Ohio State Football: Braxton Miller Will Use UAB Game to Launch Heisman Bid

Braxton Miller is already playing at a Heisman trophy winner level. Urban Meyer might disagree, but after this week’s shellacking of UAB, the Ohio State quarterback will position himself to make a run at the nation’s most prestigious college football trophy.

"...I won’t say he's not. I don't believe he is now. He hasn’t been playing well enough yet," Meyer said. (h/t Brandon Castel of TheOZone.net).

Meyer might be right, but a huge game against UAB may help to begin swaying the doubters, including his head coach.

As of now, Miller has accumulated 611 yards through the air with a passer rating of 152.8 and has thrown seven touchdowns. He’s also racked up 377 yards rushing and punched the ball into the end zone five times on the ground.

If he continues playing at this level, he projects to finish with approximately 2,500 yards passing and 1,500 yards rushing with a plethora of touchdowns to help make his case.

So far, Miller has the stats as well as a clutch performance—a game-saving play already under his belt after throwing an 80-yard bomb to Devin Smith to topple California in Week 3.

All he’s missing so far is the blowout victory that causes people to stare at the highlights and say, “wow!”

Enter the UAB Blazers.

The Blazers rank in as the one of the nation’s worst in scoring defense, 123rd to be exact, allowing 44.0 points per game through two contests. They’ve also failed miserably to run the ball, and haven’t had much choice in the matter as they’ve been trailing for most of the season. They’ve rushed for a mere 80.5 yards per game against Troy and South Carolina.

That means they’re going to be passing against the Buckeyes and not eating up very much clock.

Braxton Miller’s eyes are getting wider and wider by the minute. It’s almost too good to be true for the sophomore quarterback and his 12th ranked Buckeyes.

He may not end up winning the Heisman due to his school’s exclusion from bowl competition this year and the effect those performances have on the final voting. However, Miller is on pace to make a very strong case for himself to be one of the most elite talents in the nation when all is said and done in 2012.

That Heisman bid, though, will be properly launched with a lights-out and stat-filled performance Saturday at the Horseshoe. You can count on that.

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Mike Hoag is a Breaking News Team writer with Bleacher Report and also covers the Cleveland Browns and the NFL for the site.