Like a father to a son, Ohio State junior running back Chris "Beanie" Wells took his freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor aside late Saturday night and had a heart-to-heart chat.

"I told him, 'This is a man's world,' " Wells said, referring to the hostile environment of Camp Randall Stadium and a college football game they trailed by four points to the University of Wisconsin with 6 minutes, 26 seconds to play.

"I said 'You're stepping into manhood right now because it's going to be a long drive and we're going to face some adversity."

Indeed, they did. But Pryor made all the right moves on the 12-play, 80-yard march — converting two third-down situations and a pair of second-and-longs before scoring on an 11-yard option run with 1:08 to play to give the Buckeyes a 20-17 victory and Pryor his first signature win as a starting quarterback.

"As we've said all along with Terrelle, every snap he gets he learns from," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "He was under duress tonight. ... They were coming after him (and) they were going to make him do things with lots of people in his face."

Typical of his season thus far, Pryor had his ups and downs. He was 13-for-19 passing for 144 yards, but he also threw one interception and was sacked four times for minus-37 yards.

"At various moments of the game, you could see I was young," Pryor said. "I threw some young passes. I did some young things.

"It's all about experience and learning."

And, by the final drive, Pryor had obviously learned it was his time to shine.

But, just to be sure, Wells reminded him.

"He said, 'You're in a man's world; are you going to be a man or a kid?' " Pryor said. "When he said that, I'm like, 'Dang, Beanie, you can't pressure me no more.' That loosened me up. I like to be challenged and I don't like to let my teammates down."

And, on second-and-8 from the Badgers' 11 with less than 2 minutes to play, Pryor didn't let them down when he saw a cornerback converging on Wells and a tunnel of daylight in front of him.

"It was a gimme for him to keep it," Wells said.

Added OSU wide receiver Ray Small: "Everytime Terrelle touches the ball, I think end zone. He's a playmaker. We call him 'Playmaker T.P.' "

Knee injury benches Carimi

UW sophomore left tackle Gabe Carimi had not missed a snap on offense during the Badgers' first five games of the season.

But that streak ended in the second quarter after Carimi left with an injury to his right knee and was ruled out for the rest of the game.

The Badgers were hoping to redshirt junior left tackle Jake Bscherer, who is the backup to Carimi, so reshirt freshman Josh Oglesby, normally the backup right tackle, took Carimi's place.

Oglesby said he hadn't worked much at left tackle since the end of fall camp, but he didn't make any noticeable mistakes.

"A team like Ohio State, some of the most talented kids in the country go there, so if you can hold your own there, it does a lot for your confidence," he said.