Defending Terrelle Pryor

Oh how quickly a lynch mob can form.
Remember back when we just landed the #1 recruit, and life was beautiful? Remember what it felt like to dream of getting a guy who was gonna tie three time Heisman winner Ron Powlus for the title as greatest player ever? Remember taking your shoes off so you had enough digits to count the consecutive National Titles that would be won? Well, apparently those days are gone forever, and Terrelle Pryor is the worst football player of all time. After all, he’s had two bad games in a row.
A quick message to the rest of Buckeye nation who are all standing at the edge of the cliff, and to all the T.P. haters out there. Calm Down. Wait a minute.
Is anyone watching the game, or are they just watching the high/low-lights? Are you seeing the plays as they happen, or are you saving your energy to jump up and yell touchdown after every single offensive play?
Don’t get me wrong, Terrelle stunk it up pretty bad against Purdue, and has been inconsistent at best all season. But ask yourself this, when was the last time Purdue didn’t give the Buckeyes all they could handle? When was the last time OSU just dominated Purdue? OSU was a heavy favorite on the road, but the over/under was still just 40 points and that was for a reason.
O.K. a lot of reason’s, and most had little to do with who was taking the snaps for OSU.
Terrelle Pryor, has been given about as many chances to succeed as the Mexican National Hockey team. He’s being asked to run a system that is a mix of “not sure what we’re gonna do” and “hey where’d Chris Wells go?”
Right now both Pryor, and his coaching staff aren’t really sure how they want to go about things, and he’s the one getting blamed for it. Is he gonna be a runner? Should we play out of a shotgun? Should we try and do what worked somehow with Troy Smith, and make him a spread passing QB?
With the exception of the USC game, the offense OSU was running with Pryor was working just fine. He had flashes of brilliance, and some costly, bone headed mistakes. Then defenses picked up on what was happening, and the OSU staff went to a shotgun offense. Afterall, whats the point of running a power I with no power running backs, and a running QB? The OSU shotgun offense was picking defenses apart. Even with Pryor’s mistakes, they were blowing teams out.
Then Wisconsin came to town. They realized that when he ran, he liked to run outside. A little discipline, and maintaining the outside edge, and the running lanes, cancelled out all the athleticism in the world. Pryor was contained so to speak. Mix that with the fact that OSU’s offensive line is fucking atrocious, and things got really bad, really fast.
I know Terrelle Pryor had a case of fumble-itus, but there was a reason he was fumbling the ball. Large, fast men with Division 1 football scholarships were running full speed into him. I know he needs to hang on to the ball, but the best case scenario on most of those plays was a sack. Joe Montana would have had about as much chance to succeed as I would with that line.
The coaching staff, and their offensive mentality isn’t giving him much of a chance. True, he’s not taking advantage of the chances they give him, but those are few and far between anyway. When the protection is there, or they luck into a formation, or a playcall that utilizes his talents, he comes through just fine.
OSU doesn’t have a big time running back, who can take the heat off him. The backs they do have, are used the wrong way anyway, and the better back so far, has spent most of the year as a backup, to a smaller, slower back, who has been posing as a power runner.
The receivers are young, and have little to no experience, and between them, and their QB, there is no “hot route” for a blitz. When OSU comes to the line, you can see exactly where the blitz is coming from, but the receivers to that side of the field don’t change their route to be ready for a quick pass. It’s just business as usual, hoping the defender forgets to sack the QB, or Terrell runs around him, as he often does.
When the opposition doesn’t blitz, Pryor is still running for his life. Five OSU lineman rarely stop the defense’s four rushing lineman. When Pryor does have time to set his feet and pass, it usually works out pretty well.
When OSU emptied the backfield, and spread the defense out, and put Pryor back in a shotgun, he was dead on with his passes. They march right down the field. He can see well ahead of time where the rush will come from since there is just the one extra player in the box to go along with the four un-touched defensive lineman. Then, when they get into the redzone, they go back to trying the same ole same ole and come up short.
When they put him in a chance to succeed, his talent shines through. unfortunately, these instances are rare, and so are the results we’ve all expected from the highly hyped young QB.
So far, the OSU offensive philosophy has been set in their ways. What they want to run, doesn’t work. What does work, isn’t what they want to run. Instead of playing to the strengths of the players on the field, they try blindly to change that players strengths. (See the final years of Llllloyd Carr in Michigan)
OSU could put together a gimmick type offense, or run the spread option that would highlight his talents, or even empty the backfield and go 5 wide. All of these would allow Pryor to flourish, and at the very least give him back the confidence he came in with. Until a change in the philosophy is made, or until Terrelle transforms (Transformers DVD comes out this week!) into Peyton manning, OSU is gonna have the same offensive results.
Perhaps the best way to fix everything, is to change the type of offensive lineman the Buckeyes recruit. Since Coopers players have all cycled through, how many OSU lineman have been drafted? Thats right, none, because they can’t move. I realize every lineman on OSU’s roster got 5 stars from rivals.com, or Todd McShay, but if you are 6′7″ and weigh 350 pounds, you are gonna be an incredible high school lineman. The problem is, college defensive players, are also good, and can move. OSU’s lineman unfortunately, cannot. If it weren’t for Dick-Rod pissing off the Boren family, OSU would have ZERO good lineman.
Yes, Pryor has been bad. He has also shown a hell of a lot of good things when he is given a chance to succeed, and some even more impressive things when he has almost no chance to succeed. Despite what a lot of people want to say about him, he can be an excellent player. Some folks claim OSU should have put in the backup last weekend. I fail to see how putting in a less mobile QB, who takes no snaps with the first team offense is going to help things.
Right now, in this offensive system, Terrelle Pryor is in no-mans land. Until the staff figures out how to use him, and how to develop him into what they want to be, we’re gonna need a lot of punt return TD’s, and Ray Small is gonna get suspended again sooner or later.
Jim Tressell getting Terrelle Pryor, is like giving a kid who just got his license a brand new Ferrari. Everyone who watches it is gonna be in for a hell of a show. There will be some good moments, some insane displays of driving skills, but in the end, that Ferrari is gonna end up in a big burning heap in a ditch somewhere, and everyone is gonna be wondering what the hell happened.
Let’s hope the kid with the car keys grows up and learns how to drive his Ferrari, or hands the keys to someone else who knows how to drive it, and goes golfing with Llllloyd Carr. Otherwise the Ferrari known as Terrelle Pryor, will be trying out for receiver for the Raiders in 2 years.