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About Mr. Pryor

By Michael Amann

I am going to try not to gloat. Our esteemed quarterback, having no obligation to journalistic integrity and having accomplished much in Pasadena, needs no such restraint. I will, however, for the benefit of the 2010 Rose Bowl MVP, declare that I told you so. I am speaking of course to those people who, in the wake of many disappointments (mostly the Purdue game) kind of lost their minds regarding our young quarterback.

Some people called for Joe Bauserman to replace the once-vaunted signal caller. Many suggested that the guy who has now just passed for 266 yards in a Rose Bowl win should move to wide receiver. A lot of people were freaking out. A lot of people thought that Pryor would never be good at quarterbacking. In this space and on the blog we here at UWeekly preached the virtue of patience, at least in regards to Pryor. Now, the rising Buckeye star has a long way to go. However, it's safe to say the reports of the death of Terrelle Pryor's career have proven to be exaggerations.

A particularly foolish piece in The Lantern declared Pryor to be "simply not Buckeye caliber." The author pointed to the three sophomore/red-shirted freshmen quarterbacks who were doing marginally better than Pryor. Those quarterbacks - Jacory Harris, Andrew Luck and Jordan Jefferson - all finished the season losers. In fact, few young players have improved as significantly as Pryor has.

No one has absorbed more grief during this up-and-down season than Pryor. Obviously a lot of that was deserved. No one that I know of ever defended the play of the erratic sophomore as acceptable. However, the complaints were focused on QB 2 with a laser-like intensity, despite a heck of a lot of problems with the offensive line and coaching staff (These too have been remedied). Detractors also took on an apocalyptic tone, declaring the end of quarterbacking at Ohio State in the near future.

One game obviously does not erase the demons Pryor has built up over the past two seasons. Pryor stacked up his big game resume against Penn State and Iowa before finally bringing a bowl win back to Ohio State after three whole years.

That is not to say that people expected Pryor to out-gain Oregon's offense with his arm. His 23 of 37 performance was a pleasant surprise, even for his most ardent supporters. Pryor also had a lot of help from his longtime advisor Jim Bollman. I have no idea what role the much-maligned offensive coordinator had in the inspired game plan against the Ducks offense (News of his reduced involvement in the play calling date back to October.). Whoever was in charge made sure the offense was very Pryor-friendly.

[Aside: Where in the gosh darn heck have those Pryor bootlegs been all year? Why did we only use them on our last drive of the season? They were amazing. You could argue that Oregon was stacked in the box expecting a run up the middle, but teams have been doing that against us all year. Plus, we ran at least three of them on that drive. They couldn't have been that surprising. Hopefully we'll see more of these next year.]

Pryor has demonstrated that he is not a horrible bust, or an arm punter, or a criminal who steals the souls of children. There is a lot of work still to be done. On probably the most awesome play of the game, he heaved up a goofy desperation chuck that seemed destined to crash into oblivion before Jake Ballard decided the only way he was going to get his hands on the ball was an epic grab. Nitpicking, however, is for the long, unforgiving off-season. For now, I suppose we will just have to enjoy the win.

Originally Published: January 6, 2010

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