Right Time for Pryor?
Is Terrelle ready to take over? (photo: D. Harker / The O-Zone)Now that everyone has had some time to digest the spanking in LA, I’m assuming the same folks calling for Pryor to take over Sunday are still on board today. I’ve heard a few folks caution against throwing TP into the fray so early because there’s still a Big Ten title and BCS trip at stake and there’s no real concrete reason to assume Pryor is ready.
To that, I say this program needs a shot in the arm and I can’t think of a better remedy than to inject some new life into a position dying for an identity. So with that, is Pryor ready? And does it matter to you even if he isn’t?
From my vantage point, I’ve seen Boeckman’s ceiling both as a QB and a leader and it’s simply not good enough to win it all. Is it good enough with the parts around him to win the conference? Probably so, but I think Pryor deserves a shot to prove he’s at least good enough to be plugged into the current lineup and help this team to a conference title considering that wasn’t the ultimate goal to begin with. Plus, the Todd is 3-3 in his last six games with 4 TD and 8 INT. That in and of itself should be enough to find him watching from the sidelines.
Further, one of Tressel’s supposed key coaching skills is that he will adjust his coaching style to fit the talent currently on the roster. If that’s the case, based on what I’ve seen from the offensive line, there’s no better solution than a mobile QB behind a line that would make a New Orleans levy jealous.
In the end, I’m even willing to sacrifice a few games if that’s what it takes to get Pryor ready for 2009. What about you?
To that point, I think my biggest concern is that Tress will continue to call plays geared to what Pryor can do today versus what he needs to work on in order for OSU to be successful tomorrow. We need to see a gameplan that forces TP to decide amongst multiple receivers and most importantly, throw the ball downfield.
Figuring out how to truly develop Pryor’s weaknesses while still winning games is why the Vest makes the big bucks. If you’re Tressel, how would you ensure TP’s development while being cognizant of the need to win every game left on the schedule? And what role, if any, would Boeckman play in all of this?
This team reminds me of the Ravens team that won the super bowl. You CAN win with Trent Dilfer, assuming that your running game and defense are lights out. If those two are not in place then you just have Trent Dilfer as your QB. So TB is our Trent Dilfer i guess.
Give Bauserman a chance as well. Both he and TP need experience for the up coming seasons and let give them the opportunity to learn on the job. Boeckman is done and should never play for OSU again. Hasve TP and Bauserman split snaps until TP is ready to fully take over.
Tp and JB need to start logging the bulk if not all the minutes. Play action pass, play action pass and play action pass for TP. Give him a package that allows him to showcase what he does now and let him make some easy to moderate throws to get his confidence up. Win the Big 10 and get a good bowl. TP will be ready by scUM. Don’t forget that JB is deserving of some quality snaps. He throws a nice deep ball on target.
Agree completely. Throw him into the fire now so he’ll know how to handle it in the future when a championship is truly in the picture. I’ll take a couple losses this year. Let him know what a blindside sack or an interception feels like early. Don’t wait till next year when even more hype surrounds him and he ends up inexperienced and buckles under pressure.
Boeckman should be relegated to holding the clipboard from now on. Maybe the coaching staff sees something in him that the rest of the nation doesn’t, but I’d rather see what Bauserman has to offer. Dude is just not a leader and should not be behind center.
It’s really not an overreaction on anyone’s part to be calling for Boeckman’s head after such a bad loss. It’s not like he all of a sudden was this bad after one game. I’ve been hating on the guy since early last season. Should some of the blame be on the O Line? Yeah, lots of it. But Boone or Browning don’t whisper into Boeckman’s ear and tell him to chuck the ball into a sea of defenders every time he’s feeling the heat.
The 4 to 8 TD / INT ratio is bad but how many fumbles has TB had in the last 6 games? At least 4. If a team had a running back that had coughed the ball up 12 times in 6 games with only 4 TD’s you wouldn’t want him to be getting very many carries. I don’t think it’s over reaction or panic wanting to sit TB, merely the result of what has become consistent poor play.
People that don’t want to bench Boeckman because of B10 titles and BCS bowl games are assuming that with Boeckman, all of that is a given. This team will, as it is currently performing, will NOT win against Penn State and Wisky with Boeckman at QB. I don’t see a QB swap as a sign that we are sacrificing anything this year. We need TP at QB to have a CHANCE at any accolades.
Yup. Beanie’s presence in the backfield made up for a lot of Boeck’s weaknesses. As someone pointed out in the comments last week, when the running option was taken away in the LSU game (by score, not defense) and to some degree the Illinois game, he showed his true colors. Ditto last week and the week before against Ohio.
I’m torn because I really, really hate piling on kids like this, but at the same time, they have to know that’s part of the package when they come to Ohio State. Want to be a celebrity in a city of 1.7M? Want a kickass weight room and a stadium that is a veritable cathedral in the college game? Well, you have to accept the other side of that. Which is crabby turds like us harping on your poor play.
Boeckman peaked mid last year and was on the decline leading into the Illinois game (see Wisconsin and Beanie saving the day in the 4th). When the Michigan game was on the line, Tressel handed the ball to Beanie about 700 times….. LSU put the blitz on the statue formerly known as Todd and he made all the INCORRECT reads and missed wide open RB’s, FB’s, and TE’s in the spaces that were vacated by the blitz and he panicked. Sa me thing happened vs USC. Todd is a nice kid, but time to move in… 4 TD vs 8 INT??? that is crazy. Terrelle was brought here for a reason and this game is a good time to test him. Give Bauserman some time too in case the unthinkable happens and Terrelle goes down, no one wants to go back to Boeckman. Beanie needs to rest, and let Boom handle the load at RB and give Saine a chance to step up also. If we lose a few, it would hurt… but it would also allow the staff to assess TP and prepare him for UM and next year. I think if the coaches take his handcuffs off he will have alot of success vs the Big 11 because of his ability to keep plays going after they are broken and his ability to reverse field and gain yards when it is available. JT needs to give the young receivers a chance also if Brian and Brian keep sleepwalking. How about Pettry getting some field goals — I am tired of the misses (USC, LSU).
New Orleans levy…ZING!! good one hahaha
TP is obviously ready to start. You could see it in all over him on Saturday. In the way he was comfortable in game conditions, in his confident bearing, in the way he was restless on the sidelines. He reminded me of Chris Spielman when he didn’t start his first game as a freshman. I was at that game, and you could see Spielman pacing up and down the sideline just itching to get in the game. I see the same thing in Pryor. He needs to play. He has to play. He’s the best player on the team, talent wise. The only way to get him the experience he needs is to get him out there. We’re not throwing him to the wolves, because he has already seen game action in the most difficult of circumstances.
By the way, I don’t think people should think we’re sending TB to Siberia. He’s not a terrible player. But he has shown that he doesn’t have enough upside to get our team where we need to go. So it’s time to switch to the guy who does. It happens all the time on the team. If it didn’t, then it would be very difficult to recruit.
What is with the fascination with Bauserman? If Pryor is the future, then give the kid the ball. Just because Bauserman looked good in the spring game and against YSU doesn’t mean he should take snaps away from TP.
I don’t like hating on Boeckman. I give him credit for gray shirting, then red shirting, then sitting behind Troy. However, just because he “paid his dues” doesn’t mean he should be the #1 QB. The object of the game is to win, and Tressel’s responsibility is to put the players, at any position, who best position us to win.
Anybody else miss Nugent?
I’m intrigued by the notion of T.P. getting more snaps. Kind of reminds me of true freshman Chris Leak taking over for Ingle Martin during Zook’s second year. Worked out for the best — Leak had all the talent, Martin simply didn’t (at that time anyway.)
The difference was, I think, that Leak was a pretty polished passer — and not at all a runner like Pryor — and he was savvy enough to start playing at that level early. Not sure yet with Pryor. Maybe he can do it.
I’m a little disappointed that Tressel hasn’t come out and publicly admitted that the Ohio State program is in need of a lot of work. He talks about missed assignments and turnovers, not about the fact that Ohio State is fundamentally way behind where everyone in the media thought they should be. The three national embarassments should be enough to shake things up, but Tressel plays the “business as usual” card. That would frustrate me if I was an Ohio State fan.
T.P. looks to be a great talent, but I’m not at all convinced that he alone can make the difference. This team needs a makeover from top to bottom.
“What is with the fascination with Bauserman? If Pryor is the future, then give the kid the ball. Just because Bauserman looked good in the spring game and against YSU doesn’t mean he should take snaps away from TP.”
You need to watch Bauserman in practice. Of the three quarterbacks, he throws the best ball, with the best touch. He’s a competitive, tough-minded kid, and is quite a good athlete. Pryor’s freakish skills with his feet are what keep Bauserman holding a clipboard.
What’s going to happen is what I said a week or so ago would happen. Pryor will get more and more snaps, while splitting time with Boeckman, until we see a Jackson/Germaine situation, where Todd Boeckman is the nominal starter, but Pryor gets 75% of the snaps. By the time the m*ch*g*n game rolls around - depending on Pryor’s progress, of course - you’ll be lucky to see Boeckman for four or five series a game.
Good point about paying his dues, Kyle. Tressel’s loyalty to him is understood, but that loyalty to one players is costing the rest of the players who sacrificed quite a bit to come back for their senior seasons (like millions of dollars). He did in fact pay his dues and for it recieved an education and is currently in grad school (I believe).
That being said I’m good with a 50-50 split, but we all know it will be a mute point very soon. LiC is not your typical 18 year old kid. He is a poised, if not polished, freak of nature. His maturity was on display when choosing OSU. I don’t think he realized his skills would transfer so easily to the college game and to be honest I didn’t either, but facts are facts. He is ready to take over.
I feel bad for Bauserman, Joe Fox. He is obviously the odd man out. I don’t need to see practice because of that spring game. It was very obvious he has some big time skills that will probably never be utilized. We’d be calling for him to start if it weren’t for Pryor.
MOOT! It’s a MOOT point!!!
Layalty would be keeping his scholarship active. There is no layolty when it comes to PT. Performance earns PT.
Of course, you can argue that TB’s troubles have been a result of him being in situations he’s not good in, under duress.
Heh. Nothing quite like a Grammar Nazi making spelling errors.
Jason,
I’d agree with you that I don’t like to see people piling on kids for not being perfect. However, I do not, under any circumstance, consider TB a “kid”.
Todd Boeckman is 24 years old. 24. Not 12. Now 24 might seem like a long time ago to some of us but a 24 year old is not a child. If we call Todd a kid then when will we expect to to toughen up? When he’s 30?
There are people younger than Todd Boeckmen in the military willing to lay their life down, in law enforcement ready to take a bullet and as firefighters ready to run into a burning building. I work with a guy that is 23, has a wife, 2 kids and works two jobs to pay the bills.
These guys (not kids) get a free education in return for playing football to the best of their abilities. There is no guarantee to be a starter, or maintain a starting position. Just do your best and if it’s good enough you play. Right now TB’s best isn’t good enough and if some people want to say nasty hyperbolic comments well TB’s just going to have to deal with it because a) he’s not a kid and b) opposing DL’s are not worried about his self esteem while rushing the pass.
“I feel bad for Bauserman, Joe Fox. He is obviously the odd man out. I don’t need to see practice because of that spring game. It was very obvious he has some big time skills that will probably never be utilized. We’d be calling for him to start if it weren’t for Pryor.”
Bauserman’s a great kid. I hope he sticks around, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him look at transferring. We’ll need him.
JT had better be looking at quarterbacks in a hurry.
24? I thought Boeckman was at least 40.
I am also worried about the QB position… Henton leaving sucked, and if Bauserman leaves,,, yikes. JT had better get a QB in next years class and pronto.
Would you start Lebron as a Freshman? How about Greg Oden? Pryor is a winner and Boeckman is not. It really is that simple. Beanie will be the key to getting back to a bcs bowl but I really don’t care if we end up in Orlando or Tampa. We need to get this team back on the winning track starting this sat.
There still is alot to play for, and if USC wins out and we start to look like the team we are then we might get a rematch with a healthy Beanie and Pryor starting at QB.
Yes, a 24 year old man is not a kid. If we want to get technical about it, none of the players are kids (when you turn 18 you’re considered a man in society, hence you are allowed to put your life on the line for your country). But I can see how an 18 year old would be much less mature than a 24 year old. With that being said, just because someone who is talking about a person much their junior, people automatically refer to the younger person as a “kid”.
The whole point here is that you can feel bad for coming down on him because he’s a nice guy, but not because he’s a “kid”. TB, just like any pro athlete, is open game for criticism. He doesn’t get “paid”, but the point of the game is the same: win.
You could have Tom Brady back there it doesn’t matter,the oline is a not doing the job and the wideouts don’t get separation.
Hmm, pretty sure Tom Brady would make this team look better. :)
Can we add all of the above to the blog poll?
All for giving Pryor more time, but don’t leave out Bauserman. He has way more presence than TB and throws a better ball. Bauserman should have been the starter to begin the season while TP was learning the ropes.
I like the idea of a Bauserman / Pryor mix. Yeah Pryor needs his reps, but given the inevitable need for in game ‘coaching up’ (because of his age / inexperience) and the risk of injury you run with a dual threat QB, a good 2nd option is necessary.
and yes, the O-line needs personnel tinkering too
anybody want to let me know why we have 7 nfl recruits in the top 100 (all better than the 75-76 mark) according to rival.com and we still play the way we did/do?
just a thought that really pissed me off and it’s fckng thursday and it’s my birthday…son of a…..
Excellent players with excellent talent with crap asst coaches and coordinators that can utilize them to their fullest potential.
People argue that our players just aren’t as athletic or skilled as elite teams, but year in and year out we bring in one of the nation’s top ranked classes.
I just think they don’t know how to use them.
Look forward to 2009?! As a U of M fan, that really makes me wonder. I thought we were the ones who were supposed to be thinking that way. And I don’t care how good Pryor is, if you decide to start him the rest of the season, your losing 2 more games, AT LEAST.
But my biggest wonder is why all the hatin’ on Tressel??? I’ll be the first to admit that the guy can coach. He has to be in the top 5 for college coaches over the last 5 years. Now everyone is doubting him?! True, you may have lost the big games lately, but at least your getting there. He is ABSOLUTELY dominating the Big 10 in a way that’s never been seen. If ya start losing the faith in the Vest, all hell’s gonna break loose…
The offense is dynamic and dangerous when Pryor’s in the game. It’s bumbling and blubbering when Boeckman is in the game. Choice is obvious: start TP, have him drop a game or three due to freshman mistakes, and start the year with one of the nation’s best QBs next year, helping along a rebuilding team.
I would say watch out for us in 2010, but that team will be just as mediocre as this one if JT “stays loyal” to his coordinators.
Bout time to put him in coach! He’s ready to play today!
Hmm… I’ll say it all again. O-line needs some replacements before we change out the QB. Our QBs, whomever it may be, have 1.8 seconds to read, and react to the suffocating blitz coming down their throat. The O-line, especially 63, are standing there with their hands on their hips watching the 3 yard loss on the draw play or your QB of choice on his back. It’s obvious if you want to play vertical passing game you need some protection for the 3-5 step drop routes. 2 cheers for this Pistol offense tragedy we have run this season.
TB should be handled the same way Tress handled Bam Childress he; sat him down in favor of a youg kid name Anthony Gonzalez who paid dividends againest Mich his freshman year.
A lot of freshman QBs recently had pretty good first years; Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow to name a few. Pryor has more upside than all of those guys combined, and it would be a travesty if Tress didn’t start him over TB now.
Let him loose I say!