Better Know A Buckeye: Terrelle Pryor
Down the stretch to signing day
After the Michigan visit, time was rapidly running out in the Terrelle Pryor recruitment saga. Pryor was still serious about taking more visits. However, with a busy basketball schedule brought on by the fact that the basketball team was working double time because most of the players (Pryor included) were busy with football, weekend visits were basically an impossibility. The stretch identified here entails a few stories, but none of them proceed in a linear or chronological fashion.
Brew Crew visits. Michael Brewster and JB Shugarts were the lone 2008 commitments to enroll in January. Brewster, Shugarts, along with Brewster’s older brother Billy (who transferred to Ohio State from Florida State when his brother announced his intention to play for the Buckeyes) and Andrew Sweat (from nearby Washington, PA) made the trip to Jeannette to watch Terrelle Pryor play basketball on January 26. Pryor was genuinely, and pleasantly, surprised by the visit to watch Pryor and his Jayhawk teammates beat Greensburg Central Catholic. The nature of the visit was actually in no way football related. Both the Brewster brothers, Shugarts and Sweat showed up wearing no Ohio State attire and never once brought up the issue of Pryor’s college choice. After the game, the group of friends ate at a local pizza joint.
Tressel and Rodriguez weren’t the only ones trying to make their case at the last minute. Joe Paterno, whose Nittany Lions were long thought to be last place finishers in the Pryor sweepstakes, got in his buggy and scooted down to Jeannette to visit with Terrelle. Terrelle liked the visit, but still wasn’t sure about Penn State’s rural location.
Giving up on basketball? Terrelle had long made the prospect of playing two sports at the next level an integral part of his recruitment. However, on February 1, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published an article saying that Pryor was going to give up on basketball in college in order to focus on football. This is a drastic change, considering that Pryor had talked about doing both sports for almost all of 2007. Indeed, the only other instance of he himself raising doubts about playing both in college was a September 9 Scout article where he stated his desire to do both, but acknowledged that it would be so time consuming that he could probably only pull it off for a year or two. FWIW, in the same article, Pryor’s HS basketball coach thinks he’s Ohio State bound.
So what’s it going to be? Naturally, a lot of conflicting reports came out in the final week hypothesizing on the decision Pryor would make. Most of these actually thought Pryor would announce for Ohio State on February 6. His HS basketball coach thought he would decide for Ohio State. An SI report published on Monday February 4 said the same. Just about every report saying that if he makes a choice, it would be for Ohio State.
But will Terrelle Pryor make a choice? He’s actually said a week earlier that he was considering delaying his choice. On February 4, Mike Farrell said he was 50-50 on making a choice. The next day, the Pitt Post-Gazette said he was likely to make a decision. That same day, Mike Farrell said Pryor was for sure going to make a decision on signing day, and would decide among Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. The same day, Pitt Post-Gazette said it would very likely be Ohio State. Bob Lichtenfels, however, said Pryor wasn’t ready to decide. Farrell later retracted his earlier report. On signing day, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said Pryor will not decide, but will go through with the press conference to answer questions. The same day, Doug Lesmerises published a report saying Pryor would choose Ohio State. The Pitt Post-Gazette cited friends of Pryor who said he would choose the Buckeyes at his noon press conference.
So what’s it going to be?
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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”.