OSU Column: Woody not motivated by money

COLUMBUS - A few odds and ends while cleaning out the Ohio State notebook on a bye week for the Buckeyes:

— Woody Hayes was known for not taking a big salary, not paying his assistant coaches much and having a drawer full of uncashed checks from speaking appearances and his television show.

That part of the former Ohio State football coach's legend is a fact, says Earle Bruce, who followed Hayes and was an assistant coach under him.

"He was 30 years behind the times on facilities and 40 years behind the times on money. He was a great American but he didn't know what capitalism was," Bruce said recently after one of Jim Tressel's weekly press conferences.

Bruce also talked about what it was like to follow a legend like Hayes.

"Replacing anybody like Woody would be hard, not because of Woody but because of others. Some people never let go," he said. "He didn't make it tough. If he would have made it tough, it would have been bad. I knew he was on my side, he was on Ohio State's side."

— Kirk Barton has played for three teams in his first season in the NFL.

The former Ohio State offensive tackle was drafted in the seventh round in April by the Chicago Bears and played one game there.

After being waived by the Bears, he was signed by the Miami Dolphins but was inactive the four weeks he was on their roster.

The San Francisco 49ers signed Barton on Oct. 16 after he was waived by the Dolphins. He is still on the 49ers' roster.

— Ohio State fans who think tailback Chris Wells "needs" to come back next year to prove his durability to NFL teams apparently have forgotten the name Willis McGahee.

McGahee suffered a torn ACL in the national championship game against Ohio State after the 2002 season and was drafted 23rd overall by the Buffalo Bills.

Besides having the knee injury, McGahee had a thinner resume than Wells.

McGahee ran for 1,753 yards in 2002 and 327 yards in 2001 in his only two years on the field for the Hurricanes after redshirting as a freshman.

Wells gained 576 yards as a freshman and 1,609 yards last season. He has 674 yards so far this season.

— Freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor was accompanied to the interview room after the Penn State game by Ohio State assistant quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano, who sat aside of Pryor throughout the interview.

No other Ohio State player has had a coach hovering over him and commenting during an interview during my 17 years of covering OSU, not even Maurice Clarett when he was lobbing verbal Molotov cocktails at the program in 2002.

No explanation was offered whether Siciliano was there at the request of head coach Jim Tressel, on his own initiative or because Pryor wanted him there.

— The two quarterbacks who transferred out of Ohio State after last season, Antonio Henton and Rob Schoenhoft, have not had great success at the NCAA Division I-AA level so far this season.

Schoenhoft, the starting quarterback at Delaware, has completed 55 percent of his passes for 1,163 yards, but his interceptions (12) are double his touchdown passes (6). He also has suffered two concussions. Delaware is 3-5 this season.

Antonio Henton, the starting quarterback at Georgia Southern, has hit 54 percent of his passes for 1,379 yards with 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Georgia Southern has a 4-4 record.