Tressel expects Wells to bounce back quickly

COLUMBUS - It might be only a bit of an exaggeration to say that Hurricane Gustav was the biggest story of the week in 49 states and Ohio State tailback Chris (Beanie) Wells' injured foot was the only thing anyone wanted to know about in Ohio.

His teammate Marcus Freeman got an idea of how intense the interest in Wells' health was when he went out to get something to eat.

"I remember walking into Chipotle and I paid with my credit card and they were like, "How's Beanie?' " the OSU linebacker said.

Wells injured his right foot in the third quarter of Ohio State's 43-0 win over Youngstown State in its opener last Saturday. When he first went down, it looked serious enough that Ohio State's dreams of a national championship season appeared threatened.

But coach Jim Tressel said the injury apparently is not as bad as first feared at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Tressel wouldn't reveal the nature of the injury, but he also wouldn't rule out the possibility Wells might play this Saturday against Ohio University. He seemed optimistic that the Heisman Trophy candidate would be healthy enough to play against No. 1 Southern California next week.

"Our trainer's report kind of labeled him as doubtful for Saturday and then he should be in good shape," Tressel said. "I saw Beanie about 10:30 this morning in the training room and he said he felt great."

When asked if he would hold Wells out against Ohio University to protect be sure he was ready for the USC game, Tressel said, "Would we make a flat-out decision as to play him or not play him simply on what lies ahead a week from now? No. If he's ready, he goes."

Tressel would not give any specifics about Wells' injury, saying only, "His foot's hurting."

"I really don't know. I can't even think of the word," he said.

"I saw him in the training room and he was saying how wonderful he feels. Now that is a lot different than when I saw him on the field Saturday. He wasn't expressing how good he felt, so, yeah, there's been a big change."

Wells was not made available for interviews on Tuesday.

Freeman said OSU's players have been as focused as the fans on Wells' foot. "We're the biggest fans of Beanie that anybody is. Whenever we see him, we ask him how he's feeling," he said.

"Beanie is a guy who says, ‘I'm fine, I'm feeling good, I'm getting back,' so you never know. But we're just as concerned as everybody else."

"You want to say, ‘Oh Beanie, you shouldn't come back until you're ready, until you're 100 percent healthy, but you know that's never going to happen. Beanie is a competitor, Beanie will play if he's 50 percent," Freeman said.

"You want him on the field because Beanie at 50 percent is better than a lot of people at 100 percent. You just want him on the field and you want the best for him and I'm sure he'll be back when he's ready. Beanie is going to be back as soon as he can."

Tight end Rory Nicol said the attention to Wells' injury is not surprising.

"He's arguably the best back in the country. I'll watch Sports Center and they'll have the thing on the right side of the screen what's coming up and it will be like Chris Wells, Chris Wells, Chris Wells. He's that good. People are going to ask but we don't know," Nicol said.