COLUMBUS — The No. 16- ranked Ohio State Buckeyes brushed aside Alabama-Birmingham after a slow start and are ready for Big Ten play after extinguishing the Blazers, 29-15, on Alumni Band Day in Ohio Stadium.

The win was No. 400 for the Buckeyes in the 90-year-old stadium. OSU is now 400-109-20 in the friendly confines.

The first four games in OSU head coach Urban Meyer’s tenure, all at home, are over as the Buckeyes go on the road to East Lansing, Mich., to take on the No. 21-ranked Michigan State Spartans (Saturday, 3:30, ABC) in their Big Ten opener.   

However, the Buckeyes (4-0) will have to be better than they were the past two games as the Blazers of Conference USA (0-3) were a 37-point underdog and deserved better for their effort in their first game at the Horsehoe. UAB became the 22nd team in the last 25 years to meet the host at the Ohio Stadium for the first time. Keep in mind that the Blazers are only in their 22nd year of existence while its OSU’s 123rd.

“It’s tough on any program to go to (No.8) South Carolina (49-6 loss) one week and then the next week to Ohio State,” UAB first-year head coach Garrick McGee said. “I was impressed on how the team played four quarters of football and I’m confident heading into conference play.”

The 120th-ranked UAB scoring defense played like No. 1 against Ohio State’s offense. If you let an inferior team hang around and give them a chance, bad things happen, and it almost did but OSU relied heavily again on playmakers, quarterback Braxton Miller and a bend-don’t-break defense that gave up 403 yards of total offense to the No.-85 rated offense in the nation — 144 of it was on the ground for UAB and 259 in passing as the Blazers tandem of Jonathan Perry and Austin Brown were a combined 28 for 46, 1 INT. The Buckeyes did not give up a passing touchdown though.

“It’s glaring. Obviously, we’ve got to get better or we won’t win next week,” Meyer said. “I think we seem like a very passive team. We’re on defense, we give up little screens, little bubbles. They didn’t score a touchdown on our defense but we gave up a lot of yardage. That hurts — I’m pained watching it. But we have to get better on defense and play a little snugger coverage. If our corners are as good as we think they are, we have to go play a little man coverage on people.”

Meyer, 1982 St. John graduate, with the 4-0 start, is tied for the third-best start to a career by an Ohio State coach all-time. Ten of Meyer’s 11 teams have started the season 3-0. The only exception was his 2003 Utah group that suffered a setback, 28-26, to Texas A&M in its second game. Eight of his of 11 3-0 starts have turned into 4-0 starts.

The undefeated Scarlet and Gray non-conference slate was used to find and evaluate talent while developing youngsters. Meyer relied on returning lettermen while instilling in them a new gung-ho philosophy of being more aggressive going down the field with the pass and still being balanced (250 rushing yards, 250 passing per game) and putting pressure on defenses.

The Buckeyes relied on senior tailback Jordan Hall with a game-high 105 yards on 17 carries. Miller was a thoroughbred once again with two rushing touchdowns (12 yards and 1 yard) while gaining 64 yards on just 11 carries. Through the air, Miller connected on 12 of 20 passes for 143 yards while being sacked twice. Corey “Philly” Brown, a key contributor and one of the playmakers Meyer talks about, caught four passes for 67 yards. Pitching in for the OSU victory were fullback Zach Boren (2-yard TD) and tailback Rod Smith (6 carries, 24 yards, 1-yard TD) as the offense gained 204 yards on the ground.

“On offense, our explosive plays are obviously nonexistent for much of the game. If there’s one thing we could make adjustments and fix, it’s more than one thing right now,” Meyer stated. “So we’ve got a long way to go. The fact is we’re a great defense. (We) missed too many tackles today, again. We’re not a methodically dominating offense.”

“We realize that this is (the start of) Big Ten (play) and our non-conference is done. Big Ten is big boy ball,” Brown said. “We have to come out and practice real hard. We need to maintain it or generate (offense) in the first quarter, come out a lot stronger and focus a lot on this. (Meyer) wants us to be No.1 in everything.

“We are not to our potential yet. After a wakeup call like this, we need to get after it.”

Meyer lauded Miller’s play, though.

“He’s a dynamic athlete,” Meyer said. “I used to say that Percy Harvin (his former Florida player now with Minnesota Vikings) has a great first step because he’s incredible. I think (Miller) has great acceleration but he’s got an uncanny ability to make guys miss. So he’s without a doubt one of the best athletes in college football.”

“Our defensive staff does a good job on game planning, but we turned the ball over a lot (one fumble, one interception),” McGee said. “Overall, I thought we did a good job on one of the most explosive players (Miller) in the game.”

“We’re not coming out with enough energy — somebody’s got to get our energy to rise. Our mindset isn’t where it needs to be at the start of the game,” Miller said. “We’re going to get it figured out. We have a whole week of practice to improve and strive for our best (to beat MSU).”

“We gotta develop a finely tuned machine,” Meyer said. “There’s some growing pains. I thought we’d be further ahead. It is what it is. The good thing is there is no push back. I have a clear understanding where we are at. I think they are working their tails off.”

Hall is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.

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