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BUCKEYES NOTEBOOK
Hawk shoots down rumors of broken leg
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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A.J. Hawk stood up straight and answered every question put to him by the media yesterday about the Michigan game. The way he stood was important because it left no doubt that he did not have a broken leg. Rumors circulating in his hometown of Centerville in the Dayton area during the weekend had the All-American linebacker suffering a broken leg in a car accident late Saturday night. "I’d love to know who started that. . . . My mom didn’t even believe me when I told her I didn’t get in a wreck," Hawk said.
The hoax was just another indicator that the 102 nd edition of Michigan week is here.
"I laughed, because whoever gets something like that going, that reminds me of being in high school and you’re playing your rival, and both schools are pulling pranks on each other," Hawk said.
Hawk, one of three finalists for the Butkus Award, offered an update on his health after 10 games.
"I don’t have any injuries at all," OSU’s leading tackler said. "I feel really good."
To believe or not to believe
The nine players allowed to speak to the media were careful not to offer quotes that could be used as bulletin-board material. Reports out of Michigan said there was similar tame stuff from the Wolverines.
But that doesn’t mean some flagrant quote won’t end up on the bulletin board in the OSU locker room anyway. Staff student assistants have been known to be creative, which makes even the players wonder whether everything they read on the board is true.
"Sometimes you wonder if it’s a little scheme by the coaches to try to get you even more pumped up," safety Nate Salley said.
Even with doubts about the source, does it still work?
"I believe it does," Salley said. "When you hear another guy talking trash and kind of feeling like they’re better than you, you want to go out there and prove them wrong. I believe that definitely adds a little more to the whole situation."
Strike up the band
The doors to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center might be watched constantly to thwart intruders this week, but it doesn’t mean the Buckeyes are holed up with no outside contact.
Sunday night, for example, coach Jim Tressel welcomed former coach Earle Bruce back for the fifth straight year to provide a pep talk. Then the OSU marching band moved onto the indoor field, where it first serenaded the Buckeyes, then asked a few to join them.
When the band performed Script Ohio, "I got the chance to dot the ‘i,’ " Salley said. "They taught me how to high-step."
Center Nick Mangold got to play a bass drum. Receiver Santonio Holmes was handed a pair of cymbals, and said he crashed his way through the song.
Injuries update
The closest Tressel came to giving an injury update was in relating the conversation he had with team doctors about the miraculous healing power of Michigan week.
"It was amazing when the doctors brought in the medical report; usually on Sunday it takes five or 10 minutes for them to explain the probables and the questionables, and they came in this Sunday and said, ‘Of course everyone’s ready,’ " Tressel said.
Whether that means senior tight end Ryan Hamby will play remains to be seen. He has missed three games because of a knee injury.
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