Urban Meyer had waited all his life for this moment.

He said he had begun following Ohio State when he was 3 ½ or 4 years old. Growing up in Ashtabula, he had a framed picture of Woody Hayes hanging in his bedroom, alongside other Buckeye posters and memorabilia. In high school he wore No. 45 in honor of his all-time hero, Archie Griffin, the two-time Heisman Trophy winner who wore the same number for the Buckeyes.

As a young man, Meyer spent a year as a grad assistant coach on Earle Bruce’s staff, and though the group was let go in 1987, he remained close to Bruce, who became like a second father.

And over the next 25 years, Meyer went on an ever-ascending coaching odyssey that took him around the nation and finally to Florida, where he spent six pressurized years and won two national crowns. But no matter how much Gator glory came his way, he was still a Buckeye at heart.

Some of that scarlet-and-gray embrace was glorified – the old absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder deal – but much of it was a true love of the history and traditions of OSU football, everything from the skull session and team’s pregame walk to the stadium to Script Ohio and “Hang on Sloopy” and singing “Carmen Ohio” with the students afterward.

And this past week, as he finally readied for his first game as head coach of the Buckeyes, after a year’s hiatus from the game and the seemingly perfect replacement for the scandal-tainted Jim Tressel and then the beleaguered Luke Fickell and last year’s dismal 6-7 effort, Meyer admitted: “I’ll be coming out of my shoes.”

And Saturday, before the Bucks opened up against the Miami RedHawks at Ohio Stadium, he had told friends attending the game to be sure and take in the marching band’s “Hang on Sloopy” celebration before the start of the fourth quarter because he would be doing the same on the sideline.

After all this build-up, there he stood on the Buckeyes sideline in the first quarter and he felt that he was coming out of his shoes – for all the wrong reasons.

During spring drills, as his new charges struggled to learn his fast-paced spread offense, Meyer had likened their efforts to “a clown show.”

In the first quarter against Miami, OSU resembled a cavorting bunch with big red noses, floppy shoes and greasepaint faces. The Bucks bumbled and stumbled through their first four possessions.

Braxton Miller, the sophomore quarterback from Wayne High School, completed one of seven passes for five yards in the first quarter. The Bucks couldn’t run the ball either and meanwhile Miami quarterback Zac Dysert had completed 13 of 23 passes for 165 yards. The RedHawks led 3-0 and had it not been for a couple of miscues to wide open receivers, they would have been up 14-0.

Meyer was perplexed. He was embarrassed. He was at such a loss that he sidled up to Miller and asked him what in the world was happening out there.

“I’m not as positive as Braxton was,” a half-smiling Meyer said of the moment afterward. “But it’s nice to have your quarterback stand right with you and say, ‘Here, we’ll be fine.’ ”

That Meyer listened hints to the free-fall state in which he found himself and his team. During the preseason he had had a similar conversation with Miller, and when the kid quarterback told him he understood everything that was going on, Meyer just winked at him and said, “Yeah, right pal.”

This time Meyer didn’t dismiss Miller’s response as ignorance is bliss. He simply let his quarterback go back out and prove that things were “fine.”

And that’s just how things turned out in what would end up a 56-10 Ohio State victory.

Miller ended up throwing for 207 yards and two touchdowns, one coming on a spectacular, one-handed leaping catch by Devin Smith early in the second quarter and then, just over 2 ½ minutes later, the other on a 5-yard rollout toss to Philly Brown.

Miller also ran for 161 yards and a touchdown, in the process shattering the rushing record for an OSU quarterback set 38 years ago by Cornelius Greene. In making history, Miller left the Horseshoe crowd of 105,039 roaring.

He opened the third quarter with a 65-yard TD sprint that left the Miami defensive backs wearing clown’s feet. First came a juke step that left RedHawk cornerback Chrishawn Dupuy lurching in the wrong direction., Then came a full-stride stutter step that caused safety D.J. Brown to hesitate and Miller roared by and into the end zone.

“I work at that every day in practice, but it felt good to do it in a game,” Miller said. “It’s just seizing the moment.”

Yet after the game it was neither that running nor the passing that Meyer praised. It was that sideline conversation with Miller and the leadership his quarterback showed:

“One of the things about Braxton Miller that I really had to see and I did today is that objective to make him from an athlete playing quarterback to a quarterback that manages.

“The quarterback position is a unique position in all sports. He’s got to manage so much. He’s got to manage basically the entire offense. He’s got to stay positive. He has to be a leader. And he showed that today. I told him (that) in the middle of the second quarter.”

Bucks center Corey Linsley saw the same thing: “In the huddle and coming off the field, Braxton was screaming, yelling, ‘We got to go. We got to punch it in.’ He was walking around high-fiving everybody. There was a sense of urgency, a real confidence, too, and it fed off him into everybody else.”

Miller admitted a year ago – when he was thrust into the starter’s role early in his freshman season – he would not have been able to do that:

“Last year a lot of things came at me. I was young and I didn’t know how to take it. I’d talk to my father all the time and he’d say, ‘Stay calm. Do what they want you to do.’ But it was tough. This year I totally know what I’m doing.”

That’s a bit of overstatement. Miller didn’t always throw the ball well Saturday and once when he was about to be sacked, he flung the ball skyward. He said he was trying to get rid of the ball, but it could easily have been picked off. As it was, he was penalized for grounding.

But on the whole it was a solid outing for Miller on the field and a superb performance on the sideline with his coach.

“I just listened to what he had to say,” Miller said, “and then I said, ‘We’ll get it going. We’ll do what we know how to do and we’ll get groovin’. You’ll like it.”

Yeah, right pal.