Whitner's big play no surprise to teammates

Whitner picked off a pass by Miami of Ohio quarterback Josh Betts and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter to give the Buckeyes a 20-0 lead and a decided momentum advantage.

"That play was huge," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.

Whitner had victimized teammate Todd Boeckman just a few weeks ago.

"It was so funny because he had a play exactly like that in the jersey scrimmage," free safety Nate Salley said. "Same route, same play, same everything."

"He studies film and he has an idea of what route the receiver is going to run and he just jumped on it," linebacker A.J. Hawk said. "It was a huge momentum swing for us."

The return for a touchdown also provided a little redemption for Whitner, who was called for roughing the punter on the previous play, giving Miami of Ohio new life.

He quickly took it away and, in the process, deflated any comeback hopes.

"There's a moment when you get the chance to break the spirit," Tressel said. "It was only 13-0. ... They hadn't scored, they hadn't moved it, but they had hope. All of a sudden, when the score's 20-0 there's a little different emotion."

The defense as a whole dominated the RedHawks. Ohio State held Miami of Ohio to just 48 yards rushing on 30 attempts and had five sacks. Senior defensive end Mike Kudla also caused a fumble recovered by senior defensive tackle Marcus Green.

"We came into the game knowing how good they really were," Salley said. "That's why we prepared so hard ... and it showed."

Linebackers Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel also got to the quarterback.

"We wanted to make sure we affected the quarterback, which I think we did most of the game and took care of little things," Hawk said.

With everything the defense did well, Hawk said the Buckeyes still have room for improvement heading into Saturday night's showdown with Texas.

"I don't think you're ever as good as you want to be just because there's always something you want to do better," Hawk said. "We always have mistakes here or there, a couple missed assignments, a couple missed tackles. We took a couple of steps forward, but we've got to go back and see what we did wrong."

Originally published Sunday, September 4, 2005