When the Buckeyes take on Notre Dame on New Year’s Day, it will be Braxton Miller’s last opportunity to win a bowl game at Ohio State. The dynamic fifth-year senior burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2011, taking over for He Who Shall Not Be Named, and helped lead his team to an appearance in the Gator Bowl.
Ohio State fell in that contest, 24-17, in Miller’s first postseason opportunity, largely because there was nothing special about the Buckeyes’ special teams that day. A blocked punt for a score and a kickoff return for another pretty much sunk Ohio State and its athletic freshman quarterback. But that season will always be notable for this play:
That win probably gave the powers that be at Ohio State the (ultimately) false hope that a division title and potential BCS bowl game payday was still within reach. That turned out to be a mirage. Had Ohio State self-imposed a bowl ban after that Wisconsin game, 2012 might have been vastly different. Then again, maybe not. Aside from Mark Emmert, who knows for sure?
Ohio State was summarily banned from postseason play in 2012, which kept the undefeated Buckeyes from facing Notre Dame in the national championship game, assuming the Bucks could have slipped past an eventual 10-4 Nebraska team in the B1G title game. A one-loss Alabama team instead rose to No. 2 in the country — where Ohio State could have been with a conference championship win and an undefeated 13-0 mark — and crushed the overrated Fighting Irish, 42-14.
Instead of potentially leading the Buckeyes to a national championship as a sophomore, Miller’s (and his team’s) season ended after a 26-21 win over Michigan on Nov. 24, 2012. It's worth repeating that the ban was unprecedented for a team that didn’t get a lack of institutional control charge, and there was no reason for Gene Smith to think a bowl ban in 2012 was imminent, but because there was no precedent for the punishment, there’s also no guarantee that if Ohio State had self-imposed a ban the year before, that the NCAA wouldn’t have lumped on a second year to the sanctions, based on the fact that sacrificing a trip to Jacksonville at the end of a middling 6-7 season was hardly worthy of the term "punishment."
Regardless, and I’m certainly not here to debate the matter of whether or not a self-imposed ban would have made a difference, the undefeated season was nice, but less than satisfying due to being locked out of the postseason. At least that year gave us more Miller highlights, including this gem:
Miller went into his junior year with higher hopes.
Indeed those hopes seemed on the verge of being realized. Ohio State blasted its way through the 2013 season, entering The Game with a record of 11-0, having beaten every team but Wisconsin by at least 10 points. The Buckeyes beat the Badgers only by seven, but the final score wasn’t indicative of how much control Ohio State had in that game until the very late stages. Michigan played Ohio State much closer, but the Buckeyes thwarted the Wolverines’ late two-point conversion attempt to complete the regular season at 12-0.
Miller was back in the postseason, with a chance to lead his team to a national championship. But then Sparty broke Buckeye hearts, and a 24-game OSU winning streak. The game was certainly winnable, but a lack of rolling with Carlos Hyde in critical moments helped Michigan State, which ended up winning 34-24.
The Buckeyes went to the Orange Bowl to face Clemson instead of to the national championship against Florida State. Auburn went instead, and became the team that failed to continue the SEC’s streak of dominance. Ohio State and Clemson was a back-and-forth affair, but the Buckeyes were ultimately done in by a muffed punt just as they were about to put the game on ice. Clemson won, 40-35, and Miller was 0-3 in the postseason.
It didn’t help that Miller was battered and injured in that Orange Bowl match-up with the Tigers. Still, he kept his team in position to win, and had Philly Brown gotten out of the way or cleanly fielded that punt, Ohio State was likely to come out of Miami with the win.
Miller’s senior season of 2014 ended before it began. Recovering from post-Orange Bowl surgery, the two-time B1G Player of the Year sustained a horrific shoulder injury while throwing in preseason camp. Miller was done for the season and took a medical redshirt while his teammates went on to a national championship season without his presence on the field. The Buckeyes were three deep on the quarterback depth chart when the confetti fell in Jerry World last January. Miller celebrated, but wasn’t able to contribute on the gridiron.
A year and a position change later, Miller gets his last opportunity to taste postseason glory on the field for the Buckeyes. He didn’t get to experience the Big Ten championship due to a field goal by spoiler Sparty, but his team has landed in the Fiesta Bowl. Perhaps he’ll finally get that elusive postseason win against Notre Dame — a team he could have, and maybe should have, played against at the end of the 2012 season. Perhaps not. Either way, it has been an incredible career for Braxton, who will be long remembered for his accomplishments in Scarlet & Gray.
Here’s to hoping those accomplishments finally include a postseason win on the field.
