Ohio State Spring Game 2012: Highlights, Grades and Analysis

The Urban Meyer era officially began—sort of. Today was the Scarlet and Gray game, the final spring practice for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and Meyer's influence was apparent immediately.

Meyer has already instilled an ultra-competitive environment with this program.

Some may say it began with his aggressive recruiting of players and staff members. Anyone that disagrees with that notion certainly can't dispute the competitiveness in this scene.

Highlights

A Buckeye battle circle preceded the game. I'm not sure if this was Fight Club or a spring game, but the players loved it:

Urban Meyer's first on-field appearance as Buckeyes head coach was a historic one. He had this to say in a pregame interview:

On the field, Braxton Miller led the team on a quick TD scoring drive. It culminated in this short run by sophomore Carlos Hyde.

You may also notice the gentleman standing right behind Miller during the play.

That was Meyer.

He stood behind the QBs and Ks throughout the game—talk about pressure.

This was an interesting sequence in the second quarter. After Braxton Miller is nearly picked off in the red zone, Meyer decides to test his kicker.

After Drew Basil drilled the 41-yard field goal, Meyer kept backing the kicker up to test his range.

I thought this was an excellent drill to allow fans to see. It simulated a pressure-packed situation, but it also showed Meyer his kicker's in-game range.

Miller's decision-making was shaky for most of the game. Here he scrambles to his left and throws the inexplicable pick.

This is just a spring game, but Miller still has some things to clean up.

He throws another pass that should have been picked off. Miller lucked out as the pass ricocheted to TE Nick Vannett for the completion.

It wasn't a stellar first half for Miller.

His best highlight from the first was this big completion on a busted coverage to Chris Fields.

Too bad it didn't count, as it was wiped out by a penalty.

The Gray team did get on the board as Kenny Guiton hits Devin Smith for the TD completion.

Guiton wasn't done, as he pulls off a nice decision to keep the ball on this zone read for the short TD run.

Guiton made one bad throw in this game. It was this pass that was picked off by Christian Bryant. This play effectively ended the drama in this game and gave the Scarlet team the victory.

Grades

Braxton Miller: B-

Miller was 24-of-31 with 258 yards passing—but he was careless with the ball. He threw two picks, and one that should have been intercepted.

Miller will add another dimension once he begins to run with the ball more. Still, he'll have to make better decisions with the ball when the games count.

Kenny Guiton: B+

Guiton proved the Bucks have a solid backup at QB. He looked strong and confident in the pocket, and he showed he can execute the zone-read scheme.

Offensive Line: C-

The pass blocking was not impressive—especially for Miller. If this were a real game, Miller's jersey would have been much dirtier, and he'd be getting treatment for soreness.

When the defenses haven't been instructed to pull up on the QB and blitzes are allowed—the O-Line play must improve.

Receivers: A-

I was very impressed with the play of the Ohio State receivers. Michael Thomas had a huge game with 12 receptions for 131 yards. Devin Smith also caught a TD pass from Guiton.

Defensive Line B

The line got consistent pressure, but the run defense could have been better. There wasn't a ton of running plays called. Meyer wanted to work on the passing aspect of his offense.

In the running plays we saw, the offense had the upper hand.

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