Tressel Offers Injury, Flu Updates On Buckeyes

COLUMBUS, Ohio—What’s brewing today with the 2009 Ohio State Buckeyes ...

BUCKEYES BUZZ: Coach Jim Tressel met with reporters on Tuesday, and here are some of the high points:

DL Dexter Larimore will miss “a week or two” with a sprained ankle, OL Jim Cordle will miss two more games with a foot injury. TB Dan “Boom” Herron will be back for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game against unbeaten Wisconsin after missing last week with a leg injury.

So much for injuries. The team still has several players down with the flu. Tressel said he hasn’t seen OL Andrew Miller since Wednesday’s practice, and he said as many as two other OL might miss practice Monday night because of the flu. He said he thought Mike Adams was also ill.

“I don’t think it (flu) is under control because the problem is it’s not under control with the general population,“ Tressel said. He said the problem is that football players go to a lecture hall immediately after someone was sitting in the same seat who might be coming down with the nagging illness.

Jamaal Berry, the prized TB recruit out of Florida, is still sidelined with an undisclosed injury. Berry traveled with the team to the 33-14 win at Indiana, and might have even gotten into the game if one of the Buckeyes’ two healthy TBs had gone down, Tressel said.

NOTHING TO MOW: Wisconsin’s game notes list the Ohio Stadium field as natural grass. It’s actually a rubber-based FieldTurf and has been for several years.

TRESSELESE: Asked what effect last year’s last-minute touchdown drive had on QB Terrelle Pryor’s development, here’s a direct transcript of the coach’s response: “I thought it was a big thing, especially for the moment and I have no idea who we played the next week, but as soon as we got done looking at the film on Sunday, it stopped being a big thing because we had to get ready for Purdue, but you added that to his things that he experienced and things that he could learn from. And now as we go play - this will be, what, the second team that he’s played a full game against for two years in a row, Illinois and now these folks, so could there be some carryover knowledge-wise and expectation-wise, sometimes one of the most difficult things for a player is if they don’t know what to expect. Well, he knows what to expect against Wisconsin. Every yard you’re going to earn. So I think it was a huge thing.“

2-HEADED TAILBACK: So who is Ohio State’s No. 1 tailback, now that Herron is healthy and can split time with Brandon Saine?

“Saine-Herron, however you want to call it,“ he said. “Herron-Saine. Doesn’t matter.“

NOTE THIS: Wisconsin has won three of the last four games played in Columbus, including visits to Ohio Stadium in 1999 and 2001 in which the Badgers overcame 17-point deficits and shut out the Buckeyes in the second half to win both times.

TRYING TO HELP: A reporter asked if LTs Miller and Adams are both sick, if that meant that J.B. Shugarts would go to LT and Marcus Hall would practice Tuesday at RT.

“That’s a good idea,“ Tressel said. “That’s a good thought. I’ll let you know.“