Mike Weber is catching some flack from a few teammates this week in practice.
“We’re messing with him this week because he’s been non-contact so he wears this frilly orange jersey,” Ohio State offensive guard Billy Price said Wednesday. “We go up to him and we’re just like, ‘Hey, dude. Oh, we can’t touch you. Get away, we can’t touch you.’”
It’s not like Weber hasn’t earned the right to wear the different color, though.
The Buckeyes’ bruising redshirt freshman running back has taken his fair share of hits over the first nine games of the season, and after he took a hard fall on his shoulder in Saturday’s 62-3 rout of Nebraska, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer made the call: Weber would be non-contact in practice all week.
The diagnosis is a sprained AC joint — an injury Meyer said has been bothering Weber for “three or four weeks” — and Weber certainly didn’t deny he’s hurting a bit.
“I’m in a lot of pain,” he said, “but I’ve been with the training staff 24/7. I’ve been in rehab icing it up. I feel good right now and I’m going to play Saturday.”
It’s far from uncommon for players to have minor injuries — especially running backs — at this point of the season. Ohio State has played nine games; a lot of guys are banged up.
But Weber is a vital part of the Buckeyes’ offense. He’s the starting running back and he’s on the cusp of a 1,000-yard season in just his first year playing college football. Through nine games, Weber has racked up 842 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. He is averaging six yards per carry and 93.6 rushing yards per game.
“I just try to take advantage of every opportunity I get,” Weber said. “Whether it’s blocking, running or catching. Just anything I can do to help this team win.”
Fair or unfair, Weber will always be compared to the guy who came before him. He knows that; he accepts it.
Meyer even told Weber he wants him to be like Ezekiel Elliott, even though the two are completely different players.
“Try to be Zeke,” Meyer said. “That’s the thing we try to do around here. In all seriousness, there are standards. Be Vonn Bell. Be [Joey] Bosa. Those are standards that have been set here so yeah, go do it.”
Weber smiled Wednesday after practice when a reporter asked him what he had to do to ensure questions about replacing Elliott came to an end.
“I’ve got to just continue to play hard and make more plays,” he said.
He’s been making plenty of them this season for the fifth-ranked Buckeyes, though. And that's in part because of a maturation process that occurred during the winter.
Weber said Ohio State offensive linemen Price and Pat Elflein “took me under their wing” during offseason conditioning. The two leaders on the Buckeyes’ offensive line knew a replacement for Elliott was needed and they knew Weber was going to be that guy.
Weber became more mature, they said. He changed his body. He did all of the things he needed to do in order to be the starting running back for Ohio State.
“We’re watching him week by week by week and he’s starting to take care of his body, taking care of stuff in the classroom and that comes with — as you play, you have that accountability factor,” Price said. “You’re responsible for so much more. Being the running back at The Ohio State University, playing offensive line for The Ohio State University, there is a lot of accountability that goes into it and I’m watching him grow up and I’m very, very proud of him.”
So, Weber can take the jokes about his jersey color this week in practice and let them bounce right off like a would-be tackler.
He shrugs them off, just like the injury to his shoulder.
“It hurts,” he said with a smile. “But that’s part of the game and I’ve got to play through it.”
