Ohio State football: Spring's no break
Pryor tireless in efforts to be nation's best quarterback
Sunday, March 29, 2009
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Each day last week, when Roy Hall peeked into his garage in Jeannette, Pa., Terrelle Pryor was in there working.
He wasn't working on Hall's car, mind you. He was lifting weights. The two-car garage of Hall's -- he's not the former Ohio State receiver but a longtime Jeannette High School assistant who recently was promoted to coach -- long ago had become the body-building center for Jayhawks players. It came as no surprise to Hall to see the former Jeannette quarterback pumping iron while on spring break.
"He's been in there every day, and I am talking about two and three hours at a time," Hall said. "What I see is how much bigger he's gotten under Ohio State's strength and conditioning program. He told me he weighs 238 pounds and, kidding him, I said, 'You better watch it. They might make you a defensive end.'
"He is just a specimen. And on top of that, he loves to work out."
Piled on top of that, Pryor hates to lose. That explains why during spring break, when most college students head as far south as their budgets can take them, Pryor headed east for his hometown and Hall's garage. He is driven, he said, more by memories of the three games the Buckeyes lost last season than of what was otherwise an above-average debut as a freshman starting quarterback.
"I got so upset by it; I'll put everything on my shoulders, and I don't want that to happen this year," Pryor said. "I don't want myself thinking I should have or could have done this or that. Hey, go do it.
"That's the way I am thinking right now, why not work out and be the best you can be? You do that last rep on the bench so you can take your team down for that last touchdown, to be the strongest guy, and all that stuff. That's the way I approach things."