When Luke Fickell was named interim head coach for the Ohio State football team, the news was met with mixed emotions. As the off-season progressed, and Buckeye Nation started to move past “the scandal”, fans started to settle in for the season ahead with Coach Fickell in charge of our beloved Buckeyes. After a 42-0 blowout victory over Akron in week one, fans who were weary about Fickell making it through the season, started to feel a little bit more comfortable with the first-year head coach.
Then, the Toledo game arrived.
In week one, the heralded freshman QB, Braxton Miller, impressed the rest of the college football world, going 8-12 with 130 yards and 1 touchdown. He even chipped in with 30 rushing yards, giving fans a glimpse of his playmaking ability. In the Toledo game, with the team struggling, Coach Fickell stuck with the fifth-year senior, Joe Bauserman, to lead the team to victory. Despite a 27-22 victory, Ohio State fans started to lose faith in the direction Fickell was taking the team.
In week three, disaster struck for the Ohio State football team.
The Buckeyes were floored by the Miami Hurricanes in Coral Gables, with a performance that broke the hearts of Buckeye fans everywhere. Although there was plenty of blame to pass around for the team’s forgettable performance, you wouldn’t be wrong if you blamed the inability of the Ohio State quarterbacks to move the ball against the Miami ‘D’ as the biggest reason the Buckeyes were embarrassed.
Bauserman took most of the snaps, and never once turned the ball over. Miller, who was put in a tough situation in the game for a true freshman QB, turned the ball over twice with his opportunities. In total, both QBs completed just 4 passes – none to a wide receiver – on 18 attempts, for an embarrassing 35 yards. To say that the two QBs had an “off game” was an understatement.
The rest of the college football world doesn’t have much to say about what’s going on in Columbus, they’re all getting exactly what they want – a Buckeye team that is struggling mightily to overcome “the scandal”.
However, here in Ohio – and across the country, Buckeye fans had high expectations for this football team. Some set unrealistic goals to start the season, deciding that this team was good enough to win the National Championship – even without their dear head coach and five of the more talented players on the team. Others were realistic when it came to goals this team should have – a Big Ten Championship wasn’t out of the picture, but most would’ve settled for a big-time bowl game and a 9-win season. Regardless, Buckeye Nation has been Coach Fickell’s biggest critic.
It’s not that Coach Fickell was playing the wrong QB. Although it wasn’t hard to see that Miller was the more talented of the two quarterbacks, most understood why Fickell was sticking with Bauserman. Even after the fiasco in Miami, it was hard to place blame on either of the two quarterbacks because they both were less than spectacular. For most of Buckeye Nation, it was the way he was handling the QB situation that set fans off. After both QBs played in game one, Miller was left-out of the Toledo game, only to play in the Miami game under extreme circumstances.
Buckeye fans everywhere had one simple request – decide on one quarterback, and stick with him.
Finally, Coach Fickell did just that.
Although it should’ve came sooner in the week, Coach Fickell announced on Thursday, that Braxton Miller would start Saturday’s game at home against the Colorado Buffalos. The news puts an end to all the speculation about the quarterback situation, and should give the true freshman all the confidence he needs to go out there on Saturday and perform well.
In Miller’s limited action, he has played as if he was trying to do too much on the football field. Whenever television cameras found Miller on the sidelines, he often had a look of disappointment – almost as if he had be scorned for sticking his hand in the cookie jar. It’s no wonder Miller struggled in the Miami game, he was playing the entire game looking over his shoulder, constantly wondering if he was going to be replaced for messing-up.
Part of it may have been because he was messing-up, an INT on your first pass of the game and a couple fumbles don’t necessarily earn you playing-time in a big game on the road. But the other part of it was all on Coach Fickell, as he, too, was trying to do too much on Saturday – after all, he’s fighting for his job and wants to do everything he can to put his team in a position to win, or so he says.
Regardless, today’s announcement that Miller will start the first game of his college career, should give the freshman a clear mind heading into Saturday – as long as Fickell allows him to make mistakes without taking him out of the game.
For hypothetical purposes, let’s say Coach Fick does give Miller every opportunity to overcome his mistakes on Saturday, I mean, it’s going to happen.
As a true freshman, playing the most critical position on the football field, at one of the premiere universities in all of college football, Miller is going to need all the support he can get. Buckeye Nation seems eager to lend their support, which is great for Miller, but what he really needs is the support of his coaches and teammates.
Miller is now on the biggest stage of his career. He’s in the spotlight, not just sometimes, but all the time. His every single mistake is going to be blown-up and exploited by ESPN and various media outlets. He’ll earn a pat on the back for his success, but “experts” are going to say “Yeah…but…he did do this…”
His teammates, and coaching staff especially, need to keep Miller focused on the task at hand, and drown out the other “noise”. Miller has been declared the “savior” for Ohio State in wake of the scandal that rocked the once proud program. There’s a ton of pressure on his shoulders. The last thing he needs, is a demoralized confidence due to lack of support.
Now, Coach Fickell can do quite a bit to help alleviate some of Miller’s miscues. First of all, with the lack of experience Miller has, Coach Bollman and Coach Fickell, need to remember that Miller is a freshman, and not ask him to throw the ball 30-40 times in a ball game.
So far on the season, the running game has been the offenses strong point. With Jordan Hall returning last week, the team’s most significant playmakers – aside from Jake Stoneburner – are in the backfield. Add Miller to a highly talented stable of running backs, and it certainly gives the Buckeyes a legitimate offensive weapon.
Ironically enough, Miller is making the first start of his career, in the team’s fourth game of the season. Three years ago, another highly talented freshman made his first start under the pretty much the same circumstances.
At the start of the 2008 season, Todd Boeckman was named the starter at QB for the Buckeyes. Four games into the season, Terrell Pryor was handed the reigns on offense.
Fickell can learn a lot from that ’08 season about how to handle this situation. Tressel only allowed Pryor to throw the ball 20-25 times a game, or, as needed when the situation absolutely called for a pass play. Otherwise, all Pryor had to do was turn and hand the ball off to his talented teammate in the backfield – Chris “Beanie” Wells. Coach Tressel kept the passing game simple for Pryor, allowing the talented freshman to make plays on his own if things broke-down on offense. Pryor posted an 8-1 record as Ohio State’s quarterback in his freshman year, a record Buckeye fans would be more than happy with from Braxton Miller.
So here’s to hoping that Coach Fickell did, in fact, learn something from Coach Tressel. It wouldn’t hurt the first-year coach to take a page from the “Tressel-ball” playbook, and gradually introduce Miller to the game.
If Fickell allows Miller to overcome his mistakes, and keeps the offense simple for the freshman, Miller has the opportunity to have a solid freshman season. The coaching staff, as well as Buckeye Nation, must understand that there are going to be some growing pains with Miller as the leader on offense.
Nonetheless, Miller has to go out and make the most of his golden opportunity. Playing without fear is a must for Miller. Whether it’s a missed throw to a wide open receiver, or a turnover, Miller, himself, needs to understand that he’s going to make mistakes during the game.
Regardless, Miller has the full support of Buckeye Nation. Let’s just hope that he has the full support of his head coach.
For now, Fickell finally got it right.
