COLUMBUS — Ryan Day had good news and bad news about Ohio State’s running backs at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
The good news, of course, was TreVeyon Henderson running for 162 yards on 24 carries in a 24-10 win over Wisconsin and the difference having a healthy Henderson makes in OSU’s offense.
“Tre gives us the ability to hit home runs. Tre is very competitive. He’s very versatile, he can do a lot of things in the passing game. So having him in there makes our offense very different,” Day said about Henderson’s spectacular return after missing three games because of an injury.
The bad news was that Miyan Williams, who led Ohio State in rushing last season with 825 yards, will miss the rest of this season after having surgery.
Williams played in five games this season and ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns. He rushed for 62 yards on 24 carries in a 20-12 win over Penn State two weeks ago but did not have more than seven carries in any other game this season.
“I feel really badly for Miyan that he’s not going to be able to play. He had a procedure done. Miyan has done a lot of great things for us. That’s a big hit for that (running backs) room and our team,” Day said. “The good news is we have some good depth in that room and Tony (running backs coach Tony Alford) has done a good job of building it.”
Some other thoughts from Day:
• Running game improvement: “I think we took a step this week. Where we go from here we’ll see. But I thought we ran off the ball better, we got good movement. Tre ran hard and that combination of things really boosted our run game. We’ll see where that takes us on Saturday against Rutgers,” Day said
He called the offensive line’s work against Wisconsin “a step in the right direction.”
“Overall, when you look at how we blocked in this game, in the run game there was a lot of progress. In the pass game there are some things we have to get better at.”
• More injury updates: Wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, who has missed the last three games because of a leg injury, returned to practice last week and could possibly play this Saturday when No. 3 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) goes to Rutgers (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten).
“We’re expecting him to practice this week. He was available for the game on Saturday but we just didn’t feel he was quite where he needed to be. He was ready and he has been working hard. He’s a tremendous young man,” Day said.
. “Emeka is a warrior, he’s productive, he’s tough, he’s a great leader. He does a lot of things for us. Having him back does open up a lot of things for us. When we have all of our guys out there and we’re at full capacity we’re the most dangerous.”
No. 2 quarterback Devin Brown could return to practice this week after suffering an ankle injury against Penn State. Day did not have any updates on safety Lathan Ransom, who suffered a non-contact injury against Wisconsin.
• Assessing McCord vs. Wisconsin: Quarterback Kyle McCord was 17 of 26 for 226 yards and a touchdown against Wisconsin but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.
Day said, “He had some really good snaps. If you were grading whatever number of plays there were a lot of plusses there. But the thing that is hard for a quarterback is one bad play can ruin your whole day.
“There were some critical errors in there that hurt us and he knows that. Nobody is more critical of himself than he is but there were a lot of good things. We’ve got to eliminate things that hurt the team and certainly turnovers were a big part of that.”
• Stover shut out: Tight end Cade Stover, who is second to Marvin Harrison Jr., in passes caught for OSU this season, did not catch a pass and was not even targeted once against Wisconsin.
“It wasn’t for a lack of trying. There were several plays we designed that didn’t go his way. But he played a great game. He was battling throughout the whole game,” Day said.
• Quarterbacks on the fairways: Day said he tells OSU’s quarterbacks they should play golf because there are similarities between being a golfer and being a quarterback.
“I think playing quarterback is similar to golf. What I mean by that is each individual play, each individual shot is affected by the last play or last shot because of where you are situationally. But the only thing that matters is that singular play,” he said.
“I tell those guys (quarterbacks) all the time that they should play golf because sometimes you have to manage the round. Some day maybe your swing isn’t where it needs to be and you have to manage the round. There are a lot of parallels. Each shot is it’s own individual shot. It’s the same when you’re playing quarterback. Each play is its own individual play and you have to play it. You can’t let the last one have an impact on what you’re doing.”
Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
