Our Honor Defend

Finally, from the good news wing of Ohio State news, it looks like Beanie will be a go for the Gophers this Saturday. Beanie, injured during the Buckeyes’ first drive of the third quarter against Youngstown State, had previously sat out the Ohio, USC and Troy games.  However, the lingering soreness has seemingly left his toe, putting him back in the lineup just in time for conference play.

The timing is sort of fortuitous, in that, if the Beanie had to miss the USC game, he might as well have rested himself in order to be ready for a third run at the Big Ten trophy. It’s kind of what we were expecting. We just kind of assumed Beanie could’ve been forced on the field against USC, but would have seriously risked aggravating his toe injury. To be honest, though, I wasn’t expecting Beanie to be possibly ready for the Gophers. I had just kind of assumed he would make the trip to Madison and suit up and make his foray back into the 2008 season there.

How much Beanie plays will be determined tomorrow and Thursday. Again, consistent with what we’ve known about how the staff deals with player injuries, the Wednesday and Thursday workouts determine how much of a workload Beanie gets. As it is, Beanie would get limited duty if the game were played today. If he makes it through the workouts like Tressel and company are expecting, he will start. If there’s still some soreness, he might see 10-12 carries. If he experiences a setback, he may not play at all.

Even if it’s 10-12 carries, it should be just the workout Beanie needs against an opponent that the Buckeyes should expect to defeat with or without him. I’m hoping it’s a good workout as the Buckeyes get ready for Madison the week after. Finally, something to celebrate.