COLUMBUS, Ohio — In many ways, the five-game NCAA suspensions handed to five of Ohio State’s top players and coach Jim Tressel haven’t had much effect on the team’s spring workouts.
“We’ve stuck together,” linebacker Andrew Sweat said. “Adversity happens. We’re coming together to overcome it.”
All but quarterback Terrelle Pryor are practicing with the team this spring. Pryor is recuperating from foot surgery to repair a ligament and will not play in the team’s annual intrasquad scrimmage Saturday.
The other suspended players are leading rusher Dan Herron, top returning receiver DeVier Posey, starting offensive tackle Mike Adams and backup defensive lineman Solomon Thomas. All five will sit out the games against Akron, Toledo, at Miami (Fla.), Colorado and the Big Ten opener against Michigan State for accepting improper benefits from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner. But they can practice every day with the team up to and after each of those games, including every workout in August.
Herron, nicknamed “Boom,” believes the five can redeem themselves through their play and subsequent actions.
“I’m still myself. I’m still Boom. Everybody knows who I am,” he said. “Everybody makes mistakes in their life. You move on.”
Tressel will also miss the first five games, punishment for knowing about the improper benefits for more than nine months but not notifying his superiors. The NCAA is still investigating his case.
Ohio State has permitted little access to players and Tressel during the three weeks of spring workouts. Reporters have been allowed to watch an occasional practice, but for the most part have had only limited chances to speak with players compared with past years. Tressel spent 10 minutes on one teleconference, mostly talking about the competition at quarterback.
Jordan Hall, a running back who attended the same Jeannette, Pa., high school as Pryor, said he thinks Pryor, one of his best friends, is bearing up well.
“He’s helping all the quarterbacks,” Hall said. “He’s in the film room with the quarterbacks. He’s been like a coach for the quarterbacks this spring.”
Pryor has not participated in contact drills and has spent most of his time tossing a football on the sideline or closely watching the progress of the four candidates to replace him in those first five games.
