Buckeye Notables

It’s been a few week’s since we’ve been able to run one of these posts. Hopefully the wait wasn’t too much for you, loyal reader.

Stats

• The Buckeyes are now 4-1 against Colorado all time, and 1-1 against Colorado at home.
• Braxton Miller is only the third freshman quarterback to start for the Buckeyes. The first two were Art Schlichter (1979) and Terrelle Pryor (2008).
• Miller tallied a career-best 83 rushing yards on a career-high 17 carries.
• Jordan Hall scored his first rushing touchdown of the season and third of his career, a 1-yard run in the first quarter.
• Hall tallied a career-high 231 all-purpose yards.
• Devin Smith caught a career-high two touchdown passes, a 32-yard reception from Braxton Miller in the second quarter and a 17-yarder from Miller in the third quarter.
• The Buckeyes were 5-for-6 in the red zone, with three touchdowns and two field goals.
• Since the beginning of the 2005 season, the Ohio State defense has allowed only 10 100-yard rushers during a span of 80 games and only six since the start of the 2007 season. Both of those marks are the third best among FBS schools during those spans.
• OSU has surrendered 127 TDs in 80 games since 2005, the fewest in the FBS in this span. TCU is second with 130 allowed in this span.
• Storm Klein notched his first career sack in the fourth quarter.
• The Silver Bullet Defense forced six three-and-outs and claimed two turnovers against the Buffaloes.
• The OSU defense did not allow a first down in the entire first quarter and six minutes into the second – Colorado claimed its first conversion at 6:55 in the second quarter – a 21:55 span of no conversions.
• Sophomore defensive tackle Adam Bellamy claimed his first career fumble recovery on the Colorado 22-yard line at 6:59 in the opening quarter.
• Nineteen Buckeyes recorded tackles in the game.
• Sophomore defensive back Christian Bryant led the team with a career-high six tackles with one pass breakup. Freshman Ryan Shazier was second with a career-best five tackles.
• The Scarlet and Gray have held 65 opponents to 21 points or fewer since the start of the 2005 season – tied with TCU for the most among FBS schools.
• The Buckeyes have allowed 119 touchdowns from scrimmage since the start of the 2005 campaign – the fewest in the nation among FBS schools in that span.

Player Quotes

Adam Bellamy On the team’s defensive play:

“It’s great to have someone like Coach (Jim) Heacock to work with. It’s easier to play faster now that we’re starting to understand who we are as a team.”

Zach Boren On improvements from last week’s game at Miami:

“This whole week at practice we knew we had to change our attitudes. We had to keep fighting. We wanted that to be our mentality.”

John Simon On the defense:

“I think we are ready for conference games. There are a few things we have to correct, like the big plays at the end of the game. We know Michigan State will capitalize on those opportunities, but today we had a good day.”

Travis Howard On the play of the defense:

“We came out really physical and we were well prepared. Last weekend we left with a bad taste in our mouth and we jumped out to a great start today.”

Reid Fragel On facing Michigan State next week:

“I’m ready for it [the Big Ten season] to begin. A lot of my buddies go there, so I’m excited that we get to travel there to start the Big Ten.”

Mike Brewster On what Miller did well:

“He used his natural instincts. That’s what I did as a freshman and he’s doing it now. He got a little banged up out there but tried to get as many yards as possible. He probably could have gotten out of bounds a little more to take a few of the hits away so he doesn’t get as banged up, but he’s a fighter.”

Fickell Quotes

You have to like Fickell’s downplaying of Braxton’s role, and emphasizing the team aspect:

Q. Braxton’s play today, and overall how big a lift did he give this program to turn it from the direction it was last week?

COACH FICKELL: This is a big team thing, and we know there’s a lot of guys — Jordan Hall gave us some lifts. Defensively we got us some lifts. Sometimes it’s obviously focused on the quarterback. But he gave us a lift, gave us some things we needed offensively as well as keeping plays alive and things.
But we’re not going to throw everything at him right off the bat and say anything more than just it’s still about the team.

For those worried about the quantity of running done by Braxton Miller:

Q. Did you expect to run him that much today?

COACH FICKELL: Probably not. But you know you wait and see how things really go. You’ve got some ideas of what’s going to happen. And probably some more of those were, he made the decision to run a little quicker, maybe.
But we’re going to figure out a way we can continue to get better. And obviously he’s a big part of that.

Also aimed at the worries in the passing game:

Q. You talked about how offensively your primary goal was to run the football. What were your passing goals, given how things went last week through the year?

COACH FICKELL: Obviously the whole goal of an offense is to be balanced. I think that’s the number one most important thing. To me you don’t want to lead the nation in rushing, because if you lead the nation in rushing you probably can’t throw the football. If you lead the nation in passing, you probably don’t run the football too well. So we’ve got to continue to figure out how we can be a little bit more balanced in everything we do.

There was a big question in the stands as to whether or not Devin Smith caught that ball on the sideline in the third quarter. Seems the coaches had a feeling about that as well:

COACH FICKELL: I kept hearing from upstairs that that was a catch over there on the other side, but seems like the officials didn’t quite think so. But the guys up in the box kept telling me: It’s a catch. It’s a catch.