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NCAA Football

Urban Meyer’s Statement Won’t Quiet Braxton Miller Rumors at Ohio State

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Greg Bartram – USA TODAY Sports

You wouldn’t expect a team coming off a national championship that was poised to be ranked as the preseason No. 1 team in the nation to have a quarterback controversy but that’s exactly where the Ohio State Buckeyes find themselves. With three viable starting quarterbacks, the college football world watches with baited breath to see how Urban Meyer handles the situation, particularly as it pertains to Braxton Miller. Everyone is speculating about Miller’s future and not even Meyer’s statement of support for Miller as a quarterback at Ohio State in 2015 will quell the rumors.

By now, everyone knows the quarterback saga that took place in Columbus last season. Miller, the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, suffered a season-ending non-contact shoulder injury in fall camp that he is still recovering from. In steps J.T. Barrett, who sparks a Heisman Trophy campaign of his own as he leads the Buckeyes to a perfect conference record and an 11-1 overall regular season record before breaking his ankle in the regular season finale against the Michigan Wolverines. So Ohio State turns to third-string quarterback Cardale Jones who simply rolls through the Big Ten title game before leading the Buckeyes through the College Football Playoff and to a national title.

Now Meyer has to choose between these three quarterbacks as Miller and Barrett work their back from injury and Jones led the team in spring practice while the media storm swirls around them. There have been rumors about Miller leaving as a graduate transfer to go to programs like the Oregon Ducks, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Florida State Seminoles (the three other participants in the College Football Playoff) among others. When Miller stayed after spring practice, the rumors moved to him changing positions and bowing out of the quarterback race to use his athleticism elsewhere in his final season of eligibility.

At a news conference on Friday, Meyer did his best to squash these rumors, telling reporters:

“He’s playing for Ohio State this fall…He’s in the best shape he’s ever been in his life. He’s working his tail off…The objective is to get him healthy and be an Ohio State quarterback.”

Meyer went on to say that any rumors to the contrary were “just people talking” in an effort to shut down the rumor mill that has surrounded Miller all offseason.

Unfortunately for Meyer and Ohio State, it’s not going to work. There are simply too many questions about the dynamics of this quarterback race without any real answers coming from Meyer or spring practices for this topic to get shut down so easily. The only way that the potential fate of Miller and the Buckeyes stops being news will be when Meyer lays out the blueprint for how he’s going to handle this unprecedented situation.

The biggest question of course: Who is going to be the quarterback? Will it be the former Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, the quarterback who carried the team through the regular season on their way to a title, or the quarterback who delivered that title with three excellent starts in the postseason? Once you have your No. 1 QB decided, what do you do with the other two? How long a leash will the starter have with two proven winners waiting on the sidelines?

So while Urban Meyer’s statement helps to shed a little light on the future of Braxton Miller at Ohio State, it will have little effect in putting out the rumor fire burning bright in Columbus. Until Meyer figures out how he’s going to handle this three-headed monster, the circus will continue.

You can follow Tyler Brett on Twitter @ATylerBrett, on Facebook and on Google.

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