Tressel said the Buckeyes will know later in the week whether starting tight end Jake Stoneburner can play after hurting his ankle against Eastern Michigan.
Jake StoneburnerNews and notes from Jim Tressel's news conference this afternoon. Ohio State visits Illinois on Saturday at noon to open Big Ten play.
* The status of tight end Jake Stoneburner, who injured his ankle against Eastern Michigan, is up in the air for Illinois on Saturday.
"I'm expecting that we'll know a lot more Wednesday or Thursday," Tressel said. "He claims he'll be fine. Sometimes when you roll those ankles, you can either get back quickly or not, and so we'll just have to see how he works."
Reid Fragel would start if Stoneburner can't go.
* Tressel said No. 3 cornerback Travis Howard and backup linebacker Dorian Bell, who were out last Saturday with injuries, would return. That helps the special teams, and Howard's absence was noticed when starting cornerback Chimdi Chekwa left Saturday's game with back spasms and the Buckeyes went to No. 4 corner Corey Brown. Chekwa should also be fine for Saturday.
* Tressel said he wasn't worried about some of the big pass plays the defense gave up against EMU. He was happier with the 10 series when the OSU defense forced the Eagles to punt after three plays. The goal each game is five series like that.
"They had about three big plays, which that doesn't normally happen," Tressel said. "I think two of them were just outstanding catches. One they hit up the seam. They did a nice job with a misdirection pass. They fooled us. And we didn't reroute a receiver, kind of snuck into the seam on us and it was, you know, one for their side. But there weren't any glaring things on those plays, other than they executed and you'd not like them to have quite that much time to throw that ball quite that far."
* Tressel praised Illinois cornerback Justin Green, who originally made an oral commitment to Ohio State, then decided to go to Illinois in part because he wanted to be a running back.
"It's sort of not fair, is it?" Tressel said with a smile. "He's supposed to be playing corner for us. He's a great kid. What are you going to do? You make decisions and handle the adversity and deal with what comes your way and that's obviously what he's doing and he's got great speed out there."
* Tressel noted this stat: In the lifetimes of the current players, those around 21 or 22 at least, Ohio State is 10-9 against Illinois.