Beanie Wells probably won’t play against Ohio, but the Buckeyes shouldn’t need him to beat the Bobcats (no disrespect to my alma mater). Coach Tressel was coy when discussing the injury today. He wouldn’t (or couldn’t) give a medical diagnosis, but did say he talked to Beanie earlier Tuesday morning and the running back said he felt good. Everything we’ve heard anecdotally over the last few days, and confirmed by Tressel, is that the injury is not as serious as first feared Saturday afternoon. Whether or not this foot injury lingers through the season, only time will tell, but remember, last year, with a broken wrist and bum ankle, Beanie did rack up over 1600 yards. He has proven he can play hurt. We might see Beanie out there for a series or two, like what they did against Kent last year, but my bet is they play it safe, rest him against the Bobcats, so he’s fresh for the now top tanked Trojans.
New polls came out today, in both the coaches and writers, USC leap frogs Georgia into the #1 spot, Buckeyes fall to #3. No big deal, Trojans had a much more impressive win Saturday (at Virginia) than either OSU of UGA’s drubbings of 1-AA opponents.
While not officially saying it, it certainly appears Terrelle Pryor is the 2nd string QB, Joe Bauserman is still #2 on the depth chart, but against Youngstown St., Pryor did see playing time with the 1st string O-line before Bauserman. Tressel wouldn’t take the bait on that one, either, saying take it for what it means, that Pryor came in first. He also said it was too early to tell how much playing time all 3 QBs would see against Ohio.
One other interesting note from today’s proceedings, TE Rory Nichol revealed one of Coach Tressel’s motivation methods for this season. Seems like all the Senior were given jars containing 12 marbles, representing the last 12 games of their college football careers. After each game, the seniors give one of their marbles back to the coaches. When asked if that means at the end of the year the senior will have lost their marbles, Nichol immediately replied, “We’ll be playing for all the marbles.”