Football
Terrelle Pryor Report Number One
By John Porentas

This is hard to imagine, but the Ohio State football team has a legitimate Heisman candidate on the roster in the person of Beanie Wells, but as far as fan interest goes, he is not the number one draw. That honor goes to a player who has not gained a single yard, started a single game, or for that matter, taken a single snap.

As if you didn't already know, we are talking about freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor who is without doubt an absolute lightning rod for fan interest. That, of course, also makes him target numero uno for media interest. There may not be a single member of the media contingent covering OSU football that can do calculus, understand quantum physics, comprehend chaos theory or decipher a complex financial statement, but if there is one thing for certain, they know where their bread is buttered, and Terrelle Pryor is twelve pounds of Grade-A Land O'Lakes piled on half a slice of Schwebel's finest whole wheat as far as those of us covering OSU football this year are concerned.

In keeping with that thought, we are now going to give you our very first Terrelle Pryor update which most likely will not win any prizes whatsoever, but will probably be the most widely-read thing we do this week.

A number of sources claiming double-super-secret inside access have reported that Pryor has absolutely wowed his teammates and the OSU coaching staff in fall camp. How they come to know that remains a mystery to me. Most trusted insiders are, by definition, trusted, meaning they don't betray the trust of those who made them insiders. That rule seems to not apply to OSU football, or so some people would have us believe. If it did, then the trusted insiders couldn't be trusted, so who would pay attention to their reports. Either that or they aren't insiders at all, and therefore haven't betrayed any trust and can be trusted, but don't really have any inside information so who cares.

Confused. Me too. I'm not even sure what that has to do with this report, other than there are some pretty wild reports out there about crazy play-making ability, and that is what this report is about.

The annual cycle of interviews for fall camp has begun and those media members who do not have double-super-secret inside moles (actually the vast majority of us) have sunk to the tactic of asking everyone we interview if "anyone is standing out at practice" which is, of course, a euphemism for "How is Terrelle doing?" At least that's the way it started, but when some players and coaches had the gall to name players other than Terrelle we wised up and have now begun to simply ask "How is Terrelle doing?" just to avoid any insane notion that you (and therefore by proxy us) are interested in anyone else other than Pryor.

You will be happy to know that a picture is starting to form, and we're going to give you the details, and before you burst, we're going to give you the Cliff Notes version first just in case you have to be somewhere and don't have the time to read the rest of this. On the upside, Pryor has definitely shown big time ability to make plays with his feet. Almost everybody you talk to has a story about Terrelle breaking a big play in practice or about how athletic and fast he is, and that probably really has impressed the coaching staff and team.

Giddy? Here's the rest of the report. He's still a freshman and prone to freshman mistakes, most notably the notion that he can always make the play with his feet. That trait has resulted in a number of needless very long sacks that most likely have left coaches growling and teammates a little frustrated at times.

"Right now he's learning the system and sometimes he tries to make too much out of plays," said senior offensive lineman Steve Rehring.

"It's like Troy his sophomore year. There were times he would take a sack when he could throw the ball away.

"There have been times when Terrelle has taken a long sack and you wonder what he was doing," Rehring said.

Offensive coordinator Jim Bollman was not quite as specific and by no means implied that he was disappointed in Pryor in any way, but Bollman remained very noncommittal on the issue of whether Pryor would help the Buckeyes this fall, specifically as a backup quarterback.

"It's too soon to tell. We'll know more after Saturday (when the jersey scrimmage takes place)," said Bollman. "He certainly stands out when he can run around and do those kinds of things, but we'll have to see how he does the other things as well," Bollman said.

Put down that brick you are about to throw at your monitor to crush the fingers that typed those quotes. Nobody is saying that Pryor is a bust or isn't going to play or that he is a disappointment in any way whatsoever. What is true, however, is that contrary to popular belief in some quarters, Pryor is a mere mortal and it's going to take some time for him to adjust to college football, and more specifically, to the fact that while he may in fact be the best athlete on the field, the difference between himself and the other people on the field is far smaller than what he was used to as a high school football player. That in turn means that he is going to have to learn to use his head as much as his feet, and for a guy who could get by on feet alone up until now, that may take some serious adjusting.

Will he do it? Steve Rehring talked about the last quarterback who had to make that adjustment while under the tutelage of the OSU coaching staff, and you may recollect that he turned out OK. Our bet is that Pryor will as well, but give the young man some time. He's got a little learning to do before he is really a star quarterback. What may make Pryor extra special is that he has the ability to make plays for the Buckeyes before he has reached star quarterback status because he indeed does have very rare playmaking abilities.

"The other day we were in five-man pro and he takes it 45 yards down the sideline for a touchdown and outruns a guy who had an angle on him," said an obviously impressed Rehring.

"From where I was standing, the DB had the angle and it looked like he had Terrelle and Terrelle got past him."

Pryor may not be ready as a quarterback, but the OSU coaching staff will find a way to cash in on that kind of ability. Count on it. And if he can develop his decision making the way Troy Smith did and prove he can throw the ball well, he may well one day live up to all the hype. It just probably isn't going to be the day after tomorrow.

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