Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer mentioned how he wanted to limit the amount of runs for quarterback Braxton Miller. It appears Meyer’s method worked this past Saturday for his starting signal-caller.
As another week has passed in the Big Ten, there continues to be surprise players who have stepped up to help their teams in clutch situations. While a few players may get more recognition than others, this week’s Big Ten players of the week, have contributed to their team’s success early in the season. 
For Miller, he won his first Big Ten Offensive player of the week award for his performance against California this past Saturday. Miller threw for a career-high 245 yards with four touchdown passes. Miller also added a touchdown run to his impressive stats against the Bears.
On defense, Penn State linebacker Michael Mauti won his second Big Ten Defensive player of the week award for his solid effort against Navy last Saturday. Mauti had a team-high 12 tackles for the NIttany Lions.
While Ohio State and Minnesota are two of three unbeaten teams in the conference, Northwestern at 3-0 has yet another player who wins an in-season award. Kicker Jeff Budzien won his first Big Ten Special Teams player of the week award. Budzien helped the Wildcats prevail over Boston College with his five field goals of 42, 41, 29, 20 and 19 yards. Budzien has completed all eight of his field goal attempts this season.
Indiana was without its starting quarterback Tre Roberson against Ball State but managed to remain competitive because of freshman signal-caller Nate Sudfield. Sudfield came off the bench in the fourth quarter to throw for 172 yards and two touchdowns.
Sudfield was named Big Ten Co-Freshman player of the week. Ironically, the last Hoosiers player to win this award was Roberson last October.
The other player to be named Big Ten Co-Freshman player of the week was defensive end Deion Barnes of Penn State. Barnes had a career-high five tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in a won over Navy. The last Penn State player to win this award was Rob Bolden in 2010.
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