EVANSTON, Ill. — Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson will miss Saturday’s game at Northwestern.
Henderson was one of 12 players listed as unavailable in the Buckeyes’ pregame status report.
He has already been injured this season when he reportedly hurt his foot in the last non-conference game against Toledo. Two weeks later, he was sidelined against Rutgers and also took a blow at Michigan State last month that kept him out of the second half of the win.
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Leading the Buckeyes in rushing in and out of the lineup in the first two months, the second rushed for 552 yards and six touchdowns.
In last week’s win at Penn State, Henderson scored the game-winning fourth-quarter touchdown when he broke through the defense on a 41-yard run.
To manage his absence this afternoon, the Buckeyes will have Miyan Williams available.
Williams was bumped late in the first quarter last week when he landed on a first-down marker along the sideline at Beaver Stadium.
He never returned after the collision and watched the remaining quarters with his right hand in a cast.
Cincinnati’s redshirt second was a complement to Henderson as a hard-nosed runner. According to Pro Football Focus, no Big Ten running back with as many runs as Williams averages more yards after contact.
He rushed for 525 yards and 10 touchdowns, including five against the Scarlet Knights in a performance that tied the school single-game record.
On his weekly 97.1 radio show The Fan on Thursday, coach Ryan Day said he expected Williams to return against the Wildcats and had previously mentioned the injury was not serious.
Williams was seen leaving practice Wednesday night with full pads and a helmet.
Two other stock running backs remain on the depth board behind him between Dallan Hayden and Chip Trayanum, who switched to linebacker a few weeks ago.
Trayanum had been running back at Arizona State for the past two seasons before moving to Ohio State last winter.
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Jaxon Smith-Njigba out for Ohio State football
Star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who made a brief comeback against Iowa after the Buckeyes’ week out, will sit out with a hamstring injury.
It will be the sixth of the last eight games that Smith-Njigba, who was their top receiver last fall and a preseason All-American, is unavailable.
His father told The Dispatch earlier this week that he is unlikely to be healthy enough to return before the final game of the regular season against rival Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend.
Maada Smith-Njigba called a comeback against Wolverines a best-case scenario.
Who else is out for the Buckeyes against Northwestern?
The list of unavailable players also includes cornerback Cameron Brown, long snapper Bradley Robinson and safety Kourt Williams.
Brown started the season as the Buckeyes’ starting cornerback, but missed most Big Ten games with an undisclosed injury.
The only conference game with Brown available was at Michigan State.
JK Johnson started in place of Brown at cornerback against Denzel Burke during the stretch, but fellow redshirt freshman Jordan Hancock has also been available in recent weeks and is expected to see his workload increase as he is recovering from a hamstring injury that caused him to miss the first six games.
A return for Robinson, a special teams veteran who suffered a knee injury two weeks ago, seems unlikely.
Day said Thursday he expects Mason Arnold and Max Lomonico to be the long snappers for the rest of the season.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman
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