Injury prone?The summer heading into this season was rife with comparisons to the 2002 Buckeyes. The dominating defense, the green quarterback, yada yada. While Boeckman's play has surprised most, there have been some parallels: a tenacious defense, solid running game and dominating wins to start the season including a signature win against a school from the state of Washington.
There is, however, another similarity between the 2007 and 2002 seasons -- much to the consternation of the Buckeye faithful. This year, like the magical run of Tressel's 2nd season features a running back with oodles of talent, but a lingering injury.
In 2002, Dirty Mo sat out of the Cincinnati game in week 4 after getting his knee scoped and then suffered a shoulder stinger late in a 19-14 victory over Wisconsin in week 8. He would go on to miss most or all of the next four games for the Buckeyes before rebounding with 100+ against the Wolverines in the regular season finale.
Fast forward to 2007. Beanie Wells, perhaps the most talented back the Bucks have had since Mo, is off to a monster start but has been bothered with a high ankle sprain the past few weeks. There are a few crack-smoking fans on various message boards suggesting that Wells has a history of injuries and voluntarily took himself out of games at the high school level and The Dispatch's Ken Gordon points out that there's a feeling amongst OSU insiders that Wells' ankle just has a "general weakness" that he's had for years and the coaching staff is none too optimistic that the he'll be pain-free anytime soon.
Plays through pain all the timeThat's fine, but Gordon follows that tip up with this insightful wisdom:
But if it's crunch time and he's not able to answer the bell, then it's fair to wonder if he's the right man for the job. If you can't count on the kid's ankle, get someone else in there.
Wow. The injury is frustrating, but you have to hand it Wells for handling it in the complete opposite manner as the attention-whoring Clarett. No grimacing on the sideline, getting extra padding taped on every 15 minutes. No speaking out to the media about how he's bigger than the program. Just a nagging injury.
What's really interesting is that it appears as if the Vest is hell-bent on Beanie playing every game this season. He's already ruled out sitting Beanie for the Kent State game and he's spoken at length about "injuries being part of the game". Maybe he learned something with Mo in 2002? Maybe the injuries are different enough to necessitate different approaches. With the hapless Flashes coming to town this weekend and capable backups in the form of Mo Wells and Brandon Saine, I'd probably prefer to sit Beanie and keep him fresh for bigger games down the road.
But, I guess that's why he makes $2 mil a year and I don't.
Elswhere, some of the BlogPoll ballots of other voters are starting to trickle in for week six and it's wack ballot time: Exhibit A, Exhibit B (EDIT: DSS came to his senses) and Exhibit C.
Comments
Do you have any articles or quotes from Tressel about Beanie in regards to the Kent State game specifically?
And I kinda doubt that coach Tressel is considering Maurice Clarett's injuries and how they were handled when deciding on how to handle Beanie's ankle.. that seems like a bit of a stretch.
To answer your headline...yes. At this point there isn't a whole lot to talk about negatively. Positive, upbeat, feel-good articles don't sell papers/magazines which is why I come here for Buckeye football insight and not the dispatch.
It seems to me that ankle doesn't get better with rest so Tressel is gonna play him. He needs to play with the pain in every game so if/when crunch time comes he will be ready. I would be VERY surprised if he weren't bustin' off 7 yard runs with the game on the line.
Gordon would probably want to fire Tressel if Beanie was the right man for the job and blew a knee in the 4th quarter of the Purdue game.
Tressel just said that Wells definitely will play against Kent State
Tressel said as much in the Purdue postgame press conference.
Although Beanie does have some speed, he is a contact runner. He would rather stiff arm someone or run them over. He will have some bumps & bruises. I'm totally impressed with this kid. He's a sophmore & dominating. And dominating on a bad wheel. And if he should be compared to anyone, it should be Eddie George...not Dirty Mo.
All contact runners go through injuries. Just look at the NFL...for example, S.Jackson & B. Jacobs...both bruisers working through injuries. It happens.
PS - whoever submitted exhibit C needs to stop sniffing glue.
Sitting Beanie against Kent St. is the worst thing Tressel can do. It signals to the rest of the team that the game will be an easy cakewalk (otherwise, we'd have Beanie in, right?). The last thing any major underdog needs this year is more motivation to be App St. or Stanford.
No, better to let Beanie play, but only give him a dozen carries or so.
I can only assume that Jason Lloyd (Morning Journal - Lorain, OH) has AIDS and is baiting me to abruptly end his life...or he is just an idiot. I'm leaning towards idiot because as you may recall, this "opinion shaper" claimed the Buckeyes had zero chance of defeating Purdue last weekend...uhm, yeah.
Jason's newest round of verbal dookie stunk up my ears late this afternoon on another Marlboro Light marathon drive home from work. He claims that "if" Ohio State is the best the bigten has to offer then "the bigten is in sad shape". He then predicted that if we make it to the BCS title game we will have "not deserved it" and would undoubtedly get "embarrased again" by whoever we would face. I was not fooled my friends, not this time. It is true that I nearly swirved off the road while trying to hold my teeth in through what can only be described as my worst Mr. Ed style, laughing enduced, grandma-seizure.
Upon the successful, yet somewhat dangerous, completion of my homeward journey I went online to see what other magical football unicorns this ass had conjured up. Turns out he has the pulse of the American people too. Jason has uncovered a nationwide distrust and dislike of our football program - similar to Yankee hatred. I was pleased to realize that he may be right, and even more pleased to realize that the only way this backwards, HIV having, football shit-for-brains could have possibly gotten the skinny on what the nation is thinking was to lurk in the shadows of sites just this one. God bless this site and the others so linked. I'll say it again, it probably saves lives.
Paulie Buckeyes - You don't consider experiences from your past when making similar decisions in life?
SportsMonkey - This Buckeye team could beat Kent State with Steve Rehring at tailback. Why did Tressel sit Clarett during his stringer stretch? I think they're comparable injuries.
damn HAL3!
rants like that just plain scare me. really, they do!
Lane - Fear makes us stronger.
HAL3- I hope we have a following that hates us like the Yankees do....because you know what that is....jealousy.
(and know I'm not a Yankees fan, I'm an Indians fan, and I am jealous of their last 12 straight playoff births!)
WIL - I agree. I am a Yankee fan (jealous of the Tribe because they seem to be able to do something we can't...get past the first round of the playoffs) and I love the hate from fans of other teams. I am hopeful that the Bucks are getting that type of hate from other schools and such. It makes me proud.
jason - "This Buckeye team could beat Kent State with Steve Rehring at tailback. Why did Tressel sit Clarett during his stringer stretch? I think they’re comparable injuries."
First, I think that Beanie's ankle isn't really that big of a deal. Even Tressel said at the conference that it was in good shape, he just got it stung and it hurt for a few minutes. The same thing could happen at any time, or not at all again. It's not going to get any better if he sits on the sideline, so he might as well continue working it to keep it strong.
Second, on paper, UM could have beaten App St. with Carr at tailback... but they didn't respect their opponent and were taken by surprise. If Kent St. saw that Tressel was sitting Beanie because they were a lesser opponent, that'd fire them up. At the same time, it would signal to the OSU players that they obviously weren't in any danger this week, and maybe they'd take it too easy during practice or preparation.
I still feel that Beanie is near 100%, and therefore should be played as the starter. Restricting his carries would be a wise thing, but only after OSU has established control of the game.
Just my opinion, though. :-)
[...] to reverse tracks from when he, among others, called out Beanie’s toughness two weeks ago, the Dispatch’s Ken Gordon reveals that an anonymous source told him that Wells actually has [...]