Today Terrelle Pryor announced that he will join the 2008 Ohio State football recruiting class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVQYQ33wmAw&hl=en&fs=1
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.”
