Sports
Football: Solich Announces Injury Report in Press Conference
By: Grant Burkhardt
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Not everything is Bells and whistles for Ohio football.
In his weekly press conference, Ohio head coach Frank Solich announced his team's injury report, which included some of the biggest names on the team.
Senior linebacker Noah Keller and senior running back Donte Harden are listed as questionable for Saturday's game against Rutgers, according to the seventh-year head coach.
Keller has been nagged by a bad hamstring which kept him out for Ohio's win over Gardner-Webb, but Solich said his current injury – the one that may keep him out for Saturday's game – is not that hamstring, but something else. Solich wouldn't comment further on the specifics of Keller's injury.
Keller has 11 total tackles in two games, including 1.5 tackles for loss.
After totaling 157 total yards (42 rushing, 45 receiving and a 70-yard kickoff return) in the first half Saturday, Harden emerged from the halftime break without pads. Solich wouldn't comment on his specific injury either, but listed the starting running back as questionable for Saturday's game in Piscataway, NJ.
Harden is Ohio's leading rusher with 37 carries for 220 yards and a 6.0 yard-per-carry average, and has been unstoppable at times in 2011 after being named the starter in training camp. He also has four kick returns for 187 yards (46.8 yard average).
More injuries include tight end Zac Clark, who went down in the third quarter of Saturday's "Battle For the Bell" with a knee injury and may be done for the season. Clark is headed to Columbus for an MRI today. The fear is that the second-string tight end has a torn ACL.
With Clark's potentially season-ending injury, Ohio becomes very thin at the tight end position. Injured red-shirt freshman Derek Roback is two weeks away from game play, according to Solich.
Defensive lineman Jeff King, injured since training camp with a brutal knee injury, ran for the first time this past Wednesday. The senior captain wants to play Saturday at Rutgers, but the training staff would like him to take one more week to heal his knee.