From the Pitt Post Gazette
Ron Cook
Cook: Suave Pryor swaggers through big-time win
Sunday, November 08, 2009
By
Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor celebrates his team's victory over Penn State with fans after yesterday's game at Beaver Stadium.
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor looked like a million bucks in his crisp gray pinstripe suit when he met his family and friends from Jeannette outside the locker room last night after the biggest victory of his football life. "My mom bought it for me. I make it look good, don't I?" the kid said with an enormous grin.
Marvelous, actually.
Almost as good as Pryor made his Buckeyes uniform look in Ohio State's 24-7 thumping of Penn State, running for a touchdown and throwing for two more.
This gorgeous autumn afternoon had an historical feel to it. It won't just be remembered as the day Ohio State moved into prime position to win a fifth consecutive Big Ten Conference championship after previously unbeaten Iowa was stunned at home by Northwestern. It also will be remembered as the day Pryor went from being a big-time athlete to a big-time quarterback.
This win -- Pryor's first against a team ranked as high as No. 11 Penn State -- was extraordinary considering the pressure he was under, playing in Pennsylvania for the first time since his All-Everything days at Jeannette, against the team he dissed during the recruiting process by saying State College was "too country" for him.
"They were on me, man," Pryor said of the Penn State crowd. "Sometimes, I wish I had headphones on. But you can't let that stuff get to you."
Nothing got to Pryor on this afternoon. Not the fans. Certainly, not Penn State's alleged great defense, which not only didn't sack him but allowed him to run for 50 of the Buckeyes' mind-boggling 228 rushing yards.
"Coach, T.P. is zoned in," Ohio State quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano told the boss, Jim Tressel, after the team's morning meetings yesterday.
Does Siciliano know his guys or what?
Maybe Pryor was nervous at the start. He nearly threw his first pass into the Beaver Stadium stands when he overthrew wide receiver DeVier Posey on a sideline route. But he settled down quickly. On Ohio State's next possession, he scored on a 7-yard run, shrugging off linebacker Navorro Bowman along the way as if he were a gnat, giving the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead.
Funny thing is Pryor said he didn't think he could get to the end zone because of an aching left ankle.
"I still probably looked fast. You guys probably didn't notice," Pryor said, grinning again.
Didn't notice it on Pryor's 24-yard scramble on a third-and-5 play to set up a second-quarter field goal and a 10-7 halftime lead, either.
"We really didn't know how much Terrelle was going to be able to run today. He was banged up," Tressel said.
It probably wouldn't have mattered in this game if Pryor couldn't run at all. His final stats weren't stupendous -- he was 8 of 17 for 125 yards -- but he made big throws when he had to and, most significantly, didn't throw an interception. His 62-yard touchdown pass to Posey streaking down the left sideline was positively Roethlisberger-like and gave Ohio State a 17-7 lead late in the third quarter.
The game was all but over at that point because the Penn State offense was doing nothing against an Ohio State defense that, unlike Penn State's, lived up to its pre-game hype and then some. The next time a Penn State lineman blocks defensive end Cameron Heyward will be the first time. Heyward -- son of late Pitt great Craig "Iron Head" Heyward -- was credited with 11 tackles and two sacks.
But Pryor wasn't done having fun. Early in the fourth quarter, he ran for 12 yards on third-and-11, threw a 5-yard pass to fullback Zach Boren on third-and-3 and threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to running back Brandon Saine on third-and-5.
They probably aren't screaming in Columbus this morning for Tressel to move Pryor -- who's still just 20 and a sophomore -- to wide receiver the way they were after Pryor had four turnovers in an almost unbelievable loss at Purdue Oct. 17.
"T.P. has done a good job all along," Tressel said. "I never wavered about his progress. I know others have. But I get to be at practice and I'm in the meetings."
Clearly, Tressel likes what he sees.
"No one is harder on himself than T.P.," he said.
That was evident, not just after the implosion at Purdue, when Pryor threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles, but after Penn State won at Ohio State, 13-6, last season. The Buckeyes appeared on their way to a big win when Pryor lost a fumble early in the fourth quarter. He took it hard and took full blame.
"I didn't cry after that game but I wanted to cry," Pryor said.
That's probably what prompted the silly idea by Penn State students to sell "Terrelle Cryer" T-shirts last week. Their plan never came to fruition because university officials -- OK, Joe Paterno, I'm guessing -- stepped in and said that's not the sort of thing a classy institution of higher learning does.
Who knew it would be the Penn State fans who could have used those shirts as crying towels after a loss that exposed the Nittany Lions as just another team in a bad year for the Big Ten?
Here's the best part about it:
Pryor really wanted one of the T-shirts to take back to Columbus as a souvenir. He said he was disappointed he couldn't get one.
Here's guessing the kid would have looked great in it, too.
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Cook: Suave Pryor swaggers through big-time win
