Aside from Josh Simmons, Ohio State will have all of its regular starters available against Purdue.
Tyleik Williams, who sustained an ankle injury in the fourth quarter of the Buckeyes' 20-13 win at then-No. 3 Penn State, does not have an injury designation on today’s status report and is available to play against the Boilermakers. However, he did not start the game with Eddrick Houston taking his place in the lineup at defensive tackle.
Tight end Will Kacmarek is out for the third week in a row while offensive tackle Zen Michalski will miss his second straight game. Cornerback Calvin Simpson-Hunt is also listed as out and will miss his first game of the season. Those three players are joined on the out section of the status report by walk-on tight end Jace Middleton and the two Buckeyes who are out for the season, Simmons and TC Caffey.
| OSU STATUS REPORT FOR PURDUE |
|---|
| Out |
|
RB TC Caffey (Season) TE Will Kacmarek OT Zen Michalski TE Jace Middleton OT Josh Simmons (Season) CB Calvin Simpson-Hunt |
Ryan Day said Wednesday that it looked like Williams would be available against Purdue, which is welcome news given the inconsistent play Ohio State got at the 3-technique defensive tackle position when Williams missed the Marshall and Michigan State games earlier this year with a different injury. “Available” does not guarantee that Williams will play, however, as he was available at Michigan State but was ultimately held out for precautionary reasons, though Day said after the contest Williams could have played "in an emergency."
Williams has 21 tackles, four tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in six games this season. His backup options include recently converted defensive end Eddrick Houston, redshirt sophomore Hero Kanu, redshirt freshman Jason Moore and redshirt junior Tywone Malone.
Kacmarek, the second tight end on Ohio State's depth chart, suffered an upper-body injury at Oregon in Week 7 and has not played since. Jelani Thurman and Bennett Christian have seen an uptick in reps behind starter Gee Scott Jr. since Kacmarek went down, though Christian played 25 snaps to Thurman's five against the Nittany Lions.
While Kacmarek won’t be available to play this week and likely won’t be available next week either, Day offered a promising update Wednesday on his recovery.
"He's healing quickly. He's still a couple weeks away," Day said of Kacmarek. "But he is doing great. All the reports back from the training room and from (strength coach) Mick (Marotti) is he's a little bit ahead of schedule."
Michalski filled in for Josh Simmons at left tackle after he sustained a season-ending left knee injury against the Ducks, then Michalski started the following week against Nebraska before falling victim to a lower-body injury of his own. Left guard Donovan Jackson kicked outside to replace him last week while Carson Hinzman took Jackson's place at left guard.
Given the offensive line's struggles in the Nebraska game and subsequent success against Penn State, Day said the team will stick with its current lineup even when Michalski returns.
"Right now, we're gonna stick with what we have," Day said on Tuesday. "If Zen were to become available, then that would give us more options. ... But I think right now the focus will be to stick with what we got right now, because we feel like there was a good synergy coming out of that game."
Ohio State and Purdue kick off at noon on FOX.
