Terrell Pryor has finally decided where he’s going to play college football next year and it won’t be at the Big House in Ann Arbor.
After a Feb. 6 news conference when Pryor announced that he had no announcement, the nation’s No. 1 high school quarterback said in a noon press conference today that he will attend Ohio State. He chose Ohio State over Michigan, Penn State and Oregon.
Pryor might be able to give that boost now as a freshman, then blow up in Jim Tressel’s offense in 2009. Michigan, another finalist for Pryor, could have handed him all the snaps immediately. But with the practice snaps that backup quarterback Antonio Henton took last year, Tressel clearly warmed to the idea of using a No. 2 quarterback to change the game.
“He’s a dynamic playmaker at quarterback,” said Jeremy Crabtree, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. “And we’ve seen in college football today if you have that dynamic guy at quarterback — a guy who can change what should be a sack on third and 8 into a touchdown run or who can make a big throw in the clutch — you can go a long way with some other pieces of the puzzle missing.”
The presence of Pryor, who becomes the most naturally gifted OSU freshman quarterback at least since Art Schlichter 30 years ago, amplifies those possibilities. In 1978, the Buckeyes had a senior quarterback, too, and Woody Hayes moved Rod Gerald to receiver to clear space for Schlichter.
With Pryor on his way to Columbus and Ryan Mallet transferring to Arkansas, Rich Rodriguez is going to wish he stayed in West Virginia by early August. He doesn’t have a spread option quarterback to run his offense and his biggest rival just landed the top recruit in the nation.
