I really don't think that Pryor has no chance of being a good QB, but I do think he could become a BAD teammate if his coaches don't start coaching him instead of babying him. He is not playing very well right now, so what is the best way to help him out of his funk, sit him for a few series. If you play basketball and get in a bad groove, what happens? They take you out and sit you on the bench for awhile.
I think he is starting to become a cancer with the other players and they are starting to resent him. That all rest on the coach........ Jim Tressel!
Buckeyes' Tressel defends PryorCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Besieged by angry Ohio State fans who think his quarterback should be benched or moved to wide receiver, coach Jim Tressel defiantly said Tuesday he will make no major changes.
Terrelle Pryor remains the 18th-ranked Buckeyes' starting quarterback, even though he threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles -- and could have had another three or four turnovers -- in a stunning 26-18 loss to two-touchdown underdog Purdue on Saturday.
"From the film grade standpoint, he probably had less minus plays than he did in the past couple weeks," Tressel said on Tuesday. "Now, that's the good news. Here's the bad news: The minuses that we had were those triple minuses."
One of the most fundamental keys to "Tresselball" -- a conservative, rely-on-your-defense approach -- is that turnovers lose games. Yet Tressel continues to stand behind a quarterback who can't seem to avoid them.
"No one has a disdain for turnovers any more than Terrelle," said Tressel.
Tressel referred to Pryor's mistakes as "moments."
"He hasn't been perfect in practice, but he's come along in practice," he said. "He hasn't been perfect in games, but he's come along in games. Now, did we have three or four moments that were impactful? There's no question about it."
Tressel said he would not even consider sitting Pryor out for a series or two to clear his head or to straighten out any mistakes. He also has no plans to try to get backup quarterback Joe Bauserman in against Minnesota (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) on Saturday, or any future games.
Other Buckeyes didn't feel Pryor should have been pulled from the Purdue game.
"I don't think there was ever really a point in the game where anybody on the offense was thinking we needed a change (at quarterback)," wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher said.
Many Ohio State fans believe the 6-foot-6, 235-pound Pryor, who has yet to develop as a polished passer, might be a better fit at wide receiver, where he could use his speed and size.
Pryor completed 17 of 31 passes for 221 yards, most of the yardage coming after the Boilermakers had built a 23-7 lead through three quarters. The Ohio State offense had 120 yards at that point against a Purdue defense which had been gashed for 31 points and 380 yards per game in its first six outings. The only Ohio State (5-2, 3-1) touchdown after the opening few minutes of the game was on Pryor's ill-advised, looping 25-yard pass that DeVier Posey caught midway through the final quarter.
Pryor came to Ohio State last year heralded as the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit. Ahead of him on the depth chart was Todd Boeckman, a first-team All-Big Ten quarterback who led the Buckeyes to the national championship game in 2007.
But three games into the 2008 season, Boeckman threw two interceptions in a lopsided 35-3 loss at Southern California -- against a defense which would have seven players taken in the NFL draft the next spring.
Three days after that game, Tressel benched the fifth-year senior and installed Pryor as the full-time starter.
Tressel said Tuesday that there is no comparison between the circumstances that led to Boeckman's benching and Pryor's poor game at Purdue.
"I'm not sure that they're comparable at all," he said. "They don't feel to me as being similar situations."
Despite Pryor's inexperience, he performed admirably as a freshman. He threw four interceptions in 165 pass attempts while completing 61 percent of his throws, and ran for 631 yards and six touchdowns.
So far this season, Pryor has not looked like the preseason Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. He is completing 56 percent of his passes, with eight interceptions in 159 attempts. He also hasn't been as much of a threat when he runs and has been sacked 12 times for 100 yards in losses.
Pryor and his offense -- with Tressel calling the plays -- have struggled most of the season. They mustered 10 first downs and 265 yards in a return engagement with USC on Sept. 12, an 18-15 loss. They totaled eight first downs and 184 yards two weeks ago in a 31-13 victory over Wisconsin. Fortunately for the floundering Buckeyes offense, that game was decided by two interception returns and a kickoff return for touchdowns.
But a week later against Purdue, which came in at 1-5, the offense again did little. Only this time the defense did not carry the load as Purdue's Joey Elliott passed for 281 yards and two scores to engineer one of the bigger conference upsets in recent memory.
Earlier this season, Tressel said of Pryor, "There's probably not a more compassionate human being in the world than Terrelle."
But against the Boilermakers, it appeared a frustrated Pryor had disagreements with several teammates and coaches, at one point slamming his helmet to the ground.
Asked if he was concerned that Pryor wouldn't be able to handle it if he were benched, Tressel hedged.
"You always try to keep in mind people's feelings, but not to the point where it will hurt the team," he said. "Our responsibility is to the group. Now, that doesn't mean we don't care about the individual. You do all you can do to help every individual. But not at the expense of the team."
For Jim...
Last week I asked what was wrong with Terrelle Pryor. This week I know what is wrong with Terrelle Pryor.
Pryor's dysfunction can be broken into three distinct categories:
Throwing
•Can't throw a short spiral to save his life. Result? More incomplete passes out of the backfield than I care to count.
•Hooks his arm release like a tournament fisherman trying to jerk a bass out of the water, only in reverse. Result? Pegs the ball at the ground, forcing receivers to dive or "touch their toes" to pick up the ball. Dramatically limits yard pickup after the catch.
•Can't lead his receivers on middle routes. Result? Incomplete/broken up passes. Interceptions.
•Doesn't adjust his "snap" on his release for the speed and length of the throw. Result? More turf bullets than I care to count.
•Stares at his chosen receiver like a teenage boy ogling cleavage. Result? Linebackers have an easy time keying in on and jumping routes.
Decision-Making:
•Stands in the pocket for too long checking off multiple receivers. Hesitates to take off on the ground. Result? Gets beat to the sideline by outside linebackers. Routinely tackled close to the line of scrimmage on scrambles.
•Throws lazy deep balls (a.k.a. "arm punts" Hat Tip: BSD) into double-coverage. Result? Allows free safeties ample time to close and make a play.
Psychology:
•Pounds the turf in frustration after sacks. Hangs his head on the sidelines. Allows the game to get to him. Result? Interferes with the "muscle memory" component of mechanics making it difficult for Pryor to replicate what he did in practice during live play. Makes it difficult to recover from mistakes as a game progresses.
The combination of these raw tendencies and others has seen a signature talent devolve into a scarecrow. Don't delude yourself. Pryor is getting worse every week. The question now is what to do about it.
Let me start by saying what Jim Tressel shouldn't do. He shouldn't bench Pryor.
Don't get me wrong. Pryor should have seen the bench on Saturday against Purdue -- probably after he threw his second interception of the day at the 6:38 minute mark of the Third Quarter. Just as Rich Rodriguez substituted Denard Robinson for Tate Forcier in the fourth quarter against Iowa last week to provide an elusive "spark," a backup's presence can sometimes be a tabula rosa for a struggling offense. At the very least handing Joe Bauserman the reins for a series of two might have disrupted the Boilermaker's defensive flow, resulted in a few completions, and opened up the ground lanes for a greater rushing presence. It also might have given Pryor a chance to exorcise his demons on the sideline.
(As a short aside, Tressel needs to watch Cincinnati's Brian Kelly for cues on how to treat a struggling quarterback when he comes off the field. Pull his face mask to get his attention, tell him what he did wrong, tell him he's not going to do it again, and provide instructions on what to do instead. Make the episode a visible reprimand. Make the player mad at you instead of himself. He'll come out of the gate on the next series like a damn grizzly bear).
Still, although Tressel should have turned to Bauserman in the midst of the meltdown, he should not make him the starter next week against Minnesota. To do so would be to shoot the arthritic remains of the Ohio State offense in the foot. As Ken Gordon of The Columbus Dispatch reminds us, although Pryor is one big fat piece of the pie, he's not the entire problem.
The next biggest concern, as I see it, is the play of the offensive line. [C]learly, the line was a disaster, and there are three sophomores starting -- all big time recruits: Mike Adams, Mike Brewster and J.B. Shugarts.
What does all this say? That the recruits are all busts, all of them? Really? That they aren't getting the proper coaching? That they just had a bad day?
I believe the truth lies somewhere between bad coaching and bad day.
Coaching must be faulted to some extent. The staff had all offseason to determine what system would best suit Pryor's abilities. They came up with a pro style, run-based attack....then scrapped that after three games. All that offseason analysis -- five assistant coaches working at least 40-hour weeks for eight months, that's about 7,000 hours of work, for what?
The line appeared to be rejuvenated a few weeks ago when OSU went to the shotgun, zone-read offense. But when teams started putting serious heat on the past two weeks, they melted like wax figures.
The Buckeyes are burdened by a bad line that can't pass protect. It's easy to forget in the midst of bad throws and short scrambles how many times Pryor has to evade one, even two rushers to buy himself the time to look up field.
Imagine what that offense would look like with a young, lead-footed, pocket passer at the helm. Oh yeah, we tried that already. Todd Boeckman, anyone?
For better or worse we're stuck with Pryor. So what should Tressel do?
Consider this:
[T]he only time Pryor has looked comfortable the past two weeks was in running the hurry-up, two-minute drill. OSU scored three times in its past four possessions in the hurry-up.
But can you do that all game? Should the Buckeyes turn into Texas Tech, since that appears to be the only system in which its QB can thrive?
No, we shouldn't turn into Texas Tech exactly, but -- as a local sports radio commentator suggested yesterday -- we should model the offense after another successful program plagued with an elusive quarterback with a bum arm: Texas' 2005 National Championship squad.
To compensate for Vince Young's poor decision-making, and limited football smarts, Mack Brown installed an ultimatum offense so easy anyone could run it. It worked as follows:
1.Operate out of a five-wide receiver formation.
2.Have Vince pick one receiver as his lone target in the huddle.
3.After the snap, have Vince read his primary receiver. If the receiver is open, make the throw. If the receiver isn't open, run.
It's that simple. Pryor should be coached to run like hell the second he smells something fishy. Sure, it might not turn him into a Sunday starting signal caller. But, does anyone really think he's got a chance of quarterbacking at the next level?
Maintain the kid's confidence, and give the offense the best chance of success. It's not the only choice, but it's the smartest one.
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