Better Know A Buckeye: Terrelle Pryor
September 2006 – December 2006: College Football Recruiting Begins; Buckeyes stick out?
An important development early into his junior year of football is the new emphasis Terrelle was beginning to place on the gridiron. Admittedly, basketball was his dominant sport and, by this time, he was a better hoops player than he was a football player. However, while Terrelle was still insisting on trying both sports at the next level, he began to realize that football might be something he should give a harder look. Entering his junior year, Terrelle wanted to advanced his reputation in football after a disappointing 33-0 first round exit in the playoffs to Mohawk. By the end of September, Terrelle was noting how much more comfortable he feels playing football and how he wanted to try playing both in college. The change is interesting when looked at the inverse of how most people following Terrelle Pryor’s recruitment would describe the two-sports dilemma. Midway through his junior year, Terrelle Pryor — the former Pitt basketball verbal — was a basketball star who now wanted to play football, and not vice-versa. Terrelle dropping the Tar Heels from consideration in mid-October for how poorly they were doing on the gridiron suggests exactly that.
Pryor’s size (approximately 6’53 and 210lbs by this time), youth and rawness at the QB position posed some interesting issues for the schools interested in him. Given his frame and youth, most everyone initially involved was uncertain where they wanted him… just that they wanted him. At the time, Pryor had the frame and prowess to play that could have made him someone’s wide receiver, quarterback, tight end, defensive end or safety. Pitt wanted Pryor as a wide receiver. Penn State also wanted him a wide receiver. Most everyone else just pitched the word “athlete” to him initially. Ohio State, however, was the first school to recruit him as a quarterback and did so from the very beginning. I have no way of knowing for sure, but it appears to me that this little kernel helped Ohio State stand out from the rest of the pack early on. Quarterback was the position of interest for both Pryor and his head coach at Jeannette, Ray Reitz. Though this tidbit came far too early in the process to mean anything, but Terrelle even noted that the offer from Ohio State, then the no. 1 team in the country, stood out.
Also helping Ohio State’s case initially was the quarterbacking of Troy Smith. When pressed for names of football players that Terrelle Pryor idolizes or watches with a keen interest, Troy Smith was consistently the only college player mentioned, joining other luminaries like Vince Young (unarguably the most pronounced comparison for Pryor, even at this time), Peyton Manning and Michael Vick4. As Terrelle began to open up further about his recruitment in early 2007 (after his junior year of football), Terrelle still mentioned Troy Smith as a player he takes cues from, even when it seemed inevitable that Troy would be holding a clipboard for the Ravens in 2007. Further, Terrelle even mentioned Ted Ginn as another player he follows because of what Ginn is capable of after the catch. This interest steamrolled into an invitation to the famed 2006 Ohio State-Michigan showdown, for which Terrelle expressed serious interest. By mid-November, Terrelle was set to go to Columbus on an unofficial visit for this game, but had to cancel due to an illness. He certainly had other offers for unofficials, including a planned visit to Happy Valley for the Penn State-Michigan game, which I believe fell through, and a Pitt-Rutgers game, which he did attend.
- Penn State is the only verbal offer that Pryor got in football that I know of. That doesn’t mean Pitt, Clemson and Ohio State didn’t… just that I don’t know about it. [↩]
- more on Notre Dame at the end. [↩]
- if you believe that… but alas… [↩]
- oh please God no. [↩]
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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”.