CHICAGO — The plan called for a smooth transition. It lasted for only a single workout. Braxton Miller was supposed to ease his way back into throwing the football as he progressed through his rehabilitation from offseason shoulder surgery, picking up a tennis ball first before moving back up to through a football again. But that blueprint didn’t last long for the Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback, who once again put his ability to accelerate things on the field on display by zipping through his recovery schedule and zipping around passes with his rebuilt arm.
“Yeah, I threw a tennis ball for one day,” Miller told ESPN.com on Monday. “One day, and then they were like, ‘Wow, you’re throwing pretty good. You can move up to a football.’
“I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go.’ My body is ready to go.”
That’s welcome news for a team with national-title aspirations that revolve around the star senior’s athleticism and ability to test teams with more than just his legs. With Miller dealing with some soreness at the end of last season and then damaging his shoulder further in the Discover Orange Bowl, the Buckeyes clearly weren’t the same explosive team while he was operating at something less than 100 percent. The first plan for recovery didn’t even involve going under the knife, but that was eventually scrapped as well when the shoulder wasn’t showing enough progress after about a month of rehab heading into spring practice. The Buckeyes ultimately made the decision in February to have the procedure done, forcing him to miss all of camp and taking the ball out of his hands until May.
But it’s back there now and has been for about two months, and Miller seemingly hasn’t missed a beat since then as he looks to continue his trend of improving as a passer every season.
“I feel like it’s stronger,” Miller said. “Man, everything that was damaged in there has been cleaned out. So even if I didn’t have that injury, I feel like everything from before that injury has been cleaned out. I barely had any rust when I came back…
Continue reading this article at ESPN: Braxton Miller breezes through rehab plan
