Better Know A Buckeye: Terrelle Pryor
October 26 2007: Tressel and Matta visit
With mutual interest in Terrelle Pryor, and an upcoming game looming in Happy Valley for the football Buckeyes, Jim Tressel and Thad Matta, along with QB coach Joe Daniels, wide receiver coach and recruiter par excellence Darrell Hazzell, and basketball assistant Alan Major took a trip to Greensburg, PA to watch Terrelle’s final regular season game, a Thursday night 42-6 thrashing of a pretty good Greensburg Central Catholic team.
Pryor and Tressel talked immediately before the game, with Tressel telling Pryor that he was leaving at 6pm local and should be in the stands 45 minutes later. The Buckeye brain trust arrived fashionably late after their plane touched down in Latrobe, PA, showing up during the early parts of the second quarter. Surprisingly, notwithstanding what would have to be unfriendly territory, Matta and Tressel were treated like rock stars. Though the group spent most of their time in the press box, the aura of their presence had the people in the stands talking about their presence. During halftime, Matta and Tressel even posed for pictures with fans. They didn’t stick around to see much of the action, leaving during the third quarter with the game well in hand and Terrelle Pryor retired for the night. The brain trust most likely got back home shortly after 10pm.
Fans hoping that Pryor would open up further about his feelings towards Ohio State were probably disappointed to hear that the visit didn’t change how he thought of Ohio State1, but did say that he was impressed that Matta actually cut short a practice with his hoops team to tag along. I’m not sure if it impressed Pryor, but Tressel’s Thursday night is usually date night with his wife Ellen. He canceled private time with his wife in order to make the trip, with his wife fully understanding the cancellation. Terrelle did not make it to Happy Valley for the primetime waxing of the Nittany Lions, thinking that attending would be disrespectful to Ohio State. A week later, Terrelle would repay the favor with his long awaited trip to Columbus for the game against Wisconsin.
- Another theory suggests to read between the lines when Terrelle said that [↩]
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holy shiiiiittttttt
thanks for getting me fired at the illiteracy factory
Dude. This is 27 pages single-spaced at .7 inch margins, when taking out the images.
Dude.
You’re not expecting anyone to read this, are you? This must be the longest post in the history of college football blogging. When was the last time you went out anyways?
Wow. I now have plans for the evening.
I’d give you two thumbs up, if I weren’t wasting my time giving my computer screen hand gestures. Great work, man.
I love the SpaceBalls reference on page 18…….
Hmm, I don’t know when the last time I got out was, but 27 pages single-spaced? That’s a little exorbitant even for me.
Great article. I think you know more about Terrelle than he does. Thanks for all the hard work – this had to take a while to finish.
Wow. Amazing work. Now I’ll have something to do at my summer job tomorrow for a couple hours.
Vico, you can now open the sweet nectar of Gods, Pabst Blue Ribbon, in a jubilant celebration.
You have now reached “legend” status, my friend.
Speaking of pp 18, is Strawberry Mansion not the coolest school name ever?
Whew! I’m exhausted! I squandered an hour of my employer’s time, and still had to finish it at home. So many cool links to follow. Naturally, after getting my fix, I can only ask … nah, nevermind. Take a few days off, then we’ll all hit you up for the next, and last, BKAB.
I think I’ve read about this somewhere else (if not, I can’t believe I’m the only one with the idea), but on the subject of the signing day postponement that got everybody so freaked out/made Terrelle look like an attention whore: it seems reasonable to assume that TP knew where he was going but didn’t want to deal with hostile crowds at PSU during the state basketball tourney and simply waited till after it was over to announce.
That was a monster of a piece, nice work.
My cat’s name is Terrelle.
Fantastic piece. Incredibly researched and supported. I learned many new things. Kudos.
That was a great post and this has been a great series, now i can’t wait for the last one.
Oh, I forgot to include this: http://www.pittsburghsportsinsider.com/?p=1095
Take a look at what Joe Paterno (allegedly) told Terrelle Pryor early into his recruitment.
senior year stats: http://jeannettejayhawksfootball.blogspot.com/2008/08/rollover-stats-terrelle-pryor.html
and lastly: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07241/812755-365.stm
- pay careful attention to the stories of him stealing the ball of the tee, and hurdling a would-be tackler at the 5 yard line and landing 3 yards in the end zone.
Dude, you made it onto The Big Lead and SI’s Campus Clicks.
Dude.
Bandwidth gets chewed through, but no one’s contributed to the Give Us Money Campaign. That gets a dismayed “Dude”.