Ohio State redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Miller was cited for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (OVI) early Friday morning, multiple sources have informed Bucknuts. Miller has been suspended from OSU’s team.
[UPDATE at 4:25 p.m. ET:] According to the citation, Miller was stopped at 1:28 a.m. on N. 4th street near 15th Ave. just off Ohio State’s campus after his pickup truck swerved across marked lanes. The quarterback refused a breathalyzer test at the scene. Miller is now scheduled to appear in Franklin County Municipal Court on Nov. 11.
[UPDATE at 3:10 p.m. ET:] Following our report, Ohio State released this statement to the media:
This confirms what Bucknuts/247Sports first reported.
Statement from the Ohio State Dept. of Athletics
November 5, 2021
Ohio State University student-athlete Jack Miller was arrested by Ohio State Highway Patrol officers Friday morning and charged with operating a vehicle while impaired. Miller was released from custody and issued a summons to appear in court for the OVI. He has been suspended from the football team.
Miller came to Ohio State from Scottsdale, Arizona. A product of Chaparral High School, Miller was a four-star prospect and the country’s 13th ranked pro-style quarterback, per the 247Sports Composite. He committed to play for the then-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes in July of 2018, prior to his junior year of high school.
Along with classmate and fellow quarterback C.J. Stroud, Miller enrolled at Ohio State in January of 2020, in order to get a jump start on his freshman season. While he did take part in winter conditioning, the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, caused the Buckeyes to cancel spring practice early and players on the Scarlet and Gray roster returned home for multiple months.
Once the 2020 season began, following the Big Ten announcing there would be no football that fall due to the pandemic, Miller and Stroud shared backup duties to starter Justin Fields. Miller actually was the first backup quarterback to play for Ohio State in 2020, coming in for Fields late in the Buckeyes’ season-opening win against Nebraska.
Miller played in one other game as a freshman, the blowout win at Michigan State, and finished his freshman season without throwing a pass, but rushing twice for 23 yards and a touchdown.
So far this season, Miller, along with freshman Kyle McCord, have served as backups to Stroud. Miller has played in four games, 42 snaps, as the third-string quarterback behind Stroud and McCord this year, completing seven of his 14 pass attempts for 101 yards.
While Stroud and McCord have clearly established themselves as the top two quarterbacks on the Scarlet and Gray depth chart, losing Miller for any time could be a blow for Ohio State. If Miller is unavailable for any of the four games remaining this season due to this arrest, true freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers could move up on the depth chart, although Day has said he’s not ready to play yet. The Buckeyes could also use either walk-ons J.P. Andrade or Jagger LaRoe, a junior and senior respectively, as the third-string quarterback.
This is a breaking story and Bucknuts will provide updates as they become available.
