Ryan Day reveals injury updates on Donovan Jackson, Cody Simon
As Ohio State prepares for Week 2 and a matchup with Western Michigan, all eyes are on the status of offensive lineman Donovan Jackson and linebacker Cody Simon.
Coach Ryan Day provided a brief update on that during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“They’re day-to-day right now, we’re going to see how today goes,” the sixth-year Ohio State coach said. “But had a good weekend and we’re going to list them as day-to-day.”
Their availability will be a big deal for Ohio State, though the matchup this weekend doesn’t look overly troublesome on paper. Still, getting either or both back would make a big difference.
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Jackson is a veteran with 39 career appearances who had made 26 consecutive starts prior to missing the season opener last week. He has been an All-Big Ten selection the past two seasons and could receive All-American consideration this fall.
The prognosis for Donovan Jackson sounded good a couple days ago, so the Buckeyes will certainly be hoping that holds.
“He’s going to have a full week next week. We plan on him playing next week,” Day said after the team’s 52-6 win over Akron. “If he doesn’t, then that means he has had a setback. But we want to be smart. We know it’s a long season. He was really all over us about getting back but we’re only going to do it when we feel like the trainers give him the full go on that.”
In Donovan Jackson’s absence, redshirt freshman Austin Siereveld started and held his own.
“He’s an example of somebody who had an opportunity and really stepped into that opportunity and took it and ran,” Day said. “It wasn’t easy early on, I think the first week as he made that transition, being forced into a role with the ‘ones’ and blocking Ty Hamilton and Tyleik [Williams] and some of our guys up front. But he made that adjustment quickly, and he kind of got thrown into the fire. And, because of that, he became a better player for it.
“That’s an example for our entire staff. Some of these guys, we’ve got to build depth. We’ve got to get them in the game and allow them to play. Austin’s an example of that.”
Of course, Donovan Jackson isn’t the only one Day mentioned as day-to-day in his injury update on Tuesday.
Cody Simon also missed the season opener.
Simon is a graduate student with plenty of experience, now in his fifth season with the program. He has played in 44 games with 15 starts, including five last season.
The veteran linebacker enters the year with 147 career tackles and 11 tackles for a loss.
Needless to say, Ohio State is hoping to get both Donovan Jackson and Cody Simon back in short order.