Ohio State Football Afternoon Notes: Injuries, Brandon Saine, & Style Points

Drew Thurman (4:12 pm)

1) Tressel's weekly press conference was early today, and he has some interesting notes on the injury front. First off he had this to say about Pryor and the status of his quad:

"Sunday we did a little bit of drills and weight lifting and all that, so we didn't really test it, per se. Yesterday was our day off and he was in doing his film study and his rehab and all.

I would expect every day he'll get closer to 100%. I don't know who's 100% after five games that has as much wear and tear as a guy that has his hands on the ball, but I think he'll be fine."

2) As for Tressel's thoughts on Tyler Moeller...

"It's really disappointing because he had the similar injury sometime before his head injury, and then unfortunately during the time he was rehabbing with his head injury, he could not work on anything that would raise his heartbeat and all that, so in essence, he probably spent seven or eight months doing nothing, which did not allow him to rehab, and so he got back and he was giving us 30 plays a game and that type of thing and just caught a guy the wrong way and that not-all-the-way-rehabbed injury just couldn't handle that and you just feel terrible about it.

And from his standpoint specifically, we're going to appeal for a hardship, and all that takes time and paperwork and documentation and so forth, but you just feel sick for him because you saw the pain he was in last year not being able to help his teammates and now he was, and now he was having fun. So, yeah, it's very disappointing and obviously it hurts us."

3) Tressel also made a few comments today that make you scratch your head. My favorite had to do with Brandon Saine's role going forward. Apparently Tressel is seeing a different version of Brandon Saine than we are.

"I think his performance has been solid. He's gotten four or five touchdowns, does a good job out of the back field. He hasn't had the running yards. I'm not sure who would have in the situations he just happened to be in, but Brandon Saine adds a dimension of speed and versatility that we have to absolutely use.

So have we figured out exactly how to maximize that? Probably not. But that's what you do during the course of a season, you know, who's available, who's healthy, what do they do, how can we -- what's some good match-ups, so I'm sure it will change every week."

His 2.5 average a carry over the last four games is more than just bad situations. Sorry Tressel!

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4) Finally, Tressel made some very interesting comments about a potential shuffle at the safety position. We all assumed Bryant would just take over for Moeller as he did against Illinois, but Tressel offered some different scenarios.

"Well, the only way we could, which was in the game he was full speed ahead and I thought he did a solid job. He's got to get better, he knows that. But he really loves football.

Without having sat and talked about it yet because we go out this afternoon and everyone gets the reps, but in my mind the three things that can happen, the most logical one is Christian will step in and do a good job. The other thing you always have the opportunity to do is move Jermale back there, because he played nickel there for multiple years, put someone else in at safety, and then the other thing is we get Nate Oliver back, who has been playing that nickel position and he's been out for a couple weeks and we hope he's back 100%, we think so, but we need to see it."

The scary thing is that if this switch is to happen, Bryant would be called upon to learn a new position in one week. Not exactly ideal when playing a pass happy team like Indiana. I do love the idea of Hines back in at the Star because he brings some size and serious tackling ability to the position.

5) Adam Rittenberg has a great piece about how the Buckeyes need style points. Thanks to the way things are shaping up the BCS, there could be a lot of undefeated or one loss teams when the dust settles.

"But Oregon is lurking, and so are Boise State and TCU, two teams hated by many fans but respected by voters because of what they've accomplished over time. To remain in the national title discussion, Ohio State must continue to handle its business. But at some point, the Buckeyes will need to show some style, too."

6) Rittenberg has also posted a video breaking down the secondary issues for Ohio State and how they will be tested against the Hoosiers. Total fluff, but at least he is pulling for Moeller.