Miller throws 2 TD passes in Ohio St scrimmage

Published Aug. 20, 2011 10:58 p.m. ET

foxsports

Braxton Miller threw two touchdown passes and Joe Bauserman had one in Ohio State's scrimmage Saturday.

The Buckeyes, ranked No. 18 in the preseason, must replace Terrelle Pryor, who left after his junior season for next week's NFL supplemental draft after being one of five Ohio State players suspended for the first five games of the season for NCAA violations.

In practices this week and during the scrimmage in Ohio Stadium, it appeared Bauserman and Miller had separated themselves from sophomore Kenny Guiton and redshirt freshman Taylor Graham.

Offensive coordinator Jim Bollman said the Buckeyes would likely continue the trend of using two quarterbacks early in the season, beginning with the opener against Akron on Sept. 3, and Miller could be in the mix.

''There's a good chance he will be,'' Bollman said. ''Nothing in concrete yet. We'll see how it goes the next week or so.

''Pretty soon we'll have to start working down to a situation where we're working more with two guys.''

Braxton, a freshman from Huber Heights, Ohio, connected with Chris Fields on a 58-yard catch-and-run on the first series that the quarterbacks wore the black, non-contact jerseys. The pass was short but Fields outmuscled defensive back Christian Bryant and raced 40 yards for the score.

Braxton later hit Devin Smith for a 26-yard score.

Bauserman, a fifth-year senior, took most of the snaps with the first team and threw a 10-yard TD to Jeff Heuerman but was also intercepted in the end zone by Travis Howard.

The defense also had several other highlights, including a goal-line stand and snuffing a fourth-and-1 early in the scrimmage.

''Between the 20s probably wasn't our best effort but during the red-zone situations I thought we played well.'' said linebackers coach Mike Vrabel, the former Buckeyes star who retired from the Kansas City Chiefs last month.

Drew Basil made field goals from 26, 38, 19, 41 and 26 yards but missed a 30-yard attempt on the final play.

Unlike previous scrimmages under Jim Tressel, first-year coach Luke Fickell said no score was kept and the winner of the coveted scarlet practice jerseys would be decided after reviewing video.

''I thought we had been competitive the whole camp so far,'' Fickell said. ''That's the nature of what we want to be so we weren't focused on the score.

''I didn't want that to affect how they played or how we called things. That was the biggest thing. It's about us. We don't care who wears the jerseys.''