Ohio State freshman QB Terrelle Pryor is still using what ESPN’s Mary May said earlier this season about him not being ready for the big stage as motivation to prove critics wrong.

Pryor got huffy earlier this season before the Minnesota game about some fairly innocuous and well-reasoned comments May said about wanting to see Pryor perform on the big stage. He remains huffy.

“I’d love to battle against Mark May anytime,” Pryor said, before adding, “I don’t worry about what he says. I don’t even watch ‘SportsCenter.'”

Perhaps not. But Pryor clearly has rabbit ears for any perceived criticism, using it as motivational fuel.
“People don’t know what I can do,” he said. “They say I’m overrated. Wait and see. The time will come and you will find out.

“I didn’t prove anything yet. But I like playing with a chip on my shoulder.”

Pryor also put a charge into this Saturday’s Big Ten battle between Ohio State and Penn State when asked how it would feel playing in his home state of Pennsylvania this weekend.

“I don’t care,” Pryor said. “I’m from Ohio now. That’s still my hometown, but this is where I am now. I don’t need to make Penn State happy.”

I like this kid and I like this competitiveness. He seems to walk the line of being cocky and confident, but he doesn’t give off the impression that he’s just another mouthy athlete looking for attention. And you have to like a freshman quarterback that walks into his coaches office before a game and tells him to bench him if he doesn’t get the offense into the end zone on the first drive of the game.