Terrelle Pryor fun fact of the day

Date of TP’s first college start at QB: Sept. 20, 2008

Date of TP’s first college class*: Sept. 24, 2008

*First day of fall quarter

Weekend in review

Hot damn that was a nice little weekend in sports. To recap:

Boeckman, exit stage left? You gotta feel for Todd Boeckman. Dude grows up in OSU-crazy St. Henry, Ohio (home of the Hoyings and Jim Lachey), goes on to grey-shirt a year and red-shirt a year, bides his time behind a Heisman winner in Troy Smith, then when finally given the reins merely leads his team to a conference title, a win over Michigan, and a bid in the BCS championship game (as a Junior). He didn’t have a great performance in the title game (biting my lip here), but really no Buckeyes did (except for Beanie). Then everybody decided to come back for one more year and the Bucks were labeled one of the pre-season favorites. He returns as a 24-year-old senior captain, excited knowing he’s got a Heisman favorite in the backfield with him. So yeah, OSU landed the top QB recruit in the country, but he’ll have to earn playing time, right? The job has still gotta be Todd’s to lose. Then the season starts, and Boeckman’s running mate goes down, his line throws up all over themselves on national TV, and another disastrous performance against USC causes Buckeye fans everywhere to have PTSD-style flashbacks to January in New Orleans. Meanwhile, super-frosh Pryor shows flashes of greatness mobility in his early season snaps, exciting the fans and the coaching staff. Tressel announces that the QBs will split snaps 50/50 against Troy (and has the play-calling card to prove it!), but Pryor ends up starting and taking 90+% of the snaps (unofficial estimate). Boeckman throws one pass, and it’s incomplete. Asked after the game whether Pryor is now the starter, Tress barks out something along the lines of “Were you at the game?” So here’s to you, Todd Boeckman. It would appear for now that your career as the Buckeye QB has come to a close. But here’s hoping you keep your nose in the playbook, and your head up in practice, because you’re only one Michigan-week-DUI/hundred-dollar-handshake/solicitation of an undercover cop away from getting that job right back.

Quick: who’s the #7 team in the country? If you said Texas, you can put your horns down, ‘cuz if you know that you’ve gotta be a UT fan. Talk about a top ten sleeper. They’re in the typical “call me after the OU game” position (same as every year), but considering how much hype SEC teams can get for winning a couple of non-conference games, it’s only fair to keep equally-dominating teams like UT in mind. Noteworthy from the 52-10 beatdown of Rice: On one possession, UT’s defense stopped Rice for 11 straight plays inside the UT 10 yard line, ultimately getting the ball back on downs. Colt McCoy broke Major Applewhite’s career passing TD mark (previous record was 60). And UT’s startingonly TE, Blaine Irby, was lost for the season after suffering a dislocated knee.

US Wins Ryder Cup, movie pending. If you didn’t watch the Ryder Cup this weekend, you missed out on one of the best sporting events of the year. This was a Dan Jenkins novel come to life. I mean, the stars for the US were a lovable redneck from the Florida panhandle named Boo, a Kentucky country boy who hits the ball a freaking mile named John Holmes (sorry, J.B.), a young gun from Texas (Hunter Mahan) who wasn’t even interested in being on the team earlier this summer (likening participation to slavery), an old guy (Kenny Perry) who put his entire year (and reputation) on the line for one last shot at Ryder Cup glory in his home state, and a 23-year old Asian-American (Anthony Kim) from LA with a big-ass belt buckle and the swagger to destroy the Euros’ own Ryder Cup wonder boy (Sergio Garcia). Man, that was awesome. [Semi-related note: if you're a casual sports fan who got swept up in Phelpsmania this summer but don't respect the Ryder Cup because "golf is not a sport," then I don't think we can be friends. I might even be willing to get in a drunken brawl over this. U-S-A! U-S-A!]

This week in losing (sonofa…). The Bengals almost beat the Giants. For now, my orange-clad friends, you are still relegated to Nfl.com Game Center status. If you want to achieve going-to-the-bar status with me, you’re going to have to start finishing off some of these close ones (or at least beat crappy rookie-led division opponents). You can start next week with the Browns. Or you’ll be dead to me. Viva La Revolucion!

Happy belated “Talk Like a Pirate Day!” Friday was Talk Like a Pirate Day. I could really give a rat’s ass about that, but it gives me an excuse to post a video of Mike Leach offering dating advice to Texas Tech freshmen. Ahoy matey. [via the great and powerful EDSBS]

The Pryor era begins now

So the 2008 drive to a national championship for tOSU began and ended last week at USC. But that’s not all bad, because now that we’ve gotten this season’s soul-crushing loss out of the way, Buckeye nation can exhale, and let the Terrelle Pryor Era begin. I know it’s facile for me to make analogies between tOSU and Texas, but that’s what happens when you spend your whole life in Columbus and Austin. So humor me. And then peep this (sorry, I know it’s from Wikipedia, but it gets to the point):

As a redshirt freshman during the 2003 season, Young was initially 2nd on the depth chart behind Chance Mock. However, Mock was benched halfway through the season (in the game against Oklahoma) in favor of Young. After that game, Young and Mock alternated playing time, with Young’s running ability complementing Mock’s drop-back passing.

As a redshirt sophomore in the 2004 season, Young started every game and led the Longhorns to an 11-1 season record (losing only to rival Oklahoma), a top 5 final ranking, and the school’s first-ever appearance and victory in the Rose Bowl, in which they defeated the University of Michigan. He began to earn his reputation as a dual-threat quarterback by passing for 1,849 and rushing for 1,189 yards. The Texas coaches helped facilitate this performance by changing the team offensive scheme from the more traditional I-formation to a Shotgun formation with 3 wide receivers. This change gave the offense more options in terms of play selection, and consequently made it more difficult to defend against.

We all know how that story ended.

Some Buckeye fans may want to compare TP to Troy Smith, but I don’t think it makes as much sense as VY. Troy’s story is one of redemption, of overcoming all odds to rise to personal glory (winning the ultimate individual award along the way). Troy wasn’t even recruited as a QB, but rather as an “athlete” and seen as a wild card. He had to endure suspensions and allegations, and atone for his mistakes along the way. At the end of the day, Troy is a Buckeye legend, and to borrow from Ray Small, came out of college not just a good football player but a good man. But on a national scale, he’ll be remembered for coming up short against Florida. Fair or not (because it was a total team collapse), the perception of Troy was changed forever because of one game.

Vince Young, however, was the BMOC from the get-go. While he redshirted his first year, the expectation was still there that he’d be a great one someday. With VY, it was a matter of when, not if. If Troy learned how to execute the offense; VY was the offense. VY didn’t need to grow, he was already a man amongst boys. His story was all about the inevitability of domination, of seeing if anybody could take him down. As it turns out, nobody could. And like Troy, Vince will probably be best remembered for one championship game. It just so happens that his performance was one of the greatest championship/big game performances in college football history.

So now the next greatest-QB-recruit-of-all-time has arrived at Ohio State. He’s the BMOC already, the tall, smooth, run-first prodigy. Can he be the next Troy Smith? Or the next Vince Young? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. No pressure, kid.

For further reading:
Let the formal education of Terrelle Pryor begin [Dr. Saturday @ Yahoo]

The Hunted [DETAILS @ Style.com]