In the process, the Wayne High School product who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, pirouetted straight back into the national consciousness and ran himself right up near the top of the Heisman watch list.
Asked the other evening what he thought when he saw himself highlighted over and over on ESPN, Miller shrugged:
“The thing is, I ain’t got cable, man.”
Well, how about the re-enactments going on all across the OSU campus the past few days? As Buckeye tackle Chase Farris explained it:
“On Ohio State Snapchat (an online messaging system that includes photos and videos) everyone’s just walking around spinning on everybody as they walk to class. … Yeah, somebody even did a spin on the bagpipe guy in the Oval. I saw that.”
Again Miller had to shrug: “I only take classes online now. I already graduated, so I’m not on campus like that.”
But from his laugh you could tell he was putting a spin on the situation again. He knows the impact his monstrous game — eight touches, 140 total yards, two touchdowns — made on everyone.
He was celebrated on Twitter by pro athletes from across the country, including the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade, Chicago Bears receiver Eddie Royal, Jodie Meeks of the Detroit Pistons, San Francisco wide receiver Torrey Smith, Milwaukee Bucks point guard Michael Carter-Williams, Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee , Oakland Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck, former OSU standout Terrelle Pryor, and, most gushingly, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, who coach Urban Meyer has said has an open invitation to join the Bucks on the sideline.
Miller said his bond with James continues to grow. The two have much in common. Both are electrifying, proud of their Ohio roots — James is from Akron, Miller from Springfield — and at one time or another have had to carry teams on their backs for a season.
And now both have decided to stay with the hometown team they feel most connected to. James returned to the Cavs last season. Miller opted not to jump to another school for his final season in order to play quarterback.
Just as James’ teammates realize he is often in a different athletic stratosphere than them, the Buckeyes “ooh and aah” — as Farris put it — when it comes to Miller.
“Braxton is Braxton. At any given moment it can be a house call,” Farris said, using the football video game lingo for “taking it to the house,” as a touchdown is called. “Anytime he touches the ball, you just never know what’s going to happen.”
Watching the spin move that sent a stunned Virginia Tech defender tumbling to the ground, grasping at nothing but air, Farris said:
“It was like a speechless moments. My eyes just got big. I couldn’t believe it.”
OSU cornerback Gareon Conley agreed:
“Braxton is a great athlete who can do special things. He’s one of the only people I know who can make a cut at full speed. If I tried it I would probably fall, honestly.”
Farris said even better than watching Miller’s highlight-reel performance against the Hokies — before the spin-move TD he had caught a 54-yard TD pass to lift the Bucks from a 17-14 halftime deficit and jumpstart the 42-24 rout — was the heartwarming spectacle of just seeing him back playing for the first time in 20 months:
“Just to see him come back in the fashion he did is amazing. It’s a testimony to all the hard work he put in in the offseason. It got him back to show time.”
Since the injury and a pair of surgeries put Miller’s quarterbacking prospects in temporary peril, he switched to the hybrid receiver position.
It certainly helped the Buckeyes — who have two other accomplished quarterbacks in Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett — and also made Miller a much more viable NFL prospect than he would have been as a quarterback.
Going into this afternoon’s home opener against Hawaii, the most remarkable thing is that Miller just made the switch a month ago and is still learning the position and the mindset that comes with it.
As a quarterback he touched the ball every play.
“Playing this position, you have to be patient,” he said. “Half the time you’re not even touching the ball. But Coach Meyer is going to try to get the ball in playmakers’ hands. So you just try to be patient and make the best of it.”
Monday, he did that.
He took handoffs, ran jet sweeps, took direct snaps from center and ran downfield catching passes. He ended up with 62 yards rushing on six carries and 78 yards on two receptions.
While the spin-move TD — which came after a direct snap from center — is the play that made the night’s indelible memory, Miller said it’s not the most extraordinary play he’s had in a game,.
He ranked it No. 2 behind the 1-yard TD dive against Penn State in 2013. That time he used a hesitation move and a backwards step to freeze a defender and then suddenly exploded forward and dived over another unsuspecting defender and landed in the end zone.
Monday night’s play, though, left him more emotional. He was in tears when he got to the dressing room at Lane Stadium.
“It was devastating what happened to my shoulder (last year),” he explained this week.
“All the emotion hit me. Just being back with these guys and making plays and high-fiving with everyone on the sidelines, it just felt like I didn’t miss a beat. I felt blessed. I felt like I want to do it again.”
He will, and as the season progresses he’ll likely be asked to do more and more.
Meyer said this week that he’d like to see him return punts.
And Miller admitted he might throw a pass again. After all, in three previous seasons as quarterback, he completed 395 of 666 attempts for 5,292 yards and 52 touchdowns and was a two-time Big Ten offensive player and quarterback of the year.
“Yeah, I can (pass),” he grinned. “But that’s up to Coach Meyer and the play call.”
The more Miller does the more he’ll put himself into the Heisman conversation again.
In the first ESPN watch list poll this week, he was ranked third behind Alabama running back Derrick Henry and Georgia running back Nick Chubb.
Meyer called Miller “a freak athlete” and said it’s the job of the coaches to find more ways he can touch the ball.
That doesn’t bode well for Hawaii, a team that had to fly six time zones east to get to Columbus, is 1-17 in road games under coach Norm Chow and is a 40-pound underdog today.
“I can’t wait until Saturday against Hawaii,” Miller said, “to showcase more talent.”
And if he keeps doing more on the field, he might need to do a little more off it, too.
He might even have to get cable.
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