A  little something new to keep track of the Big Ten Conference week to week...(I know...a lot like what you suspected “Big Ten Recap” might mean). At the end...if you can make it that far...we’ll select my Big Ten Players of the Week and my Plays of the Week in the conference. So let’s roll...

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It took a full quarter to get the gears to mesh on that new Ohio State offensive machine, but after a sluggish start, the Buckeyes erupted for eight touchdowns to rout the Miami Redhawks 56-10 in Urban Meyer’s first game as OSU’s head coach. Braxton Miller set an OSU record for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback, with 161 yards on the ground...and he did it in three quarters.

Miller, who sat out the 4th quarter tending to leg cramps, also passed for two touchdowns and rolled up 368 yards in total offense on the day. After an opening period in which he was 1 of 7 passing, for 5 yards, Miller started the 2nd quarter by hitting his next 11 of 14 for 185 yards, including touchdown throws to Devin Smith and Philly Brown. The sophomore quarterback capped his day with a 65-yard touchdown run early in the 3rd quarter to give OSU a 28-3 lead, and the outcome was never in doubt after that.

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- Saturday, September 1, 2012

- Ohio Stadium - Columbus, OH

- Miami University at Ohio State

- 12:00 p.m. (ET)

- TV: Big Ten Network (BTN) -



A new era of Ohio State football begins this Saturday as the Miami Redhawks visit Columbus to provide the opposition for Urban Meyer’s OSU head coaching debut. BTN will televise the game nationally at noon, and shortly thereafter Buckeye fans will get their first glimpse of an offensive system radically different from the one they have grown used to seeing on fall Saturdays.

The new, up-tempo offense figures to be the most conspicuous departure from recent history at Ohio State, but the defensive coaches have implemented some changes as well, and there will be lots of fresh faces in Scarlet and Gray on that side of the ball.

Ohio State has won 33 consecutive home openers, the last loss coming against Penn State in 1979. The Buckeyes have twice dropped season opening games on the road since then, both times in the now-defunct Kickoff Classic, in 1986 vs Alabama, and in 1999 vs Miami (FL).

The Buckeyes are 4-0 vs Miami, the last meeting a 34-14 home victory in 2005. Ohio State is ranked 18th in the AP poll coming in to the opener, and Miami is unranked.

Urban Meyer becomes the 24th head coach in Ohio State history to take to the sidelines in a Buckeye opener. In his 11th year as a head coach, Meyer’s career record is 104-23 (.819), plus those two national title notches on his belt. Miami is coached by Don Treadwell, who is in his second season in Oxford. The Redhawks were 4-8 in 2011.

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“Telling Quotes” is a weekly recap of the Big Ten’s top stories using five quotes from around the conference (with a moderate Ohio State lean).

Ohio State fans had a boring summer.

It’s hard to get through the dog days of the offseason when there aren’t weekly updates to the growing witch hunt against your favorite school. It’s hard to stay engaged when day after day is filled by a deafening silence.

What noun are we taking and adding “-gate” to now? How many “tat” jokes does it take to get to the center of my grasp on sanity?

Unfortunately an uneventful summer has its drawbacks too. The offseason went back to being the uneventful nine months it used to be. But when the clock strikes noon this Saturday, it’ll all be over.

It’s finally game week. Let’s get going.

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This season’s conference-and-BCS predictions are brought to you by the opening and closing of college football’s probationary prison gates, as offenders coming and going impact various conference races. Out in Pac-12 country, the Southern Cal Trojans are out of jail and title-eligible again, ready to again play for the sport’s highest stakes. In the Midwest Ohio State and Penn State are going downstate; the caveat being neither would likely have been favored even to win their respective divisions. Down in Orlando, Central Florida fans will swelter in Brighthouse Networks Stadium and watch maybe the best outfit in Conference USA play out the string without eligibility for the title.

There are swinging doors located at the coaching offices as well. More than one-fifth of the FBS schools take first-year head coaches into the 2012 season, including brand names like Ohio State, Arkansas and Penn State, where for the first time since 1965 someone other than Joe Paterno will lead the Nittany Lions. A number of the schools with new coaches- Rutgers, Arkansas, Houston- are expected to compete for their division or conference titles, giving back to the races an unpredictability that the sanctions take away.

On to the predictions:

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The curtain is about to go up on the Urban Meyer Era at Ohio State, and the air of anticipation is matched by a fair amount of uncertainty about what to expect. The 2012 Buckeyes have loads of young talent, and their success will hinge on how quickly they adapt to the new coaching regime, and how soon some younger players develop at key positions. I’ve tried to anticipate some of the questions fans may have about this year’s Buckeyes, and throw out my own answers below for your consideration.

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“Telling Quotes” is a weekly recap of the Big Ten’s top stories using five quotes from around the conference (with a moderate Ohio State lean).

Just think -- only two more of these articles will include talk about preseason practice and stuff other than live, tear-inducingly-beautiful football.

With the season just 16 days away, the Buckeyes are grinding through the dog-days of fall camp. If you haven’t been watching, ESPN is giving fans an inside look at fall camp by airing a 30 minute special on ESPNU. Regardless of your feelings for the worldwide leader, few fanbases in the country get an opportunity to watch their team this intimately. The show has been airing at 5:00 pm (EST), so if you haven’t been watching, tune in. You get to watch Urban Meyer yell and stuff.

This week’s quotes include updates on fall practice, then Denard Robinson and Terrelle Pryor try to out-derp each other in a battle for the ages.

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Urban Meyer’s first Ohio State fall camp is approaching the halfway point, and with a little help from ESPN, OSU fans are getting an intimate inside look at everything from the practice routines to the locker rooms. The depth chart is changing as some of the incoming freshmen show their stuff early, and Meyer has been busy implementing some of his own new touches to the time-honored traditions of Ohio State football.

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The college football season begins in just a few weeks with a full slate of games of Labor Day weekend. It’s a weekend to be looked forward to with more than a little bit of ambiguity.

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“Telling Quotes” is a weekly recap of the Big Ten’s top stories using five quotes from around the conference (with a moderate Ohio State lean).

With the college football season just over three weeks away, teams around the country have been hitting the practice field for the start of fall camp.

The Ohio State Buckeyes reported last Friday as upperclassmen took the field at 6:00 am for an early morning practice. Freshmen members of the football team took part in a separate practice at 5:30 pm that evening. Over the last seven days, a number of storylines have developed as the Buckeyes work their way toward the 2012 season. We’ll explore some of those stories and check in on something stupid involving the Penn State situation as we look back at this week’s quotes.

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