Injury Update, Green Jerseys?

Ohio State and Notre Dame are approaching next week's Fiesta Bowl with opposite approaches, according to NBC 4's Jerod Smalley.
The Buckeyes have already installed their game plan for Monday's game. Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish are only beginning to determine what would work best for them. We'll see which approach is right after the game.
The Buckeyes worked out in full pads for the final time before the game, Smalley said.
"It was a good workout," said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. "We had beautiful weather and the kids played crisp, fast and physical. We'll start scaling it down a little bit as the week goes along and we're excited for a wonderful match-up." Green Jerseys
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said on Wednesday that the team would not wear its green jerseys in Monday's game. Weis said the jerseys, usually saved for big Irish games, have not been lucky lately. Notre Dame wore the green in its last-second loss to No. 1 Southern California earlier this season. We'll see the Irish in their dark blue, home jerseys, on Monday.
School Record Possible
Ohio State's senior class of 16 student-athletes will aim for win No. 43 since they arrived at the school, which would tie the school record for wins by one class over a four-year period. The Buckeye senior class of 1998 won 43 games, including two victories against Notre Dame, in their four years from 1995-98. Other top senior classes include 1997 and 1996, which both had 41 wins, and four classes that had 40 wins, including 1975, 1976, 1996 and 1997.
Tribute To Tillman
Ohio State senior linebacker Anthony Schlegel said on Wednesday that he and linebackers Carpenter and A.J. Hawk were growing their hair long this season as a tribute to Pat Tillman, a former NFL player who was killed in Afghanistan last year. Tillman played in the 1997 Rose Bowl against Ohio State, for Arizona State. Ironically, the Buckeyes will play on the same field where Tillman played his college ball.
"We're just three guys, three friends, and we've enjoyed it," Schlegel said. "And now we'll end our careers on the field where he played. It's funny how things come full circle."

Quinn shifts loyalty from Ohio State to Notre Dame

As a kid growing up in Dublin, Ohio, Brady Quinn usually went to three Ohio State football games a year.
His parents threw Ohio State-Michigan parties. He remembers Eddie George and the Buckeyes beating Arizona State in the 1997 Rose Bowl with Joe Germaine.
He played against A.J. Hawk and Nick Mangold in the fifth grade, when he lost to their Wee Elks team from Centerville 13-7 in the peewee championship.
He attended camps and went on recruiting trips with Donte Whitner.
He could have joined them at Ohio State.
Quinn was a highly recruited quarterback coming out of Dublin Coffman High School, even though a broken foot suffered in the ninth game of his senior year spoiled his run at the state title.
His decision came down to Notre Dame, Ohio State or Michigan.
While Notre Dame's program was in a slump, Quinn took a chance on the Irish.
"The biggest thing for me was the feeling I had being at Notre Dame," Quinn said. "I walked around campus and talked to the players and coaches. I thought, `Wow, I could definitely see myself being here the next four or five years.'"
Even during 5-7 and 6-6 seasons and when coach Tyrone Willingham was fired last November, Quinn never wavered.
"Not once," he said. "I was happy where I was. Playing at Notre Dame is an experience I can't describe to any of you unless you've been out there and run through the tunnel. Even being a student at the university is truly a special experience."
It got even more special when Quinn learned the Irish would meet Ohio State Monday in the Fiesta Bowl.
"When I was making a decision people said, `That's fine, at least you didn't go to Michigan.' Then all of a sudden you have a chance to play Ohio State," Quinn said almost gleefully.
New coach Charlie Weis and Quinn have led a resurgence of the Irish.
Picking up the system Weis brought from the New England Patriots even faster than Weis expected, Quinn threw for 3,633 yards and 32 touchdowns, with just seven interceptions.
He set single-season Notre Dame marks for attempts (405), completions (263), yards, yards per game (330.3) and touchdown passes.
He's thrown a touchdown pass in a school-record 17 consecutive games, breaking the Irish record of 10 set by Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte in 1964.
"He's a very bright football player," Weis told the Chicago Tribune earlier this season. "You usually only have to tell him something once. Even when he makes a mistake, he understands why as soon as you say it. I obviously have a lot of confidence in him because he really controls everything we do."
Starting since the fourth game of his freshman season, the 6-foot-4, 232-pound junior is the only quarterback in Notre Dame history to throw for 8,000 career yards and is one of just two to surpass 7,000, joining Ron Powlus. Now Quinn can call Joe Montana and not have butterflies.
"The first time of course you do, it's Joe Montana, the greatest quarterback ever. Who am I to call Joe Montana?" Quinn said.
"He's done worlds for me as far as talking with me about the game and helping me understand things and getting me through a lot of rough spots with how our season was going, with the coaching change. He's somebody who really inspired me to keep working hard and not to allow yourself to plateau. You want to keep getting better."
Quinn's success this season hasn't surprised Dublin Coffman football coach Mark Crabtree, who had Quinn for two years.
"The only thing that surprised me was how quickly he was able to play as a freshman," Crabtree said. "The way he's playing now is the same way he played as a senior in high school.
"He has unbelievable physical strength, particularly for a quarterback. You saw how abused he got the first couple years, especially as a freshman, and I don't think the kid missed a play. He has courage hanging onto the ball. His decision-making, he's very football smart. He studies the opponents and the game. He was probably a once-in-a-lifetime kid for me to coach."
But where Quinn really excels is his leadership ability.
"It's hard to describe how he affects people," Crabtree said. "It's not just people believing in him and wanting to play hard for him. I think his teammates want to please him because of the effort he puts out."
Receiver Jeff Samardzija, a 6-foot-5 junior, caught 71 of Quinn's passes for 1,190 yards and 15 touchdowns in his breakout season.
"There's no way to measure," Samardzija said of co-captain Quinn's leadership. "It's an unspoken, untalked about trait. You kind of follow people like Brady (for what he) does on the field."
Samardzija is one who is happy Quinn took a look at the situation at Ohio State and chose Notre Dame. Crabtree said OSU coach Jim Tressel basically chose Todd Boeckman, a late enrollee who is now a redshirt freshman, over Quinn.
"They offered Todd Boeckman before they ever heard of Brady Quinn," Crabtree said. "The year before they got Justin Zwick and Troy Smith. Brady wasn't running from competition. In his mind he said, `Maybe Ohio State isn't the place for me.'"
Quinn holds no grudges.
"Growing up in Dublin you're kind of an Ohio State alum," he said. "I was a fan, I still am. Just not when they play Notre Dame in anything."

Ohio State fans' roots run deep

Ohio State is in town to face off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Fiesta Bowl on Monday in Tempe. Geoff Glazer is a lifelong Ohio State fan who grew up in Cleveland. Four years ago he moved to Tucson, and Wednesday he and his son were at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort with an Ohio State helmet in hand. As the players walked to their bus heading to practice, Norman Glazer, 15, politely asked players and coaches to sign the helmet. Senior linebacker A.J. Hawk, among the teams biggest stars, stopped for a few moments and signed his name. Other players followed suit. "These are good kids," the elder Glazer said of the players. He became a fan in the Coach Woody Hayes era of sustained excellence in Columbus and is certain to remain one for life. "They win, the great players, the history, the tradition," Glazer said. "And the best damn band."Glazer remembers Ohio State losing to Michigan in 1969. That loss was the first in two years and prevented the Buckeyes from winning back-to-back national championships. "My whole family was sick for a week," Glazer said, still grimacing from a loss more than 35 years old. Jim and Tammy Conkel and their two children flew in for the game from Atlanta. The Conkels graduated in 1984 with engineering degrees. Now they are constructing a family of Buckeye fans in the Deep South. "My son Conner has shown distressing signs of becoming a Georgia Tech fan," Jim said with a laugh. "That's one of the reasons we are here. It will be a week of scarlet and gray, and then a good game."When asked who will win the Fiesta Bowl, Jim fell back to typical sports talk: "It's going to be a great game. Two really good teams. I think the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win."But Tammy was having none of that. "And the team that will make the fewest mistakes is Ohio State."