Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel met with the media Thursday afternoon following his radio call-in show and before practice.

The No. 12 Buckeyes (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) have a key game this Saturday at No. 20 Michigan State (6-1, 3-0) with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff (televised on ABC). It marks the third meeting between Tressel and MSU head coach Mark Dantonio in their head coaching careers, including one year when Dantonio was at Cincinnati. Dantonio was Ohio State’s defensive coordinator under Tressel for three years (2001-03) and helped lead the Buckeyes to the 2002 national championship.

The two are still close friends and Tressel says that he is “proud” of Dantonio and knew the Big Ten was going to be tougher when he was hired by the Spartans. But this week, you can throw the friendship out of the window because both men are looking for a big win for their program as they try and keep up with No. 3 Penn State (7-0, 3-0) for Big Ten supremacy.

“Oh yeah, there is no communication the week you play,” Tressel said. “Other than before the game when you see each other on the field. I can’t wait to get the game going and to get the game over with to be honest with you. But leading up to the game, you know where your allegiance is and you know where their allegiance is and it’s time to compete.”

Another hot topic on Thursday was whether or not backup senior quarterback Todd Boeckman will play a little bit against Michigan State just to change things up and help spark the struggling offense. True freshman Terrelle Pryor is the unquestioned starter and it’s his show for the rest of the season barring injury. However, the Buckeyes could decide to mix in Boeckman here and there to help ignite the downfield passing game.

“Todd Boeckman has been ready to go,” Tressel said. “He works and prepares hard. He throws it in there well and the beautiful thing about him is whatever the team needs him to do, he’ll be ready.”

Dantonio mentioned to reporters earlier in the week that he expects to see a two-quarterback system from the Buckeyes to some extent on Saturday.

“When you’re thorough – you plan for everything,” Tressel said. “And you know Mark Dantonio well enough to know that they have a breakdown of exactly what Terrelle has done and they have a game-plan for that. They know what Todd has done and they have a game-plan for that. They are a very prepared group.”

Ohio State has obviously entered a few games this season knowing it was going to play two quarterbacks. The first three games of the season were good examples of that when Boeckman started but Pryor rotated in. However, Tressel won’t say for sure that Boeckman will get a chance to play against Michigan State. He just says there is a chance and he explained his thought process in that area.

“We’ve had times where we’ve said, ‘Third or fourth series, we’re going to get the second guy in,’” Tressel said. “And then the only other way we enter a game is to say, ‘Here is who has gotten the snaps with the ones and here’s who’s gotten them with the twos and this is what we plan going into it.’ But, you’ve got to let it unfold because you never know what you’re going to need. But not very often have we gone into a game with the second scenario that you mentioned (only going to play one QB for sure).”

Fortunately for the Buckeyes, their best player – junior tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells – is in the best physical shape he’s been in since prior to the season opener against Youngstown State when he injured his right foot/big toe. And making matters worse, Wells came down with the flu last week which likely limited his effectiveness.

“Beanie is finally healthy,” Tressel said. “But that was a tough one. He was down for the count Tuesday a week ago, practiced on Wednesday, down again on Friday and was hurting. He didn’t feel wonderful on Saturday and even on Sunday. It was one of those that hung on. But you can tell this week in practice that he finally shook it.”

Ohio State’s best tailback behind Wells is redshirt freshman Boom Herron. But he will likely not play against Michigan State because he’s still feeling the effects of a concussion he suffered two weeks ago at Wisconsin.

“I don’t think Boom is going to be able to go,” Tressel said. “He’s going to go with us, but I think it would be a real stretch to put him in the game. To put it the way we feel, we don’t want his first live contact, or even semi-live contact, to be in a game after he’s had that significant of any injury.”

Tressel thinks that senior Mo Wells will be OSU’s No. 2 tailback again this week.

“Yeah, Mo will be,” the coach said. “And obviously we hope Beanie will get lots of touches. But Mo and Brandon Saine I think have both had good weeks.”

Tressel also gave his thoughts on junior defensive end Rob Rose who is going to have to play a much-bigger role considering junior DE Lawrence Wilson was lost for the year last Saturday with a torn ACL against Purdue.

“Rob has done well,” Tressel said. “He played outside then he played inside –we move guys around according to the concept of the game we’re playing. When you lose a guy like Lawrence – 40-some snaps a game – someone is going to have to step in. Whether it’s Rob Rose getting 20 of them or so-and-so getting the rest of them or what not. But we certainly hope that Rob takes a step forward, along with some of the other defensive ends.”

Ohio State fans will be pleased to know that freshman Lamaar Thomas will be returning kickoffs for the second week in a row. He finally got his shot last week and he might never give up the job. The Buckeyes have been looking for a quality kickoff return man for the last year and a half.

“Yeah, Lamaar will be back there and Mo Wells.,” Tressel said. “And the third guy, I guess, I would be Ray (Small) back there.”

Tressel finished the news conference by giving a detailed injury update on his team. And unfortunately for the Buckeyes, they will be without two highly-rated freshman offensive linemen for the rest of the season.

“Yeah, we won’t have J.B. (Shugarts) or Mike Adams the rest of the year, which is really disappointing for us,” Tressel said. “It’s just part of the world that we live in. So, we’ve got to do a little bit of mixing and matching there. Andrew Miller and Andrew Moses are going to have to step up. They were probably eight or nine and now you’ve got to step it up a bit. But that’s a Big Ten season. That’s a Division I college football season.

“I feel bad because those two young guys (burned a year of eligibility). But the value of them understanding this level is huge. J.B. was out there at Southern Cal. Mike Adams has been out there in the Horseshoe against Big Ten teams. I guess the vantage point that they’re going to have of, ‘Oh boy, here’s what I have to get good at,’ is real.”

Rounding out the OSU players that are returning from injury, Tressel said: Dane (Sanzenbacher) is back, (Austin) Spitler is back and Rory (Nicol) is as well.”