Ohio State suspensions accelerate blue-chipper's path to QB job - Andy Staples - SI.com
Posted: Tuesday January 4, 2011 11:42AM ; Updated: Tuesday January 4, 2011 11:42AM
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- By the end of this week, Braxton Miller will be a college student. He'll play in the Under Armour All-America game on Wednesday, and he'll head to Columbus on Thursday to start his college career at Ohio State. "I'll make my family proud," the star quarterback from Wayne High in Huber Heights, Ohio, said Monday.
Miller's relatives won't be the only ones charting his early progress in Columbus, though. What would have been an easy, relatively quiet transition -- for a top-shelf quarterback recruit, at least -- has been set on its ear by the NCAA's ruling that Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor must sit out the first five games of his senior season for selling memorabilia. Suddenly, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Miller is a candidate to be Ohio State's opening-day starter. Miller, a dual-threat quarterback who led his high school to Ohio's big-school state title game this season, admits the prospect of taking the field with the starting offense at the Horseshoe in September is exciting.
"Yeah, it is," Miller said. "It's a lot of pressure, too."
Indeed, because if Miller does beat out rising senior Joe Bauserman and rising sophomore Kenny Guiton for the job, Miller must lead a program that competes annually for the Big Ten title and spends most years in the national title hunt. Certainly, Miller knows he can't simply walk on campus and win the job. "People say that all the time. 'You're going to start the first five games,'" Miller said. "It's not that easy."
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