Tressel said he expects Pryor to get closer to 100 percent every day and didn't sound worried about the quad injury slowing his quarterback down against Indiana.
Notes from Jim Tressel's news conference today:
Tyler Moeller, shown here making a tackle against Marshall, is officially out for the season and will require surgery, Jim Tressel said today.* The Ohio State coach confirmed the news that Tyler Moeller's season is done. The defensive back will require surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle and will miss the rest of the season. Tressel said Moeller had an injury there before he missed last season with the head injury he suffered when he was assaulted off the field, and that while Moeller was out he couldn't properly rehab the pectoral injury because he couldn't get his heart rate too high. So Tressel thought that contributed to this injury.
He said the Buckeyes will begin the process now of applying for a sixth year of eligibility for Moeller, who redshirted his first season in Columbus and then missed all of last year with the off-field injury. Moeller was going to do that whether this injury had happened or not.
"You just feel sick for him because you saw the pain he was in last year not being able to help his teammates and now he was, and now he was having fun," Tressel said. So, yeah, it's very disappointing and obviously it hurts us."
* Tressel said of quarterback Terrelle Pryor's left quad injury, "I would expect every day he'll get closer to 100 percent."
Tressel said he doesn't think the injury should affect Pryor's ability to throw the ball as he plants on that leg, but he did say if he's at all limited in his running then "maybe some of those big plays won't be done as much with the feet, but we can still do them with the arm." So Tressel said he doesn't expect the basic gameplan to change at all.
* Tressel said freshman Christian Bryant will step in to replace Moeller at the star position in the nickel defense. He said that is the first option, and the other two options would be to move Jermale Hines to star, a position he played in the past, from his safety spot and play someone else at safety or to play junior Nate Oliver, who will be back from a hamstring injury this week, at star.
The star should be on the field in the nickel defense almost the entire game against Indiana, which throws the ball a lot.
"While [Bryant] got a good baptism Saturday, he's going to get immersed," Tressel said.
* Tressel again praised No. 3 tailback Jordan Hall, as he has in the past, but didn't specifically say whether Hall would get more carries this week when asked that question.
"Well, let's go back to, let's say three weeks ago," Tressel said. "We've got a lot of receivers we like to get the football to. We've got a quarterback we'd like to run seven to 10 times, and a couple tailbacks who we think are very good. So there just aren't that many balls left and I guess we could take all those balls this season that we've thrown to tight ends and give them to Jordan, then we'd be having the opposite discussion.
"I have one million percent faith in Jordan Hall. He's going to make a difference this season, he already has. Gosh, his punt and kickoff returns. He is a good runner. ... I wish we had more carries available, but you're going to see Jordan Hall. "
* As part of that quote came one of the most unusual Tressel news conference moments I've been around in six years. Tressel was talking about the fact that there weren't enough footballs for all the offensive players to get involved.
"I wish we had more balls," Tressel said, and then he stopped and made a face. "That sounds terrible. Man, I am getting old. But you know what I'm saying."
* Tight end Jake Stoneburner may or may not be back this week after sitting out the Illinois game with an ankle injury he suffered against Eastern Michigan. Tressel previously said that kind of injury usually takes at least eight days to heal. Today, Tressel called it an eight- to 21-day injury. He said the Buckeyes have to see how Stoneburner does today and Wednesday and they should have a better idea by Thursday.