TERRELLE PRYOR
Inside his decision to go to Ohio State
FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES ? April 3, 2008
When Terrelle Pryor sat down in front of the TV cameras March 19 to announce where he would play college football and said the words ?The University of ...? Greg Gillum?s world went blank for a millisecond.
It didn?t matter that Pryor had plopped a black block ?O? cap on his head, revealing Ohio State as the winner over archrival Michigan. The nation?s No. 1 recruit had been sending mixed signals to the Buckeyes and Wolverines throughout the drawn-out and heavily scrutinized recruiting process.
Maybe Pryor was putting on the OSU cap for shock value before pulling a cruel switcheroo?
?... Ohio State,? Pryor finished.
Gillum, the Buckeyes? assistant recruiting coordinator, could breathe again. Ohio State would set Pryor straight on the formal structure of the school name later.
?To be honest, the first time we knew for sure that he was coming here was when he announced it,? Gillum said after a recent spring practice. ?It was up and down, like a roller coaster. Sometimes, you?d feel OK with where we were in the process and other times you?d be wondering what we could do better.
?The morning of his announcement, he seemed to be backpedaling a little bit. His last conversation with coach (Jim) Tressel was about 30 minutes before the news conference and when Jim got off the phone his reaction was, ?I don?t know.? ?