Ohio State football: Guiton gives good vibes following turnaround
By Tim May
The Columbus Dispatch Saturday August 18, 2012
Fred Squillante | DISPATCH
One of areas Ohio State backup quarterback Kenny Guiton improved upon during the summer was his arm strength.
If there?s a nickname that best suits Kenny Guiton at the moment, it?s U-turn.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said of his junior backup quarterback on and off the field the past nine months, ?He?s done a 180.?
And he is now headed in the right direction. Meyer has said he developed some plays incorporating Guiton and starter Braxton Miller on the field together, ?if we determine they?re in our best 11.?
?I have to always be ready,? Guiton said, ?and I know Coach Meyer has used two quarterbacks in his system,? most famously with senior Chris Leak and freshman Tim Tebow on the 2006 Florida national championship team. ?We?ve actually talked about that. That?s one thing I am trying to work hard on and try to let him recognize that maybe I can do that.?
The key is for Guiton to continue to show he is on a constant heading coming out of that U-turn.
When Meyer, a two-time national champion at Florida, ended his one-year sabbatical and took the Ohio State job in November. One of the first things he talked about was his excitement in coaching Miller.He said nothing about Guiton.
?His reputation wasn?t sterling, his performance certainly wasn?t,? Meyer said.
But consider Guiton?s plight in 2011. He watched journeyman Joe Bauserman get the starting job, and when Bauserman faltered, Miller was given the nod despite being a freshman, and Bauserman became the backup.
?Last year, I was just ? I don?t know, I was into football and everything ? but I had Braxton come in, and he did a great job,? said Guiton, who had been considered by some to be a lightly recruited consolation signing out of Aldine, Texas, by the previous coaching staff in 2009. ?I don?t know, maybe I was a little down and maybe (Meyer) saw it in me, and maybe I didn?t even know.?
cont...