With an injury relegating Heisman hopeful quarterback Braxton Miller to the sideline, Ohio State didn’t miss a beat on Sunday. The Buckeyes went on the road and easily handled the Cal Golden Bears, 52-34.
As Urban Meyer and his No. 4 Buckeyes chase a national championship, this win only reinforces Ohio State’s ability to pull that task off.
To win a national championship, it obviously takes tremendous talent, but there are all kinds of other factors that play into it. No matter how much talent a team has, it will still face different forms of adversity during the season.
Among other things, it takes the ability to survive a close call, overcome bad luck and succeed in the face of injuries.
In just their third game of the season, the Buckeyes faced some adversity. They had to go on the road to take on a Pac-12 opponent and do so without one of their leaders: Miller.
In the week leading up to the game, Meyer—as the story in the tweet from CBS tells us—had termed Miller “day-to-day” with a knee injury he suffered against San Diego State in the previous week. However, it became clear that Miller would not be playing in this game when he didn’t appear in uniform to warm up with the other quarterbacks.
I don’t know when his Buckeyes teammates became aware of his upcoming absence, but whenever they did, it apparently didn’t rattle them.
Backup quarterback Kenny Guiton had Buckeyes fans saying “Braxton who?” just…
Continue Reading: Ohio State Football Shows Championship Resolve by Winning Without Braxton Miller
