Healed Pryor ready to lead

Associated Press

Columbus

Already the buzz has started about Terrelle Pryor winning the Heisman.

Like a kid putting his hands over his ears to block something he doesn’t want to hear, the Ohio State quarterback is ignoring idle talk and focusing on the his team.

“You can’t think about the Heisman,” he said after Ohio State’s spring workout on Friday. “It’s a team thing.

“I believe if you lead your team and if that will come to the conclusion that I would win, then that’s what it is. I believe that in my heart I owe that to my teammates and the fans before thinking about myself.”

After two seasons, 21 wins and two Big Ten titles, Pryor is preparing for his junior season. He is fully recovered from offseason arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, although he is still wearing an elastic brace for support.

He feels stronger, more comfortable and better prepared than ever before in his college career.

“I felt like last year I still was going through the motions. I was just trying to please people,” he said. “People were saying that I couldn’t play quarterback. But that’s not the case.

“I think I was trying to prove too many people wrong, standing in the pocket, doing what I don’t do. But now I feel ... so much more comfortable.”

This is the start of year three in the learning curve for Pryor, once the most sought-after high school quarterback recruit in the country. With an experienced offense around him and a lot of hopes riding on his shoulders, he said he no longer has anything to prove to those who said he would be better suited to play receiver.

Pryor completed 61 percent of his passes for 12 touchdowns and 4 interceptions as a freshman, but seldom was asked to make a throw with a game on the line. And he almost never threw the ball farther than 10 or 15 yards.

Last season, Pryor was brilliant at times and at others looked like a work in progress. His pass-efficiency rating fell from 146.50 as a freshman to 128.91, and his completion rate dropped to 57 percent.

Still, he led Ohio State to an 11-2 record, a fifth consecutive conference title and a 26-17 victory over Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

Many observers hailed the game in Pasadena as a turning point for the 6-foot-6, 235-pounder from Jeannette, Pa. He led all rushers with 20 carries for 72 yards in addition to passing for a career-best 266 yards on 23 of 37 for two touchdowns with one interception. He was voted the game’s MVP.

Head coach Jim Tressel said the Rose Bowl win, and the month of practices leading up to it, had a profound effect on Pryor’s progress.