Sept. 15, 2012

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No. 12 Ohio State (3-0) 35, California (1-2) 28
Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio
Sept. 15, 2012
Attendance: 105,232

OHIO STATE POSTGAME NOTES

With the win, Urban Meyer improved to 37-4 in September. Meyer has started aseason 3-0 or better 10 times in 11 seasons as head coach. OhioState has won 60 consecutive regular-season non-conference homegames against teams not ranked in the AP Top 25. The last loss:34-17 to Florida State, Oct. 2, 1982. Ohio State is 60-7 at OhioStadium since the start of the 2002 season.

SERIES NOTES

Ohio State is 6-1 all-time against California, winning each ofthe last six meetings.

OFFENSIVE NOTES

BraxtonMiller had a hand in all five Ohio State touchdowns, throwingfor a career-best four and rushing for one. He has five careertwo-touchdown games, including one this season vs. Miami. Miller’s72-yard pass to Devin Smith in the fourth quarter was a career long completion,topping the 54-yard pass he had at Michigan last season. Millerended the game with 249 yards passing, completing 16-of-30attempts. It was a career high, topping the 235 at Michigan in2011. Devin Smith had a career-high 145 yards receiving, including acareer-long 72 yard game-winning catch in the fourth quarter. Itwas his second career game with two touchdowns and first sinceSept. 24, 2011 vs. Colorado. The 55-yard touchdown run by Miller inthe first quarter marked his sixth run of 20 or more yards thisseason. The run was Miller’s fifth rushing touchdown of the season.Jake Stoneburner’s 40-yard reception in the first quartermarked a career long. Stoneburner tallied his 11th career receivingtouchdown in the second quarter and 12th in the fourth quarter.Ohio State converted on a two-point conversion attempt in thefourth quarter vs. the Golden Bears to take a 28-21 lead. The lastsuccessful two-point conversion by the Buckeyes was Oct. 16, 2010.

DEFENSIVE NOTES

Ohio State, which entered the game with three sacks in itsfirst two games combined, had six sacks on the day, the most sincerecording six vs. Wisconsin Oct. 10, 2009. Six Buckeyes recorded asack vs. the Golden Bears. Christian Bryant had the first interception of his career latein the fourth quarter to help Ohio State close out the win.Ryan Shazier had a career-best 10 solo tackles, topping themark of seven he had vs. Penn State last season. Shazier had ateam-best 13 tackles in the game, with two TFLs, including hisfirst sack of the season and the third of his career. Bradley Roby recorded his first career sack in the firstquarter, sacking California quarterback Zach Maynard for a loss of11 yards at the Cal 39 yard line. He had a career-high nine totaltackles and career-best seven solo tackles. Bradley Roby recorded two tackles for loss totaling 13 yards,his career best for TFL in a single game. Johnathan Hankins had a career-high 10 tackles, besting thenine he had at Illinois last year. Senior outside linebackerEtienne Sabino took down Maynard on third down for a loss of 10yards in the first quarter. It was his first sack of the season andhe has 3.5 sacks for his career. Defensive lineman Garrett Goebel recorded his first sack of the season and thesecond of his career at 12:33 of the second quarter. Maynard wassacked on third down by Ryan Shazier for a loss of 9 yards at the 1:33 mark of thesecond quarter. It was his first this season and the third of hiscareer.

CALIFORNIA GAME NOTES

Today’s game was the seventh in the series between Cal and OhioState, and the Buckeyes lead the series 6-1 after the 35-28 OhioState victory today. This was also the seventh road game in theJeff Tedford era that was played in a different time zone andstarted before noon PT. The Golden Bears now have a 5-2 record inthose contests. This was the second game in a row that Cal boastedover 500 yards of total offense (512). They outgained Ohio State by100 yards (412). Last week against Southern Utah, the Bears had 518yards. Brendan Bigelow scored on a career-long 81-yard touchdownrun. It was Cal’s longest play from scrimmage this season,surpassing Daniel Lasco’s 77-yarder last week. It is the longestrush since Jahvid Best’s 93-yard touchdown run at UCLA in 2009.Bigelow followed that with a 59-yard touchdown later in the game.He ended the day with a personal-best 160 rushing yards and 230all-purpose yards. His previous career best in all-purpose yardswas 137 against Presbyterian last year. Zach Maynard finished26-for-37 for 280 yards with a touchdown, an interception and aone-yard rushing touchdown. The completions were a career high. Itwas also Maynard’s first rushing touchdown this season – fifth ofhis career – and the first since last year at Arizona State.Maynard spread the ball around, throwing to eight differentreceivers. Keenan Allen moved up to sixth all-time at Cal in careerreceptions with 164 after his nine grabs for 80 yards against theBuckeyes to pace the Bears. Nai’il Benjamin is fifth with 165 andBrian Treggs is fourth with 167. Midway through the second quarter,he also registered his 2,000th-career receiving yard, and now has2,049 for his career. Steve Rivera ranks 10th all time at Cal with2,085 career receiving yards. Allen also had his first pass attemptsince last year at Colorado. It went to Maynard for eight yards.For his career, Allen is 3-for-3 with 52 yards passing. ChrisHarper hauled in a 19-yard touchdown reception – his second of theseason – in the first quarter. He finished with three catches for32 yards and the score. C.J. Anderson had a career-high fourreceptions for 65 yards. On the ground, Anderson carried the ballfour times for 13 yards. Isi Sofele posted 21 rushes for 86 yards,including a season-best 26-yarder. After losing the time ofpossession battle the last two weeks, the Bears had the ball for35:10 compared to 24:50 for Ohio State. Darius Powe made his firstcareer catch in the first quarter. He later hauled in a 36-yardreception in the third quarter. Keni Kaufusi earned his secondcareer forced fumble on the last play of the first quarter. He andBrennan Scarlett picked up their second career tackles for loss, aswell. Todd Barr also registered a tackle for loss. Alex Logan wasCal’s leading tackler with a personal-best seven takedowns. MichaelLowe also tied his career high in tackles with five. Steve Williamscaught his fourth career interception, first of this season.Steffan Mos booted a 57-yard punt on his first career punt. Mosrecorded the first two punts of the day. Jalen Jefferson and NickForbes made their first career starts.