For the college football fans among us, if you haven’t already, you’ll want to check out the complete dismantling of the Jim Tressel offense featured on DR. SATURDAY today. It’s as thorough a damnation of the system in which Terrelle Pryor toils as you can imagine, and it highlights just how remarkable it is that Ohio State actually let USC win last Saturday’s game. No offense to Matt Barkley or anything, but seriously: OSU should have won handily.
(Ho hum.)
Anyway, one of the points that SMART FOOTBALL’s Chris Brown (no, not him) makes in the aforementioned article is that “one of the problems with a plan that relies on fitting square pegs into round holes is that it makes the players look really bad,” or in other words, if a player’s not put in a position to succeed, you’re not going to think he’s very good.
Perhaps, then, that’s the reason for triumphant USC coach’s Pete Carroll’s comments earlier today as he looked ahead to this week’s game against Washington, casually dismissing the notion that Pryor’s the best player his team will face in September.
Per the TWITTER feed of FOXSPORTS.COM’s Lisa Horne, who’s at a press conference with Carroll this afternoon:
Pete Carroll on Washington quarterback Jake Locker: “Terrelle is a special player, but this guy [Locker] is even more so.”
Ouch. Jake Locker is hardly a slouch, of course; when healthy, the Washington quarterback is one of the best quarterbacks in the Pac-10. He’s got plenty of highlights on YOUTUBE:
(Some are positive highlights…)
(…and some are negative.)
But one thing Locker isn’t is Terrelle Pryor; say what you will about Pryor’s effectiveness thus far in his Buckeye career, but he’s one of the most physically gifted players in Lord knows how long. He’s like Vince Young with sprinter speed. Even if Tressel is determined to keep Pryor in the pocket 2/3 of the time - because it somehow makes sense to Tressel to make your fastest player hold the ball and stand still - Pryor’s still outrageously talented enough to change games all by himself. Jake Locker won’t beat USC by himself, but Pryor damn near did.
Carroll also wasn’t quick to hail the Buckeye faithful as the best crowd he’d ever seen:
Pete Carroll on how loud Ohio Stadium was: “Tech [Virginia Tech in ‘04 at Fed-Ex Field] was louder, but maybe I can’t hear as good now.”
That’s less inflammatory than “Locker > Pryor,” of course, but in case you’ve ever met an Ohio State fan, you’d know they need only the flimsiest of perceived slights to get worked into a lather. It’s kinda what they do.
But either way, howls of indignation will fall upon deaf Southern California ears; Carroll and the Trojans just won both legs of their home-and-home with the Buckeyes, so if OSU fans have any issue with Carroll’s quotes, well, he can’t hear you over that final score. It’s so loud.
4:34 pm on September 14th, 2009
DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN !!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t wait for the day that OSU will win a big game again….I’m still numb from Saturday….we were SO close….
5:18 pm on September 14th, 2009
So happy USC won. Ohio State is a joke.
5:33 pm on September 14th, 2009
Didn’t Locker “damn near” beat USC as a freshman in ‘07? And I don’t think anyone would argue he had close to the supporting cast Pryor has.
5:34 pm on September 14th, 2009
Don’t worry tOSU fans… the Michigan game is only a few weeks away….
7:38 pm on September 14th, 2009
Tressel should have turned Pryor loose like Texas did Vince Young, and we could have watched Carroll go into a fetal position.
9:09 pm on September 14th, 2009
Wow, is this guy an idiot? Locker is currently the better QB than Pryor. Pryor has the better physical skills but Locker is no slouch in athleticism and is more developed.
“Pryor almost beat USC himself”??? WTF??? Is he serious? It was the OSU defense that almost beat USC. They beat them at the line of scrimmage on offense and defense. Tressel’s conservative game plan also factored into USC coming back. Pryor didn’t do anything with his legs and had a few nice throws so I guess that equals almost beating USC all by himself.
9:17 pm on September 14th, 2009
I have to give it to Adam J, he’s right. OSU has arguably the 2nd fastest player in the Jim Tressel era (Ted Ginn Jr. the 1st) and he’s in position to touch the ball every, single, offensive postion and what does the sweater vest do? He runs plays where the best athlete on the field gets rid of the ball like a hot potato. It’s safe to say Tressel is a very good coach, not a great one. OSU fans were seduced by the quick NC in 2002 and the Honeymoon is OVER.
9:33 pm on September 14th, 2009
I would take Jake over Pryor anyday and it is not even close.
11:34 pm on September 14th, 2009
Pryor has been a big disappointment. He’s an incredible talent, but he wants to be an NFL QB. He needs to focus on being a good college QB first.
He made terrible decisions all night long. If he plays just an average game the Buckeyes win handily.
12:08 am on September 15th, 2009
Pryor may look like Vince Young with sprinter’s speed, but there is no focus or direction behind those gifts. He runs around like a chicken with his head cut off. When he does stay in the pocket with time to throw it is usually done falling backwards. Whenever something positive happens it is rarely by design and never because he recognized a weakness or an opportunity. I don’t care what offense he is put in, if he doesn’t calm down and play with more discipline he can look forward to a future as a late round wide receiver if drafted at all.
12:27 am on September 15th, 2009
Ok. Brooks you are out of your mind. Locker is faster and has WAY better arm than Pryor. I’m unique in the fact that I have seen every game that both players have played. I live in Columbus but graduated from UW. Put Locker and Pryor in a 50 yard dash and Locker will win every time. Locker has done what he has done on terrible teams. Pryor plays with 20 future NFLers. 4th and goal on the 2. Locker will put his head down and crash into the end zone. Pryor will fall sideways. Pryor has an ugly shot put style throwing motion, Locker throws frozen ropes.
12:34 am on September 15th, 2009
the only thing pryor has on locker is about 3 inches in height, pryor has sprinter speed? anyone forget jake’s ran a 4.3 40 himself? pryor is 6′6” 235, locker is 6′3” and now 225 after losing a little bit of weight, physically the same
as far as refinement, it’s hard to say who is better, but its nowhere close to say pryor is “one of the most physically gifted players in Lord knows how long” and lockers nowhere close to him, that’s simply a joke,
and locker did almost beat usc by himself as a FRESHMAN with little to no talent on his team, its just too bad locker had a horrible coach the last 3 years, if he had sark the entire time, he’d be a top heisman candidate
the main difference is this, locker has been up in the northwest getting rained on the last couple years where no one outside of the pac-10 pays any attention to anything, while pryor has been in the middle of everything gettin waaay to much pub cause hes at ohio state, since Pete Carroll has had to pay attention to washington the last couple years because he plays them, and had to listen to pryor this pryor that, i’m going to believe carroll
6:29 pm on September 16th, 2009
You gotta forgive the writer, he’s never seen the Huskies play. I’m not sure anybody has.. afer going o-fer-08, nobody should..
Trust me, I live in seattle.
That said, if Locker had the talent that Pryor has around him, The comparison would be Locker\Tebag..
wait, tebow?
12:32 am on September 22nd, 2009
Adam, how about serving some humble pie. Locker is a little better than Pryor right now - don’t ya think?