Ohio State football: Braxton Miller to hybrid back makes sense say Robert … – Columbus Dispatch
Contrary to the popular narrative of the day, Ohio State’s Braxton Miller has not given up all hope of playing quarterback again in favor of a permanent move to hybrid back (running back-receiver) in the Buckeyes’ spread offense.
Miller said as much to The Dispatch late Thursday night after the story broke on SI.com that he was making the switch.
The approach is all about “getting on the field while the shoulder is healing to play quarterback,” said Miller, who is headed into his final college season. He still isn’t up to speed throwing the ball after the right shoulder injury and subsequent surgery last August which knocked him out of what turned out to be OSU’s 2014 national championship season. He had been expected to challenge last year’s quarterbacks J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones for the starting job once camp begins in a QB duel for the ages.
But Robert Smith and Joey Galloway, a couple of former Ohio State and NFL stars now serving as college football analysts for ESPN, think transition to another position on offense was a move Miller was going to have to make sooner or later if he desires to play on in the NFL. More than that, Smith said, the move suits Miller and that he should, well, run with it.
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“The day after the national championship game in January I said he should move to H back. … He’s literally one of the most dangerous runners I’ve ever seen at any position,” said Smith, a former running back. “Obviously he’d got some things to figure out, how to take handoffs, run routes, things like that. I’m sure he’s done some blocking, but not a whole lot of it.
“So he’s got some things to learn, but I think he’s going to be a huge threat.”
Like Smith, Galloway sees the possibilities for Miller down the road. And remember, Smith and Galloway were both first-round picks in the NFL draft.
“I think this is a great move for him, not just for this season but for his career after he leaves Ohio State,” Galloway said. “The biggest question was going to be could he play another position. That’s the conversation all along any time you get an athletic quarterback like Braxton.
“It will be great for him to find out that answer now. Plus, it puts another dangerous athlete on the field for Ohio State.”
But does he have the discipline to run proper routes, and the mental makeup to take hits after a catch, whether it be on a pass or after fielding a punt, something Miller also has professed a desire to do this season?
“You never know until you go do it,” Galloway said. “There have been some tremendous athletes who played quarterback in college who could not make that switch, because it is an entirely different world. Because you have to go from standing in the pocket, reading coverages and then throwing, to all of a sudden not just having to catch the ball but blocking. To play receiver at Ohio State you have to block as much as you have to go catch the ball.
“Now, from a size standpoint (6 feet 2, 215 pounds), from a physicality standpoint (5 percent body fat), from an athletic standpoint (sub 4.4-second 40 yard dash), he has all those tools. But you won’t find out whether a guy will go over the middle and catch a football when he knows guys are coming to hit him until he does it.”
The fact that Miller reavled he already has been working on aspects of becoming a hybrid back “tells you mentally he is preparing for it,” Galloway said. “But you can’t find out if you’re suited for it until it actually happens.”
The beauty of the hybrid back position, as it relates to Miller’s talents, is he could be taking as many handoffs, quick pitches, shovel passes or flair passes as he does conventional downfield passes. And Miller, with the ball in his hands and on the move, Smith said, always has been a sight to behold.
“More than anything else it’s his feel,” Smith said. “He just has an incredible sense for not just the location of all tacklers, but also of how everybody is moving. What separates the great runners from the good runners is they just get a natural feel of how bodies are moving.
“Then combine that with his ability to start and stop so quickly – he’s just so dangerous. He’s got a natural spin, and then he can dart and he can accelerate then separate. He is a very, very dangerous runner.”
Threats spread across the field is a centerpiece of the Urban Meyer offense. That’s why, for example, the Buckeyes experimented with moving last year’s hybrid back Jalin Marshall to wide receiver in the spring, and moving speedy backup running back Curtis Samuel to hybrid back. And Dontre Wilson, knocked out by injury halfway through last season, is expected to challenge at hybrid back again.
“With this move by Braxton, it’s really just about getting as many playmakers as you can on the field,” Smith said. “I guess if I was an H back or a wide receiver, though, I’d be thinking ‘Wow, we’ve got a little bit more competition for playing time now.’ “
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