Pryor: Big numbers, yet …

Gifted QB always attracted controversy

By Ken Gordon

The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

If one could strip away all the trappings that came along with Terrelle Pryor — the immense hype, the numerous verbal faux pas and the tumult surrounding his departure — his three years at Ohio State would be viewed as a remarkable success.

Trimmed down to strictly football, Pryor was pretty amazing. Three wins over Michigan. Three Big Ten titles. A 31-4 record as the starter. Two MVP performances in big-time bowl games. School records for touchdown passes (57) and rushing yards by a quarterback (2,164).

“On the field, he was great, obviously,” former OSU center Jim Cordle said.

But viewing Pryor through that narrowed prism is not possible, because he seemed always in the center of a storm, often self-created.

First, it was the swirl of recruiting, the delight of OSU fans when the nation’s top-ranked prospect chose their school, and quickly afterward, the sky-high expectations.

He was big (6-foot-6, 235 pounds), strong and fast, the only player in the long and storied history of Pennsylvania high school football who both threw and ran for 4,000 career yards.

The plan was to bring him along slowly behind returning starter Todd Boeckman, a fifth-year senior who had led OSU to the 2008 national-title game.

Both quarterbacks played in each of the first three games, but after Boeckman and the Buckeyes were humbled at Southern California, 35-3, coach Jim Tressel started Pryor the next week against Troy.

There was speculation that the move split the locker room, but former players say that was not the case.

“The locker room was never divided,” Cordle said. “Boeckman was a great team guy and he handled it so well. At that point everybody rallied around the next guy. Nobody took sides.”

Pryor was raw in 2008, to say the least. The offense was stripped down, and OSU rumbled to a Big Ten title on the strength of a resurgent offensive line and running game down the stretch.

That led to high hopes in 2009, the feeling being that Pryor had a year of experience and a full offseason of preparing as the No. 1 guy.

Instead, though, in typical fashion, Pryor allowed controversy to diminish his accomplishments. In the 2009 season opener, he came out wearing a tribute to imprisoned NFL quarterback Mike Vick, then clumsily defended Vick during his postgame interview.

Those close to Pryor always insisted he was a good guy who just needed to mature.

But not everyone was convinced of that. Former OSU quarterback Craig Krenzel said he was bothered by Pryor’s demeanor at times.

“How many times did we see him take his helmet off or yell at somebody on the sidelines?” Krenzel said. “And not a constructive, fired-up, controlled yell, but if DeVier Posey dropped a ball, he’d get in his face.

“I never really looked at him and thought, ‘Wow, that’s the guy I really want running the team.’ I always saw a guy out there for himself, and he didn’t quite get it.”

Over the past two years, Pryor’s ability to read defenses improved. He was not strictly a scrambling quarterback, but he also was never a pure pocket passer, either.

He was horrendous in a stunning loss at Purdue in 2009, but he and OSU pulled it together and were selected to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 13 years.

And in a shocker, Tressel turned Pryor loose. He responded with a breakout game, completing 23 of 37 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns and added 72 yards rushing in a 26-17 win over Oregon.

Last season, Pryor did not take the same leap forward that he did from 2008 to 2009, but it was good enough for a one-loss season and another BCS game.

With NCAA controversy swirling at the Sugar Bowl, Pryor shook it off to once again earn MVP honors, passing for 221 yards and two TDs and rushing for 115 yards in a landmark victory over Arkansas, the program’s first bowl win against a Southeastern Conference team in 10 tries.

In the end, Pryor leaves Columbus the way he came in — with some amazing athletic accomplishments, but with baggage on his personal resume.

“Did Terrelle Pryor do some athletically amazing things on the football field? Yes,” Krenzel said. “He was a freakish, gifted athlete. There is no denying that whatsoever.

“But that has little to do with being a great quarterback. And none of this truly surprises me.”