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Game Thread Southern Cal 18, at tOSU 15 (Sept 12th, 8 pm, ESPN)

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NateG;1517009; said:
no prob... you just had stated that it was a buckeye fans hopes that barkley was taking over... and i wanted to share the facts i heard. my only opinion is that unless corp gets healthy fast enough and barkley doesnt have anymore 3-4 pic practice days that he'll be the starter. irregardless i believe either mustain or barkley are better for OSU than corp. there is a reason mustain is 3rd on the chart and barkley (not disputing talent) is a freshman.

:oh: (less than 3 weeks!!!)
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I can :io: to that
 
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The thing that worries me the most is that fans go into the game with the same expectations at QB that we had going into the UT game in '05, but the light didn't switch on until mid-season.

Troy Smith's stats in the first few games of '05:

vs. Texas: 5/11 for 78yds, 1td, 2 sacks
vs. SDST: 14/26 for 149yds, 0td, 1 int.
vs. Iowa: 13/19 for 191 yds, 2tds (Better).
vs. PSU: 13/25 for 139 yds, 0td, 1 int, 5 sacks.

Both Smith and Pryor took over for the underperforming/and injured incumbents at QB and both had relatively successful first year campaigns. Both showed enough for the fans to believe that they were going to play like AAs. Smith ran into a wall vs. UT, and it's still to be seen if Pryor will do better vs. USC.
 
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Tresselbeliever;1517259; said:
The thing that worries me the most is that fans go into the game with the same expectations at QB that we had going into the UT game in '05, but the light didn't switch on until mid-season.

Troy Smith's stats in the first few games of '05:

vs. Texas: 5/11 for 78yds, 1td, 2 sacks
vs. SDST: 14/26 for 149yds, 0td, 1 int.
vs. Iowa: 13/19 for 191 yds, 2tds (Better).
vs. PSU: 13/25 for 139 yds, 0td, 1 int, 5 sacks.

Both Smith and Pryor took over for the underperforming/and injured incumbents at QB and both had relatively successful first year campaigns. Both showed enough for the fans to believe that they were going to play like AAs. Smith ran into a wall vs. UT, and it's still to be seen if Pryor will do better vs. USC.
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I actually don't think the situations are similar at all. Troy Smith came off a suspension the day of the Texas game and was splitting time with Zwick. Also, despite a great game against Michigan, I don't remember anyone thinking All-American for Troy that year. This year Pryor has the starting job all to himself and no one else on the team has a chance of taking snaps away from him during the USC game. I just don't really see many similarities, if any, between the two situations.
 
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The situations are completely different between Smith and Pryor.

1. Pryor is much more talented and physically dominant than Troy. Troy developed into a great player but it wasnt until his Junior/Senior year(s). the development that TP is going thru is going to make him better but he has more talent to back that up.

2. TP started 80% of last year and played/started all the big games minus the USC game. If Boeckman wasn't a 6th year guy with the expirience of taking OSU to the Title, Pryor might have very well taken his place for even the USC game. Smith was in a continuous battle to start against Justin Zwick. He didn't start most of the year leading up to the UT game of 05', he started like the last 4 games and showed his heart and determination in the scUM game that year as a "breakout game".

3. Going into the spring and fall Troy was hindered with his suspension of the Bowl/ first game of the year. He didn't get full regular first team reps in practice and Zwick again started both the First game of the year, the UT game, and if I remember even started thru the NC ST. game that year before Smith finally took the starting reigns for the rest of the year leading to the ND game and into a season with similar expectaions to the ones most fans have for Pryor. If you remember Smith fumbled away the Purdue game in 04' and came back to have a great scUM game. His development was greatest between Junior and Senior year. Smith only played like half of the UT game anyhow and wasn't in there on the final OSU drive.


So the expectations would be better comparable to Smith in 05 leading to 06 (and we know how that UT game went there) and TP's 08 season leading to 09. It was unfortunate that Zwick and the Suspension held his progress back though cause he would have been that much better. Pryor is more prepare than Smith was at this point and I expect better results.


edit: Rhode Island beat me out on a couple of points so rep to you.
 
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My point wasn't that Smith and Pryor are exactly the same, just that fans had similar expectations for both players going into their second seasons. Geez, it didn't take long for you guys to put Pryor ahead of Smith. It's only been what, three years, since he won the Heisman Trophy?

Let's look at it this way: at least Smith had a breakout game at QB against Michigan. What was Pryor's breakout game throwing the football? Had he not looked that good throwing the ball in the spring game, a lot of you would be a lot more apprehensive about Pryor's throwing abilities.

Nothing against Pryor, just telling it like I see it.
 
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Tresselbeliever;1517326; said:
Let's look at it this way: at least Smith had a breakout game at QB against Michigan. What was Pryor's breakout game throwing the football? Had he not looked that good throwing the ball in the spring game, a lot of you would be a lot more apprehensive about Pryor's throwing abilities.
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Northwestern.
 
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We were just saying that the expectations for the UT game weren't in regards to OSU's QB but in the defense shutting down VY. I don't recall anyone talking Troy Smith because of the knowledge that he wasn't starting. Tp's throwing issues are due to footwork and decision making and with him having the focus strictly on passing, unlike Smith with splitting reps and being suspended slowing down some development, TP should get better by leaps and bounds. And don't get us wrong we aren't saying that TP is a better player right now than Smith but you have to admit TP is much more talented coming in than Smith(crap half of the OSU fans didnt even know who he was coming in) and Smith worked his tail off to get himself to that Heisman which again was in his Senior year not his Junior year. TP has the "potential" to be an all time great here and in college football but your comparison was just off by a year i think. (06-07TS vs 08-09TP).

Troy Smith at this point has a better career at OSU but TP could have a better one and the USC game could be a launching point for that.
 
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Tresselbeliever;1517259; said:
The thing that worries me the most is that fans go into the game with the same expectations at QB that we had going into the UT game in '05, but the light didn't switch on until mid-season.

Troy Smith's stats in the first few games of '05:

vs. Texas: 5/11 for 78yds, 1td, 2 sacks
vs. SDST: 14/26 for 149yds, 0td, 1 int.
vs. Iowa: 13/19 for 191 yds, 2tds (Better).
vs. PSU: 13/25 for 139 yds, 0td, 1 int, 5 sacks.

Both Smith and Pryor took over for the underperforming/and injured incumbents at QB and both had relatively successful first year campaigns. Both showed enough for the fans to believe that they were going to play like AAs. Smith ran into a wall vs. UT, and it's still to be seen if Pryor will do better vs. USC.
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With all due respect to Troy (the best Buckeye QB ever IMO), he didn't have half the physical tools TP has. What TP did as a true frosh (who wasn't an early enrollee none-the-less) was remarkable. TS didn't begin seeing significant playing time until midway through his third year in the program. On top of that, the glowing reviews he's recieving in practice for both his improved throwing and leadership are plenty good reason for optimism. That said, I'm a firm believer in seeing it in game situations before getting overly excited, but the reports coming in leave me pretty optimistic. TP was a bit of a fish out of water much of last season and also suffered from some shoulder problems down the stretch last year, yet he still led these guys to a few wins and a damn near win against (arguably) the best team in the country in a big time bowl game. The kid has that "it" factor that "qbforce" blabs about on his website.
 
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Tresselbeliever;1517326; said:
Had he not looked that good throwing the ball in the spring game, a lot of you would be a lot more apprehensive about Pryor's throwing abilities.
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But he DID and that was the beginning of his offseason work. He has done alot more footwork drills and a TON more film study since then working on decision making and slowing the game down (just showed how he could improve on the PSU replay... missed a wide open TE that he may see this year due to not locking in on one guy). Cheer up. I don't think TP is our main concern in this game, he has been working too hard. I'm wanting the lines to run the show..... that's what I'm aprehensive of.
 
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This picture:

340xc_medium.jpg


...tells me all I need to know about TP. Any kid that cares that much and has his talent level and work ethic...look out. He was one frosh mistake from winning that game and one missed tackle away from being undefeated as a QB and knocking off two top ten teams as a Freshman.
 
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Smith throw for 900 yards in '04, while starting only five games and playing mop duty in three others. Clearly, he wasn't doing that much worse than Pryor did last year.

I fully understand that we hear a lot of good things about Pryor, both as a player and as a person. That's a major difference between him and Troy in the early stages. But let's not forget that Troy looked good in practice too, so good that Herbie compared him to Warren Moon after his first week of practice as a Buckeye. I know that Pryor is great, but a few of you are downplaying how good Smith was.
 
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