Miller, Herron will play for Buckeyes at Illinois

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio State had a first down at its own 23 and a 27-6 lead with 7:54 left in the third quarter in Nebraska’s Big Ten home debut on Saturday night.

Then everything spiraled out of control.

The 34-27 loss marked the biggest comeback victory ever for Nebraska — and one of the biggest collapses in the Buckeyes’ 122 seasons.

“I’ve not been a part of something like that — a little bit of an unbelievable snowball effect,” interim coach Luke Fickell said on Tuesday.

It won’t be easy to pick up the pieces.

Not only do the Buckeyes (3-3) travel to play No. 16 Illinois (6-0) on Saturday, but before that they’ll be dealing with several personnel issues.

First, starting quarterback Braxton Miller should be back from an ankle injury. He sparkled in the first half in Lincoln, Neb., but his fumble helped fuel the Cornhuskers’ comeback. After he was helped to the sideline, he was replaced by Joe Bauserman.

Bauserman couldn’t get anything going. He was just 1 for 10 for 13 yards with an interception filling in for the freshman. His performance led Ohio State to increase the number of snaps in practice this week for third-stringer Kenny Guiton, who has been running scout team plays for the past few weeks.

Defensive end Nathan Williams, considered the team’s top pass-rusher coming into the season, is lost for the rest of the year.

Also, Ohio State gets back last year’s top rusher, Daniel Herron. He sat out the first five games (along with three teammates) for his role in accepting cash and discounted or free tattoos in a scandal that rocked the program. Herron was then suspended by the NCAA for Saturday’s game for getting paid too much for a summer job offered by a Cleveland-area booster.