Just as easy as "Road To Glory" mode Braxton Miller fever kicked off its 2010 world tour with the final contest in the 12-game, multi-stadium Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown (free Skyline was sadly not in abu
ndance). Miller's Huber Heights Wayne let a lead slip away falling to Cincinnati Moeller 35-28. No fault of Braxton's, Wayne's offense often looked like it consisted of Miller and 10 ordinary high school football players. While his passing occasionally left some to be desired, let's be real: this is a 17 year old kid we're talking about, not an NFL rookie coming out of his first training camp. There will be mechanical and consistency issues that will only get better over time. Overall, however, the eye test seemed to confirm that Miller seemed further along at the same point in his career than Terrelle Pryor was. And that's saying nothing of what he showed with his feet. Goodness. Miller exploded for a 75 yard touchdown run and ultimately finished the afternoon with 212 rushing yards. With each additional ridiculous spin move, it became less and less of a stretch to say he's a more creative, explosive runner than Pryor (though he does lack that unique ability to gallop down the field almost effortlessly and collect first downs the way Pryor, Vince Young, and few else can). If you weren't already gagging on the hyperbole, I'll let Moeller coach John Rodenberg do the honors:
He's the best we've ever played against. He's amazing"
Ours. Not yours Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Ours.
YOU LIE! The Hurricanes athletic department continues to insist that they did not return any of their allotment to the highly anticipated clash with the Buckeyes on the afternoon of the eleventh (I hear there's a pretty legit tailgate going down that morning too...) Miami A.D. Kirby Hocutt had this to say on the rumors:
Any reports that Miami returned unused game tickets to Ohio State are absolutely untrue. The outpouring of requests from Miami fans for tickets was more that we could accommodate and we wish we were able to bring a larger contingent of `Canes fans with us to Columbus.
Despite this, additional tickets (said to be returned by visiting fans) went on sale Tuesday morning and then again first thing Friday. I'm not one to argue with Athletic Director Hocutt, but the sections typically reserved for visitors ticket burning a hole in mine (and likely others of you reading)'s pockets would seem to suggest somebody isn't telling the truth. While It's also completely with the realm of possibilities Ohio State held on some late scattered tickets to generate some last second fervor, honestly, how many contests of the magnitude of the Miami one necessitate superficially stirring up interest? Now if it comes out that the university somehow held out on the Canes to further stack the fan splits, I can't say I'd be that mortified or anything. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Poll Vaulting Finally, something I hope to make a regular occurrence this time each week on Monday's during the fall is a look at how the BlogPoll played out. We cast our final Week 1 ballot according to form as we outlined it last week. No alarms and no surprises though slotting Washington at 11th certainly blew some minds around these parts. If Jake Locker is anywhere near as good as U Dub head coach Steve Sarkisian believes he will be, anything's possible. As for the Bucks, they faired predictably as well as they have in most of the other major pre-season polls/magazines (which yes, TP is no fan of). While the vast majority of ballots put them squarely in the familiar second slot behind Alabama, 19 bold souls gave the Bucks top billing. The patriots amongst them include that hippie up north's operation at MGoBlog, a college football podcast yours truly guested on a week back In The Bleachers, national college football guru Matt Hinton aka Dr. Saturday, and perhaps most shockingly, SEC blog Team Speed Kills. A compliment's a compliment, no? The two greatest negative outliers come via Boston College bloggers BCDraft and SBNation Rutgers blog On The Banks who each rate the Buckeyes as just the 9th best team in the country. Scorn by Big Ten expansion or just haters? A style point rich win in 2 weeks over Miami certainly couldn't hurt the process of winning over the few remaining holdouts and put the bandwagon beyond overflow capacity.
