Koo’s Corner

Today Terrelle Pryor announced that he will join the 2008 Ohio State football recruiting class.

The above video is a lot better than ESPN’s live feed who butchered it by cutting to the annoucement after the cat was out of the bag.

Pryor is the number one rated high school football player in the country. His team won the Pennsylvania state championship in football and just this past weekend won the state basketball championship. Pryor is almost as equally thought of as a basketball player as well. Other accolades include being the US Army All Star game MVP in addition to countless other prestigous player of the year awards.

His recruitment has been followed more intently than any other high school athlete and was only amplified by his last minute decision in early February to extend his recruitment past National Signing day (an extreme rarity).

Here is a NY Times writeup on his decision as well a post announcement interview with my bucknuts colleague Dave Biddle.

Through out his recruitment, the experts were nowhere near the truth that Ohio State was never legitimately challenged for Pryor’s services. ESPN’s expert, Tom Luginbill, was completely in the dark with others joining him with off base commentary and predictions.

The truth is that Pryor always leaned towards the Buckeyes and as stated wanted to play within driving distance of his hometown outside of Pittsburgh. So called infatuations with schools outside of the midwest (Michigan, Ohio State, West Virginia, and Penn State) was merely talk.

From the start Pryor leaned towards the Buckeyes and was impressed with Troy Smith’s tenure as a starting QB at OSU. Pryor attended OSU’s camp in the summer and was awed by the facilities, and coaching staff. More importantly he got to meet Smith in addition to a good portion of the already stacked OSU recruiting class.

As the football season unfolded, Pryor became closer and closer with the coaching staff as well as the growing talented 2008 class. Other schools made strong cases, but nobody ever made up any ground on Ohio State. Sure the possibility of starting role as a freshmen was intruiging and spread offense was enticing, but the more Pryor thought about it, being surrounded by top tier talent and a more NFL like offense appealed to him.

No school even stood out as a second place option. WVU was probably in line after the Buckeyes, but that all changed when Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan. Although Oregon was kind of the running (not really despite what anyone thinks), it was now down to Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. Pryor was rumored to be visiting Penn State during the Ohio State game but canceled citing he didn’t want to be on the Nittany Lion sidelines rooting agaisnt them.

Charlie Batch became an advisor to Pryor and accompanied him on a trip to Michigan. Michigan fans knew midway through the trip that it wasnt going to happen as Pryor look disengaged and uninterested at a Michigan Basketball game. As signing day approached it was clear that Pryor was OSU bound.

Down the home stretch, Penn State made a late push and made overtures to his father and high school head coach who became enamored with the fallen Big Ten powerhouse. With both role models pushing for Penn State, a school he never really considered, Pryor agreed to delay his decision past National Signing Day and promised to make a visit to Penn State.

With basketball season in full swing, Pryor’s cramped schedule prohibited from visiting Penn State. He did however find time to visit Ohio State again with a high school teammate, hoping to persuade him to follow him to Columbus the following year. The weekend Pryor was supposed to visit Penn State, his dad suffered a heart attack keeping him from making the visit.

Pryor let the word out that he was now fully on board with Ohio State and was rumored to make dorm arrangements with fellow recruits for Summer at Ohio State. He opted to wait past basketball season as the state finals would be held on Penn State’s campus where he could take in the campus as promised to his father, while also avoiding a potentially hostile situation with a Penn State friendly crowd.

With the state title in the bag, Pryor ended the suspense and opted for Ohio State ending one of the most suspenseful recruitments of all time. Thousands of articles were written from hundreds of media outlets. Some were off base, some were right on the money, and some were led awry by Pryor himself, his coach, and journalists who just didn’t know any better. In the end he picked the only school that felt right.

In the words of Jim Rome (who i don’t like), the bottom line is ” BOHICA for Michigan and Penn State. BOHICA stands for, Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.”

With March around the corner, I thought I would call attention to a handful of interesting items. Also if you are bored feel free to check out my blog on ranking the sports months and see where February and March get ranked

- ESPN this week got rid of Sean Salisbury but added two Buckeyes. Bobby Knight and Chris Carter will join ESPN and will cover NFL and college basketball respectively. Chris Carter’s son, Duron Carter, is one of the 2009 top receivers in the country and has had an influx of scholarships come in as of late.

- It was merely a week ago I commented on street fighter, Kimbo Slice’s rise to fame. At the time I was cautiously optimistic on just how much further Kimbo could penetrate American pop culture.

Today CBS announced an agreement to televise 4 two hour events per year for the next several year. A lot of analysis on why CBS would pick Pro Elite fighting over the more established UFC points to A) Viacom’s prior relationship with Pro Elite B) the demand for Kimbo Slice.

As I stated earlier, I am not a MMA fan by any stretch of the imagination, but just find if surprising to see such a rapid ascension in sports media and such an infatuation with Kimbo.

- The Terrelle Pryor Sage is picking up steam again. Pryor made a surprise visit to Ohio State this past weekend. By all means it was a positive trip as Pryor seemed to enjoy sitting with fellow recruits, synching up with Coach Tressel and Daniels, as well as enjoying the crowd’s chants of “we want Pryor”. Rumor’s have Pryor visiting Penn State this weekend which may in fact be his last visit as he is iffy on the need to visit Oregon.

- Speaking of recruiting, this link is a map of the countries top 100 recruits via Google Maps. You will have to zoom in, but it’s pretty damn cool.
- Lastly big props to Indiana for giving Kelvin Sampson the boot

For those of you who don’t know, let me introduce you to Terrelle Pryor. He is the concensus number one high school football player in the country and has been consistently described as a more athletic Vince Young. To boot, he is also a top tier basketball player.

Pryor hails from the Pittsburgh area and recently took home the US Army All American Bowl MVP award in a stellar performance in San Antonio. Pryor has taken a hard look at Oregon, LSU, Texas, Florida, Pittsburgh, and Penn State been was believed to be down to Ohio State and Michigan for his college choice.

Sports Illustrated opened up the day claiming this was the most anticipated college recruitment as National Signing day commences in just a couple of hours.

But would Pryor make his decision on Wendesday? Although a whopping majority finalize their collegiate plans tomorrow, it is not required and the option was there for Pryor to continue to hold the national spotlight as he found his way to his decision.

A week ago, the word was Pryor might delay in order to visit Oregon .

As of this morning a sudden 180 as Pryor was now ready to announce his intentions

With Ohio State perceived to be the leader the two great rivals playing a basketball game tonight, ESPN read about how this intense recruiting battle elevated the rivalry to new heights.

As the day wore on, confident OSU fans were glad to see early reports that Pryor had settled on Ohio State over Michigan.

But hours later, it seems his father has made him reconsider as the clock ticks down. Penn State, believed to be dismissed from the race is now making a late push and seems to be the favorite of Pryor’s father. If rivals.com is correct, Pryor will not be announcing his decision tomorrow and will carry his decision into what is usually considered recruiting overtime.

Although Penn State was not officially dropped through out the process, Pryor canceled a visit there in October because he indciated that he would not want to visit Penn State during the Ohio State game where he would be rooting for the Buckeyes.

For Michigan and Penn State fans, a new sense of hope while Buckeye fans will find a tough night sleeping. Those close to Pryor’s recruitment, have always believed OSU to be in the lead and were hoping for the race to win tomorrow. Just 11 hours from his press conference/ media gathering, college football fans will be closely following what unfolds tomorrow and potentially the coming weeks.

Bottom Line: What if Michael Jordan went to Duke instead of UNC? The aftermath of this decision is huge. OSU has a monster recruiting class that would have a bright outlook with the addition of Pryor. I do not believe Michigan was ever a true player. Pryor was very interested in WV until Rodriguez left. He has since looked for another school to consider against OSU but never found one (Oregon,LSU,). Now Penn State has his ear. Its hard for me to seeing him do a 180 especially with his rep ore with the OSU recruiting class and Jim Tressel. But obviously something is making him hesitant. For the mental health of millions watching this decision, I hope either way he can reach a decision sooner than later…I will be praying until then.

Thought I would chime in with some commentary on the bowl games, recruiting news, thoughts on 2008, etc.

Implications of Bowl Games on 2008

As I mentioned earlier this week on my blog, these bowl games will have a big impact on the 2008 pre season rankings. By building up the perception of your team with a big bowl win (LSU last year for example) you can get bumped to the head of the line amongst your peers. Going into bowl season I had two sets of five teams. My top tier for 2008 in no particular order was….

Florida, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC

With my second tier of top teams being

West Virginia, Missouri, Texas, Illinois, and Virginia Tech

A lot will change these early ranking like who will declare early, how 2008 recruiting wraps up, transfers etc.

However their have been a lot surprises and lop sided victories that will really weigh on perception of some these teams.

USC, Missouri, West Virginia, and Georgia all logged impressive wins while Oklahoma, Florida, and Illinois looked pathetic.

Look for Georgia to jump over Florida in terms of 08 pre season rankings mainly thanks to their Sugar Bowl performance. West Virginia’s win was momentous as the program was and still is in turmoil with Rodriguez leaving, the recruiting class wary of WV, and the WV lawsuit against Rodriguez. The win may have kept the program from completely derailing as I blogged about earlier.

Illinois’ loss was one of the few times fans really saw them all year which will hurt their public perception. For Oklahoma, that Big 12 will be nasty in 2008 so it will be interesting to see how the voters stack up OU, Texas, Mizzou, and Kansas. The middle of the Big 12 will be pretty lethal as well with Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Colarado returning some firepower as well.

Tough Road Bowl games for the Big Ten

Weather in Big Ten Country this time of year excludes the region from hosting any big name bowl games. Because of this, Big Team teams hit the road come bowl season in hopes their fans will want to join them in a warmer more touristy destination. However this year the stars lined up for a pretty ridiculous slate of bowl away games.

Purdue vs Central Michigan in Detroit, Michigan (Purdue win a squeeker)

Penn State vs Texas A&M in San Antonio, Texas (Penn State victory)

Illinois vs USC in Pasadena, California (Illinois got torched)

Michigan vs Florida in Orlando, Florida (Michigan beats Florida in best bowl thus far aka the Who Do I hate more bowl)

Ohio State vs LSU in New Orleans (TBD)

Saturday= Recruiting Cram Session

This upcoming Saturday their will be two High school football All American games. This will allow those college football nuts to take a look at the next wave of big talents . The Under Armor All America game will be on ABC at 2PM ET with the more established US Army All American Bowl airing on NBC at 12 ET.

I really hate trying to get excited about next year’s freshmen by looking other “experts” rankings and really poor quality internet videos of highlight plays. These games will give you a glimpse of how these guys stack up against high level competition. Also many of the undecided participants will make a decision live at the games which adds quite a bit of suspense at this game.

I am disappointed as I will be traveling during these games as I wanted to check out a lot of Ohio State commits who are reported to be the most impressive group during practice and the most tight knit bunch after practice for the US Army game.
This game always gives you a handful of names you can be confident will be first round picks down the road. Rivals actually has great All time offense and All time defense participants of late. Tedd Ginn and Chris Wells I believe were MVPS of their respective games.

Rise Mag has a good brief writeup on each game which can be found here.

Intrigue Surrounding Terrelle Pryor Recruitment

Terrelle Pryor is considered by most to be the number one high school player in America and will be playing on Saturday in the US Army game. Pryor has not picked a college and is also considered a top basketball recruit as well. Many compare Pryor to Vince Young with many claiming Pryor will be even better.

Pryor was rumored to be an Ohio State lean with Florida, West Virginia, Penn State, Oregon, Michigan, and Florida in pursuit. Of late Pryor has been very vocal in denouncing any favoring of Ohio State, giving many fan bases a lot of hope they can land the big time recruit. Michigan fans were ecstatic in hearing the news that Pryor actually checked in to Army game hotel wearing a Michigan swearshirt.

However many believe that was just a ploy to annoy his OSU commit friends who he has been rumored to be spending all of time with on and off the field at practice this week. Below is a recent video of him outside of practice. You be the judge.

ScoutTV: USAAB Terrelle Pryor Video Interview

Benkoo.com hitting the road Heading to New Orleans As previously mentioned I will be heading to New Orleans to watch the Ohio State LSU game. I will be devoting a lot of time and efforts to blogging about the experience and my thoughts on the game in the coming days. I am bubbling with anticipation for this great game but am a little worried about being in LSU country.LSU fan’s have earned the reputation of being some of the roughest and agressive fans in all of college football. I really hope that ends up being not the case. Here is one of many examples that were listed on Bucknuts of pretty scary LSU fan behavior.

LSU Athletic Director Urges Better Behavior

I have personally endeared a lot of good and bad fan bases during my college football road trip prime and must say I usually am able to navigate out of trouble and enjoy the game. However its one of the worst things to be harassed, assaulted, and taunted endlessly just because of your college affiliation. Ohio State is no angel either.

Why can’t we all just get along? Here’s too hoping for a peaceful and victorious trip.

3 Weeks ago, West Virginia a 29 point favorite lost to a lowly Pittsburgh team thus costing them a birth in the national championship game. It was a shocking development thast has only been amplified as a domino affect has taken place all over the college football landscape. Years from now this upset may be looked upon as a huge turning point for multiple programs all over the country. Although some of this is pure speculation lets take a brief look at the implications of this game.
Pittsburgh-

Pittsburgh had a signature win to sell to big time recruits and rallied in the coming weeks to ink some of the nation’s best players who took notice of the upset win while choosing to ignore the 5-7 record. Sine the game Pitt has secured verbals from highly touted players such as QB Zach Stoudt, OL Robb Houser, RB/CB Cameron Saddler , with rumors of Saddler’s teammate DE/LB Shayne Hale close behind. These verbals have really given the program some momentum and will likely elevate the program in a mediocre Big East over the years to come.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=0QAWLXBAQiA]

LSU-

It is my belief that Les Miles has tentatively accepted to leave LSU to fill the Michigan head coaching vacancy. Although he denied this rumor before the WV loss, I think he was just buying some time so he could announce it on his own terms down the road hoping to avoid a John L Smith Louisville incident. However Miles count not anticipate the WV loss nor the subsequent vaulting of his Tigers to the national championship game. It was unfathomable that the Tigers could make such a dramatic leap up the rankings and it threw Miles for a curveball.

You can’t leave a head coaching position in the weeks leading up to a national championship game and Miles and Michigan knew it. Miles laid low and signed an extension with LSU hoping Michigan would get the message. Michigan didn’t and finally they made one final run at Miles when the spoke 2 weeks later. Probably a “so your leaving us at the alter?” conversation. Miles is now entrenched at LSU having to have turned down his dream job at his alma mateur.

Nebraska-

This one is even more of a stretch so take this one with a grain of salt. LSU defensive coordinator, Bo Pelini, was either going to take the potential LSU coaching vacancy or the empty Nebraska position. With Miles believed to be a done deal to Michigan, Pelini was confident he would be named the new LSU head coach (the job he preferred over Nebraska). With the WV loss locking Miles into LSU, Pelini accepted the Nebraska job in the days after. Although its possible he would have taken the job anyways, I think Pelini was willing to wait it out for a shot at the LSU job and was confident the Nebraska offer would stay on the table for the duration.

Michigan

With their top choice for the job out of play, Michigan recommenced their coaching search which settled on Rodriguez today. Obviously if WV wins against Pitt, there is no way Rodriguez can walk away from WV (his alma matuer) in the weeks leading up to the championship game. With the Michigan job now open thanks largely in part to his ‘nightmare’ and potentially realizing that he might not get as good of shot at a championship game in Morgantown, Rodriguez succumbed to Michigan’s sales pitch and took the job.

Michigan now will run a spread offense which has many thinking that QB incumbent Ryan Mallett will transfer to Arkansas or elsewhere as he is the polar opposite of a typical spread offense QB. Essentially its possible the WV loss switched head coach of Michigan from Miles to Rodriguez and may have changed their next quarterback as well. However the news inst all bad on the quarterback front as now number 1 player in the country, QB Terrelle Pryor is now looking at Michigan instead of West Virginia due to Rodriguez’s spread system.

Below is some good analysis from a Michigan fan friend of mine, Aaron, who did not approve the hiring of Rodriguez.

“1. his teams always tank in big games
2. his schemes put up big points but don’t produce nfl stars at qb which will eventualy hurt recruiting in my opinion
3. this is the guy that recruited and covered for both pacman jones and chris henry, nuff said
4. he flirted for two years with leaving his alma mater, you think he’d hesitate to leave if he got a better offer? $2.4 mill isn’t t hat much”

West Virgina-

The loss of Rodriguez is going to hurt. I am hearing that Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster is likely the next coach which I would think would be a pretty shrewd hire. Regardless, Rodriguez built the program from the ground up and put West Virginia on the map. More than likely your going to see a significant drop off from a program that was just settling in as a perennial power. Only time will tell if this will be a Nebraska/Miami fall from grace or just a small drop off.

On the recruiting front West Virginia was “in” on the recruitment of several high profile recruits including Pryor (think Vince Young) . Pryor has already dropped WV from consideration and many believe Rodriguez’s departure will cost them top ranked guard Josh Jenkins as well.

Great article on Pryor, DJ Woods, and Jenkins implications.