WR Terrelle Pryor ('10 Rose, '11 Sugar MVP)

[jwinslow]

14 starts is a bit misleading. He arrived at OSU two months before the season (and when he'd soon start), knew a tiny set of plays, and wasn't that effective at executing those (like almost all running QBs). Terrelle should be 5 starts into his career.

Even the great (and incomparable passing qb type) Jimmy Clausen was pretty inconsistent 14 starts into his career, and he was a more polished passer coming out of HS than almost any running qb is by the end of their career.

I will not bash TP, I think he is showing signs but just lacks any consistency, In my opinion this excuse just does not fly anymore.

Then find me a number of running qbs who weren't inconsistent at this point in their career. Outside of Tebow, who some call the greatest college QB (overstated at this point but he's certainly a legend already), who is there?

Go look back at the great running qbs coming out of HS and see how badly they did through 14 months on campus.

 

[NFBuck]

I will not bash TP, I think he is showing signs but just lacks any consistency, In my opinion this excuse just does not fly anymore. He has started 16 games at this point. Troy was beginning his heisman winning campaign after the same number of starts at quarterback.

I don't disagree with any of that. What I disagree with is the reference to the fact that Troy was returning kicks. I do think that Terrelle is progressing, I do not want to get into an argument over Terelle's progression, my only issue was that people keep bringing up that quote of Tressels which is completely irrellevent and merely made to take pressure off TP. I don't have any idea how many reps Troy got in his first two years, but I do know that the difference between Troy in start #1 versus start # 16 was night and day. I cannot say the same for TP and there is no doubt that nobody has received more individual attention than TP since the day he walked on campus.

When Troy was beginning to show signs of the QB he'd become (about 6-7 starts in) late in the '04 season, he'd been on campus for nearly 2 1/2 years. VY didn't begin to show those signs until the Rose Bowl after his Sophomore year (he was a RS) so he was on campus for over 2 1/2 years. Again, both those players had a full year on campus longer before they showed what they were capable of. I don't care about how many games he's started. Jwins covers that above.

 

[Buck Nasty]

14 starts is a bit misleading. He arrived at OSU two months before the season (and when he'd soon start), knew a tiny set of plays, and wasn't that effective at executing those (like almost all running QBs). Terrelle should be 5 starts into his career.

Even the great Jimmy Clausen was pretty inconsistent 14 starts into his career, and he was a more polished passer coming out of HS than almost any running qb is by the end of their career.
Then find me a number of running qbs who weren't inconsistent at this point in their career. Outside of Tebow, who some call the greatest college QB (overstated at this point but he's certainly a legend already), who is there?

Go look back at the great running qbs coming out of HS and see how badly they did through 14 months on campus.

Once again, I am not saying Pryor should be tearing it up right now. I agree with most of what everyone has said. My disagreement is with the comparison to Troy returning kicks at this point in his career. I think that is a baseless comparison.

 

[jwinslow]

Once again, I am not saying Pryor should be tearing it up right now. I agree with most of what everyone has said. My disagreement is with the comparison to Troy returning kicks at this point in his career. I think that is a baseless comparison.

And this interaction escalated because of this much worse comparison of yours

Troy was beginning his heisman winning campaign after the same number of starts at quarterback.

Troy wasn't asked to move from role player to starting QB in his first 9 starts, nor did he only know about a dozen gadget plays before Zwick was benched.

p.s. Troy's 14th start concluded with The Catch, and Antonio running over two wayward Ohio products.

Troy was still pretty brutal in september of year 4 on campus. Other than Iowa who made life simpler with man coverage, he struggled to dissect the coverage, even against lowly SDSU.

I don't have any idea how many reps Troy got in his first two years, but I do know that the difference between Troy in start #1 versus start # 16 was night and day. I cannot say the same for TP and there is no doubt that nobody has received more individual attention than TP since the day he walked on campus.

Troy also threw a far better football than Terrelle. Troy was a gifted athlete but was not a runner learning to pass. He was a mobile passer who had to develop beyond 1 read and go.

 

[ginn421]

How many practice reps had TS taken by that point in time? How many spring practices had TS had? How many more hours of film study did he have? How much more one on one coaching with the OSU staff had he received?

Reps, Reps, Reps, Reps.

You hit the nail on the head. I think this point is getting very much overlooked in this debate. Hooley was attempting to make the same claim that Pryor should be lighting the world on fire based on his number of starts. I agree that starts are a meaningful stat, but the fact remains that he's only been on campus for little over a year!

To compare Pryor's numbers to Troy's (or any QB with more than one year's experience on campus for that matter) with the same number of starts is ridiculous. Comparing the two QBs at the same start number in their careers, Troy's total amount of reps taken in practice, camps, and games would totally outweigh Pryor's total. It wouldn't even be close.

 

[NFBuck]

Once again, I am not saying Pryor should be tearing it up right now. I agree with most of what everyone has said. My disagreement is with the comparison to Troy returning kicks at this point in his career. I think that is a baseless comparison.

It goes to show were his development as a QB was at the same point in his career as TP. In his 2nd year in the program, the staff wasn't convinced he had a future at QB and he eventually became arguably the best QB in tOSU history. I'd say there is some relevence.

 

[osugrad21]

Link

Buckeyes QB Pryor readies for Badgers

PHOTO: Collegian file photo
Click Photo To Enlarge | Print
Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor (2) fumbles the football during last season's game against Penn State in Columbus. Pryor and the Buckeye's host the undefeated, Big Ten-leading Wisconsin Badgers Saturday.



By Matt Fortuna
Collegian Staff Writer

The Big Ten's first-place team will take on what many believe is the conference's best Saturday.
Wisconsin, the undefeated, 2-0 Big Ten team, will travel to the Horseshoe to take on Ohio State (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) a year after the Buckeyes escaped Camp Randall Stadium with a last-second, 20-17 win.
That Oct. 4, 2008, game was the third career start for true freshman Terrelle Pryor, who weathered the raucous crowd and led the Buckeyes on a 12-play, 80-yard drive in the closing minutes that he capped off with an 11-yard touchdown run.
"I think anytime you have an experience that's a tough one, it can perhaps get you ready for future ones," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel told reporters during his weekly teleconference Tuesday. "He certainly has a much better understanding of what he's preparing for this week because he's played against the Badgers. He knows how difficult every yard is and how every play is so critical."
Pryor will have the comforts of his home crowd on his side Saturday, although his struggles in big games against Penn State and USC came in Columbus, Ohio.
Cont..

 

[osugrad21]

CPD

Before late drive, Terrelle told himself, It's time to show'

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter

Columbus -- One year and three days. It has been one year and three days since Terrelle Pryor learned for certain that he could do this.
"This is it," Pryor told himself at Wisconsin last season before the first game-winning drive of his college career. "All the hype and all the people saying you're great and all that, it's time to show."
For all the attention USC freshman Matt Barkley rightly earned with his game-winning drive against the Buckeyes in the second game of this season, Pryor was one of the few quarterbacks in the country who could relate. He, too, has gone on the road and beaten a ranked team with a game-winning fourth-quarter drive as a freshman. It was his 11-yard run on an option keeper with 1:08 to play that gave the Buckeyes a 20-17 win on Oct. 4, 2008, at Camp Randall Stadium.

Cont...

 

[kc286496]

Reps, Reps, Reps, Reps.

You hit the nail on the head. I think this point is getting very much overlooked in this debate.

I couldn't agree more. Terrelle is taking a lot of heat in the national media. Many are saying Jacory Harris is the best QB in the '08 class. Perhaps he is, but you have to let these kids get three years under their belts before you see what they can truly do. Claussen was a great example cited by someone earlier. Brady Quinn was another one. Look at the strides those guys made between years two and three. Terrelle throws a really nice, medium depth ball. He looks very comfortable throwing that 15-20 yard pass in rhythm. He is a little inconsistent with the deep pass but has thrown some absolutely gorgeous passes as well. The biggest weakness I see so far is in the really short timing patterns. Quick slants, etc. He seems to rush those passes and does not look smooth at all. That will come with reps, reps, reps. The game hasn't quite slowed down for him 100% yet and you can see that because he is still eyeballing his target receivers quite a bit. He is not at the point where he can quickly go through his progressions and do it without thinking about it. All in good time, my friends. I think he will be a different QB on Nov. 21st than he is today. Guys of his talent level make noticeable improvements between September and November in a given season.

 

[MaxBuck]

It's important to differentiate between Terrelle as he is now with Terrelle as he will be a year from now, or two years from now. Players develop at different rates, and projecting where Terrelle will end up by comparing him to Troy Smith or Jimmy Clausen (or indeed, to Vince Young) at similar points in development is pointless.

I'd agree that Pryor is a somewhat raw collegiate QB at the moment. I'd say it would be a bad idea to depend upon him to be our savior if somehow the defense fails and the running backs prove unreliable. But there's not a college QB I'd rather have running the Buckeyes' offense, and I believe he'll be tremendous by the time he leaves. He's awfully good already.

 

[rocketman]

I'd say it would be a bad idea to depend upon him to be our savior if somehow the defense fails and the running backs prove unreliable.

I think that's one of the big reliefs of the season. We went into this year thinking Pryor was our only playmaker. Now we're in the middle of it and Pryor hasn't been expected to "take over" a game and win it. We have found other guys that can step up and make plays.

(You could make a case for USC, but there were many strategic problems with our game plan. IMO Pryor wasn't even put in a position to win that game.)

We'll learn a lot on Saturday.

 

[Bleed S & G]

(You could make a case for USC, but there were many strategic problems with our game plan. IMO Pryor wasn't even put in a position to win that game.)

 

[Buckeneye]

It's important to differentiate between Terrelle as he is now with Terrelle as he will be a year from now

You don't even have to do that - look at the reads, throws and leadership he's shown this year. The Pryor from last year wouldn't have been able to do those things, so the improvement from year 1 to year 2 has be incredibly obvious to me.

The improvement throughout this year and into year 3 is what should really scare our opposition.

 

[Gooey Mess]

A year from now in November we'll know if we've found the next Vince Young...

 

[mendensa]

impossible to live up to the hype

I think the kid is climbing a moutain that he'll never see the top of. He came in with such praise before he even put a scarlet jersey on. Unfair? Sure, I think so. Unless he wins a Heisman and the Buckeyes win a championship, while I don't see that as a failure, many Buckeye fans will. As long as he has the keys to the car, every throw, int, mistake will continue to get scrutinized as long as there are other Freshman and Sophmore QB's that continue to perform/progress as well or better/faster than TP.

I personally would have thought we would have seen quicker progress to this point. After watching some games a 2nd and 3rd time he appears to be reading pre-play defenses better. Going through his progressions post-snap has improved some, but execution and accuracy still isn't there. He still stares down his primary WR. His pocket time clock is time-warped back to his HS days. I know he thinks he can keep plays alive by evading pressure w/ his his feet, which is great. That's what makes him such a gifted athlete. But if you can't get away and are not going to pick up yards tucking and running, THROW THE BALL AWAY. It doesn't do any good to run out of bounds 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage taking 4-10 yard losses.

I'm sure he has been instructed not to take unnecessary hits and get out of bounds whenever he can, but for someone that is as gifted as a runner as he is, (and as big as he is) why does he run to the sidelines? If he makes one more cut up the field @ full speed (instead of running sideways) nobody will get a clean shot on him b/c he is fast enough to out run defenders and make people miss. If he continues to run tenatively, to the sidelines, and east/west, that's where he's going to get undercut and hurt. The sideline is a defenders best friend. If they have the angle there's no place to go. He is most dangerous in open field and could make OSU's offense very dangerous.

We've tweaked the offense again just for him. Who is to say the offense wouldn't run just as well w/ Bauserman in there? It isn't like Boeckman back there who couldn't get away from the pass rush. He is the pure drop back QB that has enough mobility to run if needed to keep the chains moving. He is surrounded by a ton of talent. He is very accurate from what I've seen of him so far. The O-line is showing the ability to protect TP better, the run game is looking more effective than earlier this year and a lot of the drives that have ended (via punt or TO) have been b/c of TP's failure to hit wide open WR's or illadvised throws leading to INT's, not b/c of play calls, dropped passes, ect....

That being siad, I still believe TP gives the Bucks the best chance of winning each week purley on his athletic ability alone. He is the best athlete and the most gifted player on the field every time OSU takes the field. I hope he continues to progress but I still don't think he will ever live up to the high expectations @ OSU that fans have put on him.

GO BUCKS, BEAT THE BAGDERS!!!!!!