Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com, 419-724-6510, or on Twitter @MattMarkey
First Published September 24, 2011, 8:30 p.m.
