Beanie Wells, Ohio State can win over voters with win over USC
Wednesday, September 10th 2008, 10:10 PM
Sabau/Getty Chris (Beanie) Wells leads suddenly lackluster Buckeyes into prime-time matchup with No. 1 USC on Saturday night.
Ohio State has recently dominated the
Big Ten, beaten 11 of the last 13 ranked teams it has played, and reached the BCS championship game in 2007 and '08.
But after losing badly to
SEC powers
Florida and LSU in those national title games, the
Buckeyes are fighting for respect from voters in the
Associated Press and coaches polls, especially after they struggled to defeat
Ohio University, 26-14, in
Columbus on Saturday.
Ohio State (2-0), which dropped from second to fifth in the rankings, will be tested on a much larger scale Saturday night when it plays top-ranked
USC (1-0) at the
Los Angeles Coliseum.
Jim Tressel's offense has yet to hit its stride. The coach seems reluctant to play highly touted freshman quarterback
Terrelle Pryor. There is no doubt the Buckeyes' attack will go only as far as tailback
Chris (Beanie) Wells takes it against the best defense
Pete Carroll has had since USC's 2005 national championship team.
Wells, who has drawn comparisons to
Jim Brown, is the best big back in the country and, when healthy, is a Heisman Trophy candidate. Wells injured a toe in the second half of the Buckeyes' season-opening rout of
Youngstown on Sept. 1 and did not participate in a full practice until Wednesday.
Tressel, who held Wells out of last week's unimpressive victory, says his star will definitely play against the Trojans. He claims Wells told offensive coordinator
Jim Bollman that he wants to carry the ball 45 times.
Cont...
