Day 2 of Big Ten Media Day

Ohio State's Tressel, Pryor sensing another big run
dennis dodd sportsline.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The lasting memory of Ohio State from last season?
Finally!
Finally, it was able to win a BCS game. In this case, the Rose Bowl over a buzz-worthy Oregon. Finally, Terrelle Pryor played up to the promise he showed in destroying western Pennsylvania high schools.
We've forgotten, apparently, that the Buckeyes have at least shared the Big Ten title each of the past five seasons. They're favored to win No. 6 this season -– and maybe more. Jim Tressel has all the ingredients for another championship run.

The defensive line has been called the best in Ohio State history by coordinator Jim Heacock. There is depth, if not a breakout runner, at tailback. It's all predicated, though, on Pryor. During a recent visit, it was clear his body had grown and matured to the point he looked Vince Young-like -- strong, tall, rangy. Now he just has to win a national championship.

I sat down with Tressel and Pryor in the coach's office during that visit to discuss a variety of subjects. While I thought Pryor might be intimidated about speaking freely in front of his coach, having them together actually made the interview better. They began riffing off each other. Two football heads speaking the same language. Some of their answers will surprise you.

In this wide-ranging interview you will find out that Pryor is not satisfied at all with his 56.6 percent completion percentage last season. At one point he said, "Coach took a chance on me."

Pryor also mentioned that he still thinks about his fumble that allowed Penn State to win the 2008 showdown at Ohio Stadium. The junior has some revealing things to say about Reggie Bush taking the money at USC.

Tressel would prefer his quarterback not lead the team in rushing again. That would help preserve Pryor's health and get Ohio State back to basics in the run game.

"I'll probably never be back to 100 percent," Pryor said of the knee that bothered him last season.

The past and present collide Sept. 11 when Miami comes to The Shoe. It will be the first meeting since the controversial 2003 Fiesta Bowl game. Hurricanes everywhere have been living with the heartbreak of that pass interference call for more than seven years.

Bucknuts have been waiting for Tressel's follow up to that championship. With Pryor, he's got a chance.

Question: What did the Rose Bowl mean for Ohio State?

Jim Tressel: I grew up watching the Rose Bowl all the time ... The Rose Bowl is special. For these guys' [players'] generation the Rose Bowl is very special but the BCS title game probably holds more clout.

Terelle Pryor: We needed it as a team -- to start off this year and going into spring.

Q:In some ways it was a monkey off your back, off Ohio State's back, off the Big Ten's back. Ten years without a Rose Bowl win for the league ...

Tressel: I really didn't think about that going into it, but then when they were talking about that coming out of it, I thought, "It's been 10 years since we won a Rose Bowl?"

Q: How did you feel coming out of it confidence-wise?

Pryor: I always have confidence but it was a big boost. That's a big stage to play on. That's a big goal, a huge goal. A couple of my teammates were talking about it. Not a lot of people get to play in the Rose Bowl. Sit back and think about it. It's a prestigious place and prestigious event.

Q: Has this guy [Pryor] kind of turned the corner?

Tressel: The way I've explained it to people is I think back through the journey. He was kind of thrust in that first year when we graduated a lot of guys and had some guys hurt. We probably were not the team we were planning to be. Beanie [Wells] wasn't healthy. We needed someone to step in and make some plays. A young guy was thrown in a little bit earlier maybe than any of us planned. A young guy walking into an old huddle. I think he handled it that way.

People think you're going to make the natural progression the next year. You walk into a whole new huddle. Now you're the young guy and you're supposed to be the old guy. I think he progressed well through that.

He and I have talked about that. He's entering the second half of his career which, it goes in a blur. I thought his Rose Bowl preparation was excellent. I thought his spring preparation was excellent and he's had a good summer.

One thing about him he loves to work.

Q: 56.6 percent completion percentage, was that good enough for you last year?

Pryor: No. I feel more grown. I feel like I learned a lot. Fifty-six, no, that's not good at all. Maybe freshman year you let that slide. I want to have bigger goals. I'd love to have 65, even 70 [percent]. I hate to keep talking it up [but] you have to do it. It's all about decision-making.

Q: I read somewhere where you didn't work on accuracy drills until last year?

Pryor: Coach took a chance on me. I love to play the quarterback position because you always have the ball in your hands. In high school I was always the best athlete. That was the best place for me. I ended up getting love for it but I never had the throwing abilities that some of the other players had because they had been playing since younger ages.

Just to come up here and train like crazy and be the player I'm supposed to be, the heights they put me at, it's big for me. I train and train and train just to be that quarterback. Now I want to be mentioned with the top guys.

Q: Is it optimal if he [Pryor] leads the team in rushing again?

Tressel: Probably not. The only thing that's a little different, he's in the game every play. The guys that run the ball, we rotate in. [Brandon] Saine is such an outstanding receiver as well. Boom [Dan Herron] gives us an edge. He's a tough little nut.

Could Terrelle lead us in rushing? Yes, but we've got guys who can run the ball. If he carries 10-12 times a game that's plenty. I tease the offensive staff, "You don't get to design a dozen carries for him a game. You're only allowed to design seven or eight. He's going to design seven or eight on his own."

Q: Coach said you got over that little hump. What does that mean to you?

Pryor: Throw me in at the beginning of freshman year. Last year I was [still] going, "When do I run, when do I throw? Where's my check downs at? Who do I look off?"

Now? I think it's more reactive. That's the stage I've been interested in getting to. It's being reactive. That's where my troubles were at last year. I had a lot of trouble with, whether I should wait and stay in the pocket. I think last year I was going through thinking too much.

Q: How soon did it take you to forget that fumble against Penn State as a freshman?

Pryor: Anytime I make a mistake, I put it on my shoulders. I truly, to this day, think it was my fault. I still think about it once in a while 'cause you always learn off your mistakes. I learned something big that day.

Would I do that [try to make the big play] again? Probably not. That kid [defender] made an excellent play ... If that kid wouldn't have got me, I would have broken it actually.

Q: Can you imagine undermining your teammates and risk having a championship taken away by taking money like Reggie Bush did?

Pryor: It's dirty, you know? I wouldn't put myself in that position, first of all, because if it was found out I was hurting my team it would be like, "Damn he doesn't care about us a stitch enough to even chill out."

Q: Can Reggie Bush face his teammates, five, 10 years from now?

Pryor: I couldn't go back and talk to my teammates. If I was at USC right now I wouldn't want to know Reggie Bush.

Tressel: Unfortunately, there's a school of thought that it's not the wrong thing until I get caught.

We talk to our guys a lot about, "You do not want anybody having anything on you. You're only good as your next phone call." People would be waiting outside our guys' cars with helmets and balls. Our guys still have to be guys and out on campus getting a sandwich. It's worth it to have your honor, but it's a battle."

Q: Do you have any thoughts on the Big Ten divisional alignment when the league expands to 12 next season?

Tressel: My suggestion would be East-West. Penn State and us and the two Michigans and the two Indianas. Then, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois.

Q: You're going to be around. Have you thought about playing in a championship game?

Pryor: I'm interested in it. That will give us another game before the bowl. We may be even more fresh.

Q: What does five consecutive Big Ten championships mean?

Pryor: That you're a target. We have to stick even more close together now. It's going to go either one of two ways. We can go into every game thinking, like, "We're Ohio State and we're going to take over," or we can go in there and keep it going with, "[We're] a powerhouse. We want another one." If the target is going to be big, we have to stay up with the way we play.

Q:In terms of excellence in the Big Ten, it's a dynasty isn't it?

Tressel: It's harder ... You talk a little bit about Ohio State winning the Rose Bowl, Iowa decisively winning the Orange Bowl, Wisconsin won their bowl game, Penn State winning against LSU. That showed, at this moment, the Big Ten is pretty darn solid. We're not only a bigger target, we've got a tougher job.

Q: You guys have taken an awful beating lately -- Ohio State and the Big Ten -– is it coming around?

Pryor: For Ohio State, we're always going to fight I think. We play these guys every year, every week. Iowa's going to be very good. Penn State's always good.

Tressel: You talk about national reputation ... It's not like, well, it was really hard to play USC but it wasn't hard to play Wisconsin. Our guys don't worry too much about it. You talk about eras and cultures. The era has been choked so much with talking heads, you don't even listen to them. There's so many of them.

Q: I saw where Heacock said, "I want to go on the record and say that this will be the best defensive line to play at Ohio State."

Tressel: It's a talented group. I'm not sure it's as deep unless some of these young guys step up. Our front line guys were really good but our second line guys weren't far behind. In my mind there's a little bit of a gap between our first group and second group that I'd rather not have.

Q: Was there a point in a game in your career where you thought, "OK, it's my huddle?"

Pryor: I always felt like it but I always knew my place. Last year I was trying to lead but I was also trying to figure the game out. My freshman year, you had some older guys in there.

Q: How's the knee?

Pryor: You're not always going to be 100 percent. I'll probably never be back to 100 percent. If anyone says that they are 100 percent, I highly doubt that. You're going to have swelling and stuff like that.

I train on it, I run with the guys. I try to win every race. I win every race, most of the time.

Q: What can't you do at this point?

Pryor: I can do everything. I'm kind of taking it easy. I go in the sand pit a lot. I try to stay off the hard ground and ice it when I'm at the house. I don't feel any pain. Obviously, after I run it's going to get sore.

Tressel (kidding): He's got to be faster than he was in the Rose Bowl. I was just watching the Rose Bowl and he got caught on the sideline.

Pryor: I want to play a lot more physical. I'm going to run the show.

Q: You're going to lower your head a little bit?

Pryor: I just want to play physical.

Tressel: We're not going to get crazy, though.

Pryor: Obviously, we're not going to be Tim Tebow-ing it. I'm going to play a lot more physical, think a lot more physical.

Q: Thoughts about the rematch with Miami?

Tressel: "I kind of look at it even broader than that. In my coaching career Miami has been one of the premier programs. When we were talking about who we wanted to schedule over the years [it was] USC, Texas, Miami.
The last time we played, we played for the championship. These guys were probably in grade school. Everyone in America knows the last three or four years they've gotten better and better and better. They look like the Miami of old.






Defensive Standouts Ready To Dominate
espn.com
CHICAGO -- Iowa's Adrian Clayborn and Ohio State's Cameron Heyward weren't invited to New York for last year's Heisman Trophy presentation.
Former Nebraska star Ndamukong Suh was the only defensive player among the Heisman Trophy finalists in 2009.
But Clayborn and Heyward might be the most likely defensive linemen to make a Suh-like impact this coming season.
Both Big Ten stars passed up entering last spring's NFL draft to return to college for their senior seasons. Each might have been a first-round pick in the draft.
"My mom told me how much of a business the NFL is," said Heyward, the son of late NFL fullback Craig "Ironhead" Heyward, who played for the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons. "She told me, 'You're only in college once. You better enjoy it.'"
Heyward, from Suwanee, Ga., said it's humbling to be compared to Suh, who was one of the sport's most dominant defensive players during his three seasons with the Cornhuskers.
But Heyward said he's hoping to make even more of an impact than Suh did.
"You can't be known as a player who was just as good as Suh," Heyward said. "You want to be remembered as a guy who was better than Suh."
Last season, Heyward had 46 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 6½ sacks and 20 quarterback hurries while helping lead the Buckeyes to another Big Ten championship.
Heyward said he came back to Ohio State to lead the Buckeyes to a BCS national championship.
"A lot of guys want it," Heyward said. "It's never guaranteed to anyone. I think we're hungry and up to the challenge."
Clayborn, a senior from St. Louis, was just as productive as Suh a year ago. Clayborn, a defensive end, had 70 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, 11½ sacks, four forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and nine quarterback hurries.
"I feel like Suh did his thing and made a name for himself," Clayborn said. "Let his name shine. I don't see the comparisons. We play two different positions."


One Good Thing

Illinois: Ron Zook and his players struggled to pinpoint what happened to them between the time they left training camp in Rantoul, Ill., and when they hit the field at the Edward Jones Dome against Missouri last September. But this much is clear: it won't happen again. "This year, we've already seen the coaches step back a little bit and let the players dictate to each other what we expect from each other," senior defensive end Clay Nurse said. "They're the general commanders of the team, but you need your captains and lieutenants out there when you're playing."

Indiana: After finishing 10th in the league in both points allowed and yards allowed in 2009, Indiana is shaking things up, switching to a 3-4 alignment. Although Indiana loses two accomplished ends in Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton, the new defensive set could spark the pass rush. The Hoosiers finished eighth in the league in sacks last fall (25). "Sometimes when you run a 4-3, it's so basic up front," inside linebacker Tyler Replogle said. "Now we can send some blitzers at linebacker, at D-end. It gives the guys up front some different angles to make some sacks."

Iowa: Defensive end Adrian Clayborn's recent comment that Iowa is the "only team in the state" ruffled some feathers, but the star senior said he meant no disrespect to Iowa State or any other other squad. Coach Kirk Ferentz discussed the situation with Clayborn and knew what the player meant, especially after going through the recruiting process. "We talk to recruits all the time about, 'We're the only game in town,' meaning college football," Ferentz said. "That's all he was relaying. We're all kind of programmed to say that. … My career record against Iowa State is nothing to write home about, so to think we would look down our nose at them, that's ludicrous."

Michigan: Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez said if sophomore Denard Robinson isn't named his team's starting quarterback, don't be surprised if you see him playing running back, wide receiver or even both. Robinson will battle sophomore Tate Forcier for the starting job during preseason camp. "He'll be playing quarterback," Rodriguez said. "But he'll be learning all of the above."

Michigan State: It's probably a good sign when a team's most heated position competition entering camp takes place at kicker, but Michigan State has a major hole to fill following the departure of first-team All-Big Ten selection Brett Swenson. Sophomore Dan Conroy and redshirt freshman Kevin Muma will compete in training camp, and heralded incoming freshman Mike Sadler also could work his way into the mix. "Muma and Conroy are both really, really talented physically, maybe even more so than Swenson," punter Aaron Bates said. "So it's just how they're going to handle the game situations. We've tried to put them through as many game situations as they can to see how they'll respond."

Minnesota: Senior quarterback Adam Weber will be working with his third offensive coordinator in as many seasons as Jeff Horton takes over this fall. Horton succeeds Jedd Fisch, who left for the Seattle Seahawks after one year. Weber worked under Mike Dunbar in 2007. Some signal-callers would view so much change in a negative light, but not Weber. "I think I'm very fortunate to have been coached by such great coaches," Weber said. "Obviously, you'd like to have one coach for all four years, but that's not how it's worked out. … So far with Coach Horton, it's been great. He makes the game fun."

Northwestern: Despite earning a trip to its second straight bowl game last season, Northwestern averaged only 24,190 fans for home games last season, the second-worst average among FBS teams. How will the Cats improve that mark? "Keep winning," coach Pat Fitzgerald said. The Wildcats shouldn't have too much trouble selling tickets to a Nov. 20 date against rival Illinois at Chicago's Wrigley Field. Fitzgerald calls the game a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Ohio State: Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel said he is satisfied with junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor's development in his first two seasons. Last season, Pryor was named preseason Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and guided the Buckeyes to an outright Big Ten title and Rose Bowl victory over Oregon. "He went from quarterback of the co-Big Ten champions to quarterback of the outright Big Ten champions," Tressel said. "That's all the progression I'm looking for."

Penn State: Coach Joe Paterno joked that he'd like to identify a starting quarterback in the next half-hour, but it's just not going to happen that way. With so much uncertainty under center in State College, Penn State's other position groups know they need to step up. "It definitely affects us as an offensive line," senior guard Stefen Wisniewski said. "We feel if we're protecting a young quarterback and giving him a lot of time, we can really make him look good and look experienced. But if we would have breakdowns and a young quarterback's under pressure, he'll show he doesn't have a lot of experience."

Purdue: Coach Danny Hope is optimistic that defensive tackle Kevin Pamphile, a projected starter, will return before the team's bye week in early October. Pamphile recently underwent surgery after sustaining a stress fracture in his foot. Redshirt freshmen Brandon Taylor and Justin Kitchens and heralded incoming freshman Bruce Gaston will compete for Pamphile's spot during his absence. Gaston has slimmed down to 302 pounds. "He's probably the fastest defensive tackle we have," Hope said of Gaston. "He can really move."

Wisconsin: Safety Jay Valai is a college football junkie who will watch just about any game, but this offseason he spent a lot of time reviewing Ohio State tape. The Buckeyes remain the team to beat in the Big Ten, so Valai has focused on how to beat them. Valai recently watched Ohio State's dramatic win against Purdue in 2002, which propelled the Buckeyes to the national title. "You've got to be more physical, that's first and foremost," Valai said. "I think we out-physicaled them two years ago, but at the end of the game, they got real creative, made some plays and beat us."