A PRYOR ENGAGEMENT???

Posted by bigD | February 24, 2008 .

A player like Terrelle Pryor doesn’t come along very often. Thus, whenever you have the chance to recruit a player and athlete with this kind of ability and potential to make your program that much better, you absolutely MUST take advantage of it. When ex-West Virginia and now current University of Michigan Head Coach, Rich Rodriguez found out that Terrelle Pryor was heavily considering West Virginia a smile must have lit up his face from ear to ear. Of course, that was before Rich Rod left for Michigan. That was before Rich Rod left a spread happy run based offense in WV and left for the pro set offense that Michigan runs at the BIG HOUSE to eliminate and re-create in Ann Arbor. So now the biggest question still looms for Rich Rod and the maize and blue - Will the nation’s top recruit, Jeanette SHS, Pennsylvania’s QB, Terrelle Pryor honor his initial choice with coach Rodriguez despite the fact that he’s in Michigan now or will Pryor choose from one of his other 3 main choices in Oregon, Penn State or perhaps the dreaded Ohio State Buckeyes? Memphis might be a school in the running now after trying to lure Pryor to the big Saturday matchup of Tennessee vs. Memphis (1 vs. 2) in College Basketball as Pryor also stars as a dynamite basketball player who wants to pursue 2 sports at whatever school he chooses. I can’t see him going to Memphis. My big concern…

for obvious reasons is that OSU is on Pryor’s list and his final choice is expected to come down to Michigan or Ohio State. I want to go on record right now and just say that if Pryor chooses OSU, get my noose ready! Well, maybe not to that extreme but you certainly get the idea. Pryor MUST go to Michigan. In the very least, if he doesn’t choose Michigan I’ll beg him right now…Terrelle…please don’t go to the Buckeyes. I ABSOLUTELY BEG YOU. Pathetic? Yes, but any die hard Michigan fan would say the same thing.As you’d expect with the nation’s top recruit, Pryor comes with incredible credentials. How about 6 foot 6 and 225 pounds who can run a 40 in 4.4 seconds? And he’s a QB? WOW! As a senior, Pryor was named the AP Pennsylvania Class AA football player of the year. He has been a 3 time all state choice and was named to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s “Fabulous 22″ team and the “Terrific 25″ as handed out by the Tribune Review. He was named by both magazines as the Player of the Year. As you’d expect, his stats are truly phenomenal too. They say his rushing is far more impressive then his passing game which needs work. Well when looking at his total yardage it shows both to be almost equal. Pryor gained 3,691 total yards last season with 1,901 coming from the ground and 1,790 in the air. Not only that but he’s one hell of a leader too as he helped bring his Jeanette Jayhawks a PIAA championship and a 16-0 season. Pryor accounted for 60 TD’s (36 rush/23 pass and he even caught a pass for a TD). On average, Pryor’s Jayhawks scored a TD once every 4 times he touched the ball. Scouts claim Pryor has great size with good quickness and speed. He shows a good arm with great athletic ability in the pocket. He has been compared to a younger version of Vince Young because he’s so quick and powerful in the open field. He’ll run over you or run through you. As a passer Pryor shows a good arm and can throw with accuracy and touch, or so they say but running QB’s always make you wonder a bit about their passing skills and their overall passing accuracy anyway so I don’t think the verdict is out on that yet. As mentioned earlier, Pryor is also being recruited for basketball. Is Jeanette SHS going to miss this kid or what? There’s no doubt folks…if Pryor keeps going at the rate he is going, he has a chance to become an absolute tremendous star in 2 sports. But where’s he going to go?

At a press conference in his high school’s gymnasium on National Signing Day, Pryor announced that he hadn’t chosen a school yet and would not do so until basketball season was over. Thus, football coaches from the schools Pryor is considering have not only offered him the best in the football world but they’ve also praised him and showed him the ropes of the school’s basketball programs in hopes that both their sports programs would sell him. Why? They know Pryor is special, but how special? We’ll have to wait and see. Coach Rodriguez showed Pryor and ex-Lion, Charlie Batch (apparently dating Pryor’s aunt) around the Ann Arbor campus last month and even took him to a basketball game where fans at the game chanted from the rafters, “WE WANT PRYOR”! Boy, do we ever! We don’t just want him on the Big House football field though. With Henne, Hart and much of the Wolverine talent from last season having flown the coop…WE NEED HIM! Now, as Pryor tries to take the next step and move forward in hopes of making his final decision, his forward step is by choice, a backwards one. As if people haven’t been mentally tortured enough waiting on Pryor and his talents, coaches are now left wondering what his decision will be as time ticks on. Pryor has stated that his final decision could be made as late as May. Well Wolverine fans, we have that long to hold our breath and hope that Pryor not only attends U of M, but the main thing, that he doesn’t attend OSU. GULP!

As for personal connections, Pryor is first and foremost connected to both the Michigan and Penn areas. Pryor has befriended Coach, Rich Rodriguez and has had heavy interest in WV from the get go. This can only help U of M. But Pryor also has befriended many of the Buckeye players and the fact that he obviously played high school sports in Pennsylvania and also just the fact that Penn State has been hitting Pryor very hard in visiting him and his father on countless occasions (the Pryors have reportedly developed a very good repertoire with JoPa and Co.) must have some effect on Pryor’s overall decision. It’s so important that you recruit in state and keep the heaviest talents in state and obviously JoPa recognizes this but how much recruiting starts to become more nagging then recruiting? Pryor’s phone is likely ringing off the hook these days. Sometimes it would probably be easier if these kids had personal secretaries but that’s what happens when you’re the top recruit in the nation.

I am not just saying this because I am a huge die hard fan of the Michigan Wolverines but I think Pryor’s best choice would be Michigan. I know, I know…YOU ARE SO MICHIGAN BIASED, BIG D. Well maybe I am but Pryor’s decision may in the end come down to one thing and one thing only. To most kids, it’s the most important thing when making such a decision - WINNING! Let’s say the likely happens and Pryor narrows his choices down hypothetically to OSU and Michigan. Realistically, I believe he’d win at either school. The difference is, at OSU he’d probably win right away where at Michigan he’ll have some growing pains. The thing is, at Michigan he’ll play right away. Would there be a better place for him then Michigan for that reason? In Coach Rod, Pryor can learn from a true blue creator and innovator of the running spread which suits Pryor to an absolute par. He can learn from day 1, play for 3 years at least and raise the Wolverines from the bottom to the top. And just think about how Pryor would be hailed around the Ann Arbor campus? He’d be treated like a God and should Michigan go on to win it all during Pryor’s tenure he’d be known forever as the kid who first brought the spread offense to Michigan, grew with it and became successful with it. He would almost be considered a legend. Someone that fans will never forget being as it’s the beginning of a new regime. If immediate success is your thing, Michigan is not for Pryor. OSU probably is. But to play, learn and grow from one of the very best spread coaches on the planet to me may be worth more.
Sometimes, players both learn and improve the most by having growing pains. In doing so, Michigan would give Pryor that sort of situation and in my opinion would better prepare for Pryor should he pursue the highest football levels. Although I can’t stand OSU, I simply can’t rip their football program. Coach Tressel has had the best of the Wolverines and his program should be highly rated to begin the 2008 season where Michigan’s probably won’t be. That has to look good to Pryor but because he’s not guaranteed the playing time at OSU that he would be in the school to the north it can’t look great to Pryor. Again, Pryor’s choice comes down to 2 major things… winning now but playing very little vs. playing now, learning now and winning later.

The world of college recruiting is a difficult one. Coaches travel a lot, they do their homework and they spend hours trying to both mentally and physically sell players to their programs. Coach Rich Rodriguez has already proven he can recruit for his systems with the best of them. The team Rich Rod built at West Virginia speaks for itself and the recruiting area will grow for him coaching at Michigan with very little limits attached to it. Michigan can recruit from anywhere where as West Virginia had some restrictions. Make no mistakes about it, the latest recruiting war is based around Terrelle Pryor. Who will end up with him? Will it be the Oregon Ducks who run the spread out west? Will it be the Penn State Nittany Lions who are in Pryor’s backyard and who have tried the hardest to lure him? Will it be the Ohio State Buckeyes who are one of the most successful programs in the nation or will it be our beloved Michigan Wolverines who now have a coach that perhaps best suits Pryor, but will the leftover talent suit him? Indeed, it must be a tough choice for the nation’s top recruit right now. It’s a position that I wouldn’t want to be in. But when we see the option and spread setups on the Big House field in 2008 and we cheer as Terrelle Pryor (I think he is going to choose Michigan) cuts up field for 22 yards and a first down, in the end, it will all be worth it. Coach Rich Rod…PLEASE LAND PRYOR!!!

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A PRYOR ENGAGEMENT???

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