One Great Season
Just hours before Terrelle Pryor's Ohio State Buckeyes begin their quest for a national championship Thursday night against Marshall, I've re-evaluated my take on the quarterback's Heisman candidacy.
Pryor, who's somehow spent fall camp going from mere Heisman contender to frontrunner in the eyes of experts, definitely will not win college football's highest honor come December.
During his freshman and sophomore seasons, writers often referred to him as a dual-threat quarterback, but that gave him twice as much credit as he deserved. Just because a quarterback was able to beat you with his feet doesn't make him doubly dangerous. In order to fit that description, he still has to beat you with his arm, and Pryor seldom did that in 2008-09.
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But ever since his stellar Rose Bowl performance against Oregon eight months ago, the tag seems more legitimate. He blew up the stat sheet and has spent the entire offseason since becoming the undisputed leader of his No. 2 Buckeyes.
So if he is now a true dual-threat, what's the problem, you ask? Well, when was the last time a dual-threat won the Heisman? Sure Tim Tebow was a dual threat, but he was a passer first, which is what a quarterback should be. Tebow just happened to be a great runner as well, as unorthodox as his style may have been. Technique notwithstanding, eternal shotgun formation notwithstanding, Tebow was more of a natural passer than Pryor is.
If that breakout Rose Bowl was any indication of how he'll perform in 2010, then definitely Pryor is primed to improve and will be a Heisman candidate, but it's hard to put all my chips in the Pryor basket when he only completed 57 percent of his passes last year, averaged 161 yards per game for one of the worst passing offenses in the country, threw 11 interceptions and had four games where he registered only single-digits in completions.
Once Pryor delivers a 9-for-21 game for 131 yards, and it could happen as early as Week 2, his name will fall behind the Lucks and Lockers, and it will take a few of those Oregon games to get him back in the race. Trouble is, Luck and Locker both play Oregon this year as well.