Will Terrelle Pryor Be the Greatest Dual-Threat QB There’s Ever Been?
February 26, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
As the spread offense has undoubtedly dominated the world of college football, coaches have an added attention span for quarterbacks who can both throw and run the football. From Vince Young of the mighty Texas Longhorns to JaMarcus Russell of the tenacious Tigers of LSU, big, fast quarterbacks have changed the face of college football forever.
In this day and age, when thinking of a stud…
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Big Ten recruiting winds blow to the south
January 30, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
When Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster checked into his hotel Tuesday morning in Shreveport, La., the woman working at the front desk spotted the Golden Gophers logo on his shirt and smiled.
"The coach from Michigan just left," she told him.
Both Minneapolis and Ann Arbor, Mich., are located more than 850 miles from Shreveport, making it an odd place for Brewster and one of his Michigan counterparts to cross paths. But these days, Big Ten coaches are just as likely to bump into one another in Shreveport, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale and Houston as they are in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Detroit.
When Purdue head coach Danny Hope called ESPN.com on Wednesday afternoon, he was navigating a road near Bay City, Fla. An hour earlier, Wisconsin defensive line coach Charlie Partridge phoned in from the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area.
The Big Ten recruiting range is expanding far beyond the Midwest, and coaches are spending much of their time in the fertile states of the south and southeast.
"There's certainly great, great players in the Midwest, but just in terms of numbers, all you have to do is look at Division I signing day and the number of kids who play Division I out of this region here," said Partridge, who has recruited the Florida area for Wisconsin, Pitt and Iowa State, among others. "You can come down and get 2-3 kids who can have an impact on your program.
"People are recognizing the value of recruiting down here."
College game comes easy for prep prodigy Pryor
January 2, 2009 by feed · Leave a Comment
Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — More than once after a game this season, Terrelle Pryor noted how college football isn’t all that different from the Pennsylvania high school scene he dominated as the nation’s No. 1 recruit.
After helping Ohio State stomp Michigan State 45-7 on Oct. 18, Pryor told reporters, “It’s just like high school.” The line became Pryor’s trademark this fall as he won Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors and led Ohio State to another BCS bowl appearance as the starting quarterback.
“Liar,” Buckeyes senior tight end Rory Nicol said. “But Terrelle’s from PA [Pennsylvania], I’m from PA, too, so I’m allowed to say that. He’s a good athlete, man.”
Such a good athlete that Pryor’s transition from high school to college has been smoother than many had expected, even for a freshman who came to Ohio State with unparalleled hype. Pryor has had his growing pains, but he led the Big Ten in pass efficiency (152.1) and posted an 8-1 mark as the starter.
With small-forward size and a smooth, seemingly effortless running style, Pryor at times looked like the best player on the field, just like he was at Jeannette Senior High School.
Could it really be that easy?
“You can’t really argue with him,” senior cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said. “He was just in high school last year, so he comes in, he’s doing amazing things as a freshman. It kind of is just like high school.”
They Aren’t Complaining IN Tempe, But The Fiesta Bowl Could Have Been Better
December 8, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
The 2009 version of the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl will pit two of the most storied college football programs of all time against each other. Unfortunately for the Fiesta Bowl, it’s not the two that it could have been.
On January 5th the Texas Longhorn’s will be reunited on the field of play with the Ohio State Buckeyes for the third time in four years. This game is sure to be a ratings coup for the Fiesta Bowl as these two programs have two of the largest fan bases in the country.
The game will bring many intriguing elements along with the two teams. It will be a classic battle of great defense vs. great offense. The Buckeyes rank 8th in total defense and 7th in scoring defense. The Longhorns meanwhile rank 9th in total offense and 5th in scoring offense. It will provide an answer to the ultimate question, does great defense beat great offense?
Then there will be the Texas subplot of being left out of the National Championship. Many will watch and see how the Longhorn’s perform, and base their judgement of whether or Texas truly deserved to be in the National Championship game or not. For Texas, there is still a slim hope of a split national championship if OU can win ugly, and Texas can win big. If that happens, then perhaps the folks in the AP will remember Texas beating OU earlier in the season.
Ohio State brings a plot of their own into the game. Many people feel the Buckeyes don’t deserve this game, but only get to be in it because of the name on their chest. That may be true, but they are still the co-Big Ten champions.
People will also want to see if Ohio State can break their dry spell in BCS games. There was a time not too long ago that Ohio State was the surest bet you could make to pick a team to win a BCS bowl game. Now, two devastating losses later, people have no faith in the Buckeyes. This is their chance to reclaim some lost credibility for the Big Ten.
Finally, there is the renewal of the two game series that Ohio State and Texas played in 2005 and 2006. Both games were won by the visiting team, and both winning teams went on to play in the National Championship, but with different results.
This game will give Ohio State the chance to show Texas what defending Vince Young was like. Terrelle Pryor, though not as polished as Vince was in 2005, is one of the most popular players in the game right now, and he will have his big stage for a chance at a coming out party, or we will see how much improvement he still needs.
All of these are very compelling story lines that the Fiesta Bowl can hang its hat on to attract viewers. Viewers isn’t something that they should be short on for this game. However, you have to believe that they were very close to an even more intriguing and lucrative match up.
If it hadn’t been for Oregon going and spoiling the Rose Bowl dreams of Oregon State, the Fiesta Bowl would be looking at a dream matchup of Texas vs. USC. If the BCS had a plus one system this could be the other game alongside Florida/Oklahoma.
If this game had come to fruition we might even be calling it National Championship game B. I mean honestly who wouldn’t tune in to see this game. Two teams that are the BCS national championship rejects, but deserve to be there every bit as much as the two teams that are.
Also, everyone would be salivating at the chance to see the rematch from one of the greatest games ever played, the 2006 Rose Bowl. With USC complaining about having to play in Pasadena yet again (OH MY GOD what a burden), the change of scenery would have been nice for the men of Troy and their followers. With Southern Cal being so close to Tempe you better believe their fans would show up in droves to see SC exact revenge on its national championship record setting spoiler foe.
I guess we can only reminisce about what might have been. Not only does the BCS screw the fans out of chances for their teams to play for national championships, it screws them out of great matchups due to bowl tie-in’s. So lets all congratulate Oregon on ruining it for the rest of us. OH, Thank you mighty Ducks.
Buckeyes Draw Texas In Fiesta Bowl
December 8, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the fifth time in the last seven years, Ohio State is headed back to the Arizona desert.
The Buckeyes (10-2) accepted a spot Sunday in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 5, where they will take on what figures to be an angry bunch of Texas Longhorns (11-1). Texas is outraged that an Oklahoma team that it beat by 10 points is playing in the national championship game ahead of them.
The Longhorns will have a point to make.
"They want to be at their best and they would love people to turn on the TV set and say, ‘Hey, this is one of the best teams in the country,"’ Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said of the Longhorns’ motivation.
Yet Tressel said he doubted if Texas coach Mack Brown would use the slight to motivate his team.
"He’s going to coach his kids to do the right things for the right reasons and become as good as they can be," Tressel said. "I don’t think (he will use) gimmicks or ‘Win one for the Gipper’ or any of that stuff. They don’t need that. They’re good enough without it."
The game will pit teams who split mammoth, regular-season showdowns in 2005 and 2006. No. 4 Ohio State lost 25-22 in 2005 at home to quarterback Vince Young and No. 2 Texas, which would go on to win the national championship. The next year the Buckeyes won in Austin, 24-7, in the second game for Longhorns standout quarterback Colt McCoy, now among a handful of Heisman Trophy favorites.
There is speculation that Texas could still have a shot at a piece of the national championship if it were to win convincingly over Ohio State while Oklahoma – a team that the Longhorns beat 45-35 on a neutral field in October – takes on Florida for the Bowl Championship Series title in Miami on Jan. 8.
Ohio State also has motivation, having lost in the last two BCS title games by lopsided scores. The Buckeyes even lost one of them – a 41-14 beating to Florida in the 2007 finale – on the same University of Phoenix Stadium field where they will meet Texas.
"It’ll be nice to get down there again and hopefully this time there’s better memories of the place," linebacker James Laurinaitis said.
The Buckeyes appeared in the Fiesta Bowl in 2003, 2004 and 2006, pounding Notre Dame 34-20 in the most recent trip after upsetting top-ranked Miami 31-24 in double-overtime to win the national title in 2003 and rolling over Kansas State 35-28 in the 2004 game. Those three games were all played at Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium.
It’s the fourth year in a row Ohio State has gone to a BCS bowl game. The Buckeyes are 18-21 in bowl games, losing their last two after winning four in a row.
Ohio State (10-2) has been patiently waiting since beating up on rival Michigan 42-7 in the regular-season finale on Nov. 22.
The Buckeyes have been watching the scheduled games and conference championships since then, continually evaluating how each outcome will affect them.
They got a huge break when Oregon State lost at home to Oregon on Nov. 29, making Southern California the Rose Bowl champion. USC was a lock to make a BCS bowl game, and had the other OSU beaten Oregon it would have won the Pac-10 because of it’s stunning victory over the Trojans two weeks after USC throttled the Buckeyes in September, 35-3. With Oregon State knocked out of the BCS, that opened the door for the Buckeyes to get an at-large bid.
The pluses of playing in the BCS are more money for the Big Ten and for each of its member schools, a higher-profile game against a tougher team, and much more exposure.
Even early on Sunday, there was discussion that the Buckeyes could end up in either the Sugar Bowl against Alabama, the nation’s No. 1 team until it lost to Florida in Saturday’s Southeastern Conference title game, or the Fiesta against Oklahoma.
"It’s a quality opponent," cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said about Texas. "This is college football at its best. Everybody’s going to get up for the game and be ready to play."
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Buckeyes to go Fiesta Bowling, again
December 7, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
As announced this evening, your Ohio State Buckeyes will be heading to Glendale for something like the 23rd time, taking on the Texas Longhorns in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on January 5th.
(Just an aside: I still hate non-January 1st bowl games. It just doesn’t feel right)
This is a dangerous game. A pissed-off Texas team. A young OSU QB. A huge monkey on OSU’s back of not winning a big game.
The question for Texas is: which team shows up? A dejected, “we should be in the MNC game” Texas? A post-Heisman Colt McCoy, primed to suffer the Heisman Hangover? A peeved Texas looking to make a statement? And which Ohio State team shows up? How will Terrelle Pryor benefit from the time off? What about Beanie? A full rested, mostly-healthy Beanie should scare the pants of Mack Brown.
If any team should fear a QB like Terrelle Pryor, it would be the Texas Longhorns. After watching Vince Young for three years, they know what they’re in for.
We’ll look at this match-up a little more in the coming weeks, but we’d love to hear your initial reactions. I’m not sure how I feel about playing in a BCS game this year. Both the Monkey and I were hoping for a match-up with an SEC team, preferably the imminently beatable Georgia Bulldogs in the Capitol One Bowl. We won’t look the gift horse in the mouth, but this match-up with arguably the best team in the country certainly isn’t doing us any favors.
OSU Faces QB Question With NU Wildcats
November 8, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
One quarterback is a veteran with a steady arm. The other is less experienced, and his scrambling ability gives the offense a different look.
Ohio State’s Todd Boeckman and Terrelle Pryor? Yes, them too.
The No. 12 Buckeyes settled on Pryor weeks ago. But now the defense faces a quarterback question, with Northwestern not saying who will lead its offense Saturday.
“I would expect that we would see them both,” Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. “I would expect the (Northwestern) coaches will do the best they can possibly do to utilize both the guys, at whatever mixture they need to have their best opportunity to move the football and score points.”
C.J. Bacher is Northwestern’s starter, a senior who is among the Big Ten leaders in total offense (third, 243 yards per game) and passing yards (fourth, 212.5). He’s led the Wildcats to a 7-2 record, their best in three years.
But with Bacher sidelined last weekend by a hamstring injury, Mike Kafka took over and rallied the Wildcats (3-2 Big Ten) to a 24-17 victory at Minnesota, their first against a ranked team since 2005. The junior rushed for 217 yards, a record for a Big Ten quarterback, and threw for another 143 yards directing Northwestern’s spread.
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said Bacher will start against the Buckeyes (7-2, 4-1) if he’s healthy, and Bacher was upgraded to probable after Thursday’s practice. But the Wildcats need Kafka’s mobility, too, especially after backup running back Omar Conteh was knocked out of this weekend’s game with a knee injury.
Leading rusher Tyrell Sutton is already out for the year with a wrist injury.
So who’s it going to be? Bacher? Kafka? Both?
“Obviously we’ll play to the young men’s strengths,” Fitzgerald said. “C.J. can run the ball better than people give him credit for, and Mike can throw better than people give him credit for. Both young men are very talented, and give us the opportunity to really run the offense the way that we think we can.”
No matter who’s under center, he won’t have an easy task. Ohio State leads the Big Ten in pass defense, and is third against the run. The Buckeyes have one of the best linebackers in the country in James Laurinaitis, and safety Kurt Coleman and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins have three interceptions each.
Ohio State’s offense has been spotty as Pryor develops as a passer, but the running game is strong behind running back Chris “Beanie” Wells.
Pryor is a phenom, a big, mobile quarterback out of the Vince Young mold. But he’s also a freshman, and he was despondent after the Oct. 25 loss to Penn State, saying he cost the Buckeyes the game and, possibly, a fourth straight Big Ten title.
It was Pryor’s fumble that set up Penn State’s go-ahead touchdown, and the Nittany Lions sealed the victory with a last-minute interception.
“This is going to be a great challenge for him. This is part of maturing as a person and as a football player,” tight end Rory Nicol said. “TP is going to be a great player, and we’ve totally got his back. He knows that. It’s time to move forward.
“It’ll be exciting to see how he bounces back,” Nicol added. “In his mind, I’m sure he’s got big things going on. He wants to have a big game.”
Wells hasn’t been as explosive as he was last year, missing three games with a foot injury. But he’s still averaging 112 yards rushing per game, and rumbled for 168 yards against Wisconsin.
He had only 55 yards on 22 carries against Penn State, but Tressel said Wells got in more practice time during Ohio State’s bye last week than he had the three weeks before that.
“This is going to be a huge challenge for us, the biggest challenge that we’ve had all year,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re going to have to play our cleanest and most effective game of the year for us to just compete to have an opportunity.”
That’s not just coach-speak, either.
Ohio State routed the Wildcats the past two seasons, winning by a combined score of 112-17. Actually, the whole “rivalry” has been lopsided, with the Buckeyes winning eight of the last nine meetings and all but 15 since the teams began playing back in 1913. One game was a tie.
There could be one good omen for Northwestern. Its one victory came in 2004, when Ohio State was coming back from its bye. The Buckeyes did not play last week.
The Buckeyes still have a slim chance at another outright conference title. But they have to win out and get help from Penn State and Michigan State, who play each other in the season finale.
Even if Penn State keeps winning, it would at least end up in the Rose Bowl. If the Nittany Lions make the BCS title game, Rose Bowl officials could opt to stay with a Big Ten team, as they did last year.
“We saw a little highlight today of the way they reacted to that win. That meant everything to them,” Nicol said of Northwestern’s 2004 victory. “And the way we walked off that field, kind of in embarrassment, just a terrible feeling. Unfortunately, we’ve felt it twice this year so far, and it’s on us to kind of go out with a bang.
“Let’s everybody recommit, and get this thing going the right way.”
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Polls show mercy on Ohio State
October 27, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
By LARRY PHILLIPS
NNCO
COLUMBUS — The polls weren’t nearly as harsh on Ohio State as the message board maniacs and disgruntled fans who filed out of Ohio Stadium on Saturday night.
Perhaps a drop from 9th to 13th in the polls is recognition there’s no humiliation in losing a skin-tight 13-6 duel to a team poised to reach the national championship game while starting a true freshman quarterback to boot.
The disappointment in falling to No. 3 Penn State reflects a game the Buckeyes seemed on the verge of winning. But Terrelle Pryor’s fourth-quarter fumble on what could’ve been a game-sealing drive was the only opening the Nittany Lions needed.
It was the margin of victory between two strong teams, not an indictment of a program.
DEJA VU: Saturday night’s defeat had a couple of haunting tones.
The last time Penn State beat the Buckeyes in Columbus was a 19-0 decision in 1978. On that day, Paterno’s team picked off true freshman quarterback Art Schlichter five times.
Pryor is the first true freshman QB Ohio State has started since, and the Nittany Lions turned him over twice, stripping him, and picking him on two of the Buckeyes’ final three possessions.
In neither game did Ohio State score a touchdown.
DEJA VU PART II: In Ohio State’s last home night game, a top-5 Texas team featuring Vince Young was in a very similar situation, trailing in the second half when the Buckeyes couldn’t hang on to the ball.
First, quarterback Justin Zwick led Ohio State’s lone effective drive in the second half, and hit tight end Ryan Hamby between the numbers for what would’ve been a touchdown to give Ohio State a two-score lead. Instead, Hamby inexplicably dropped the pass. The Buckeyes settled for a field goal and that set the stage for Young’s heroics in a 25-22 rally.
Zwick took over for Ohio State’s next-to-last possession, but on a scramble similar to Pryor’s Saturday night, he was stripped in the open field, the ball bounced wildly behind him and Texas recovered.
BCS: Penn State has all but assured itself of a Bowl Championship Series berth and will be heavily favored to win its final three games against Iowa, Indiana and Michigan State to claim the outright Big Ten title. A loss by either Alabama or Texas, a strong possibility based on their daunting schedules, figures to send the Nittany Lions to the national championship game.
The Buckeyes, despite their offensive foibles, also will be favored in their final three games. A 10-2 record almost certainly would send Ohio State to a BCS game, too. There are 10 spots to fill, and with the Pac-10 (1 ranked team), the ACC and the Big East all being even worse than the Big Ten, the conference is almost assured of sending a second team to one of the five big bowl games.
Nittany Lions Will Lean on Defense Against Buckeyes
October 21, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
After losing five defensive starters—including two of the best linebackers in school history—question marks surrounded Penn State going into 2008.
However, eight games into the season, the number-three ranked Nittany Lions have that very defense to thank for their current standing.
Like the 2007 New York Giants, Penn State is not made up of superstars. Very few players are considered in the top-five at their position in the nation, yet they continue to succeed without a compilation of All-American’s.
Rather than playing for themselves, Penn State has embraced the “team-first” attitude that led Big Blue to a Super Bowl XLII victory. And that attitude is exactly what they’ll need to have going into a very important game this weekend against the ninth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes—a game that has National Title implications for Joe Paterno & Co.
Coming off an impressive 45-7 rout of the then 20th-ranked Michigan, egos are running high in Ohio. It was the first time all season that the team really clicked, and the first time all season that the Buckeyes put together a full 60-minute effort. It’s something they’ll want to continue against Penn State as they also look to take control of the Big Ten Conference.
What the game will come down to is moving the immovable object. It will be Ohio State’s high-powered offense, led by Beanie Wells and Terrelle Pryor, against Penn State’s physical and dominating defense.
It’s a rock and a hard place, but something will ultimately have to budge.
They key for Penn State is a simple one: Put pressure on Pryor and force him to make mistakes.
While Pryor has a ton of skill and the means to become the next Vince Young, he’s still young and prone to make negative plays. And if Penn State’s front seven can put some pressure on the true freshman and keep him contained, it would go a long way in securing their ninth win of the season.
Now I know what everyone is thinking: “What about Beanie Wells?”
There is no doubt that Wells causes major match-up problems, and there is no doubt Penn State will be focusing in on him. However, unlike the previous five teams that have attempted to slow him down to no avail, the Nittany Lions have a much quicker, disciplined, and sound defense.
Perhaps it’s being oversimplified here, but Penn State is still drastically underrated.
The Buckeyes have coasted along all year, barely hanging on against several inferior opponents, while Penn State has systematically destroyed every team they’ve come across.
It’s been a long time since they’ve been able to say it, but right now, they are a better overall team than Ohio State.
We Are!….Ohio State?
October 21, 2008 by feed · Leave a Comment
Saturday will be the Shoe’s first night game since “The Ryan Hamby Mishap” when Vince Young and the Longhorns narrowly defeated Ohio State on the way to a Texas’ National Championship.
The matchup (#2 Texas vs. #4 Ohio State), not the outcome, resembled much of the year’s USC outing. However, the winner of both Texas and OSU meetings went on to compete for the BCS Title.
As #3 Penn State makes their way into Columbus Saturday, they too, are on a championship run. In fact, Penn State has become a projected favorite to compete in that BCS Title game with Ohio State once again playing USC in the Rose Bowl.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach gave his early opinion on Saturday’s matchup.
The Penn State-Ohio State match up is beyond intriguing. Penn State could come out of Columbus on their way to Miami, but an Ohio State victory puts the Buckeyes right back in the hunt. However much the world hates OSU doesn’t counter what they can earn.
Let’s take a look and project Penn State’s remaining schedule for 2008:
at #9 Ohio State (Saturday)
at Iowa W 38-10
vs. Indiana W 45-3
vs. Michigan State W 28-14
So, Mark could be right as only Alabama and Texas stand in their way at #2 and #1. One of the two is bound to lose since ‘Bama plays in the “world-famous” SEC and still has to play at Tennessee, at LSU, and Auburn at home.
However, Ohio State can not bare to let another Big Ten team represent the conference in the Title Game. This game may decide the Big Ten and the Buckeyes could be the first team in B10 history to win the conference outright 3 years in a row (4 straight championships).
Penn State has failed to win in Columbus since joining the Big Ten in 1993. Their record stands at 0-7 at the ‘Shoe and Ohio State leads the series 12-11 overall.
This game is huge.
In other news, the Terrelle Pryor vs. Mark May battle continues after May directly
called out Terrelle for under performing in the recent Purdue win and being melodramatic when threatening to bench himself.
I’d like to battle Mark May any day, said Pryor after trouncing MSU.
In response, Mark May added that Pryor has somewhat proved himself, but there is still a lot of football left to be played and tons left to be proved.
Just raise the white flag already Mark. It’s time to get over your defeat in 1980. I’m sorry you lost and went to the Gator Bowl.