Should Terrelle Pryor have played more?

It didn’t take long after the game on Saturday for the text messages to start coming in on my cell phone.  A couple of my friends were agitated, and believed that we should have played Terrelle Pryor a lot earlier (and a lot more) once the offense showed signs of trouble.

I wrote it off as anger and frustration.  But then I started to see more signs of it.  Later, a relative of mine said the same thing, then I saw a message board flare-up over Pryor’s minimal playing time.  One guy even wrote to my old blog, stating that Tressel was to be blamed for leaving Boeckman in and that “we won’t win much with this coaching staff”.

That last guy is clearly nutty and certainly doesn’t know much about football.  But the question has popped up enough to address it with people.

Should Terrelle Pryor have played more against Ohio, especially when we were stagnant on offense?

The answer is without a doubt, “of course not”.  In some cases, the answer is better served up as “of course not, are you a fucking idiot?”

Let’s make this absolutely clear.  Terrelle Pryor is the future of the Ohio State Buckeyes.  He has incredible talent and will most likely be a tremendous asset to us for the next 3-4 years.  But he is not yet ready to be the starter for this team.

Heading into the Ohio game, Terrelle Pryor had taken a grand total of 21 snaps as a college football player.  Compare that to the 34-5 record that Ohio State has since Boeckman began his college career, including a 12-2 record as a starter.

Pryor’s job is to learn the ropes and perform when called upon.  Boeckman’s job is to lead this team and teach Pryor.  You do not yank the teacher’s job away from him because of 30 minutes of rough play.  And by the way, Pryor DID get into the game in the first quarter.  He ran for one yard and threw two incompletions.

Pryor is a hell of an athlete.  Boeckman is our leader.  Confuse those two at your own peril.  But if you are still overly concerned about Boeckman’s abilities at quarterback and his average stats on Saturday, allow me to try and ease your fears with two words.

Craig Krenzel.

Krenzel is widely recognized as the outstanding leader who went 14-0 in 2002 and led us to the National Championship.  But what he is not often accused of is having average stats for that year….and believe me, he DID have average stats for that year.

Krenzel started all 14 games in 2002.  Only twice did he throw for over 200 yards (204 in an outstanding performance against Wisconsin and 241 against San Jose State, who refused to tackle anybody while getting blown out 50-7).  Only nine of those 14 games saw a completion percentage of over 50% for Krenzel.  Hell, the guy only threw 12 touchdown passes ALL SEASON in 2002.  Do you know how many passes he had that went for 50 yards in the entire season?  Two.  Never forget that Krenzel completed only seven passes in what may be our greatest game ever, 31-24 against Miami.

The 2002 Ohio state Buckeyes won the National Championship because they had an incredible defense and a bruising running game.  Those two attributes allowed us to win a lot of games, and all that we needed from our quarterback was leadership and an occasional well-placed pass.  Krenzel filled that role and he is praised for it throughout Buckeye Nation.

Todd Boeckman can and will provide that same leadership.  Along the way he will teach Pryor everything he needs to know, and until Pryor is ready, we will use him in plays that he is best suited for.  But do not be confused by the intense athletic prowess he possesses….Pryor is not yet ready to lead the Buckeyes.

But he will be soon.

If we give him the time to learn and grow.

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