Article published October 10, 2008
OSU’s QB coach amazed by Pryor’s grasp of offense
By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
COLUMBUS — Part of the daily obligations for Ohio State quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels is to manage the psyches of the most important players on the roster. Before he can address throwing motion or footwork, Daniels has to bolster confidence and delicately massage the egos.
Three games into the 2008 season, when the sluggish Buckeyes decided to make a change at quarterback and put freshman Terrelle Pryor in charge of the offense and bench senior Todd Boeckman, Daniels likely cast a vote that was weighted as much as that of head coach Jim Tressel.
Daniels, who has 37 years of coaching on his resume and has been at Ohio State since Tressel took over the program for the 2001 season, has seen Pryor the prodigy seize the opportunity and maintain his composure under duress while still performing at a high level.
“He’s unflappable,” Daniels said this week, speaking with the media for the first time since Ohio State went through preseason workouts, when Boeckman was a returning first-team All-Big Ten pick and the clear-cut starter. It will be Pryor making his fourth straight start for the Buckeyes when they face Purdue in Ohio Stadium tomorrow.
“He doesn’t get shook. The things he does, it’s just like that’s natural for him, and he just does it. Side-stepping a guy or something, that’s no big deal to him. That’s all part of being a quarterback and being Terrelle.”
Daniels, who played running back at Pennsylvania’s Slippery Rock University, first coached quarterbacks in 1968 at Boston College. Four decades later, he manages the development of Pryor, the most-highly sought after recruit in the nation last year. Pryor’s raw talent was the worst kept secret around, since YouTube chronicled one dazzling touchdown run after another, but his aptitude for picking up the subtleties of the Ohio State offense has been off the charts, according to Daniels.
“I don’t think there was any question as far as his athletic ability. When we were recruiting him, obviously that was something that everybody in the country saw,” Daniels said.
“I think the thing that we didn’t know — and I don’t know that anybody could have known — was how well he would learn the offense and how quickly he would learn the offense. That’s probably the most interesting thing about him.”
Pryor has five touchdown passes and has thrown two interceptions while completing 42 of 65 passes. Daniels said Pryor has made some mistakes, but his enormous upside has the Ohio State coaching staff willing to accept a few errors, since the payoff can be huge when Pryor starts improvising in the open field.
“He’s always going to try and make something out of it,” Daniels said. “That’s one of his assets. But the other aspect of it, as far as making something happen — with a guy that has that kind of speed and foot quickness — you let him go, you let him go.”
Daniels, who has battled cancer for the past couple of years but maintained his role with the Ohio State team, said Pryor’s wealth of confidence allows him to walk a fine line that falls just shy of cockiness.
“Obviously, he’s got tremendous confidence, but it is a quiet confidence,” Daniels said. “He’s been doing this for quite a few years, and I think it’s his confidence in himself. And he’s not cocky. With the things he does, it’s not like he’s going to brag about it or anything. That’s just the way he is, and that’s part of him. He’s a great athlete.”
Ohio State running back Chris “Beanie” Wells said lining up alongside Pryor gives Wells a certain comfort level, knowing that the opposing defense has to respect the running ability of both. The presence of that conundrum can only serve to open things up for Wells.
“When you have a guy like Terrelle in there, it gives the defense two things to worry about,” Wells said. “They don’t know whether he’s going to keep the ball or pitch it to the running back.”
Purdue coach Joe Tiller has his concerns about the 6-6 Pryor, who seems to out-run defenders with a quick shift through the gears and his long, loping strides.
“I think Pryor, you know, he covers a lot of ground in a short period of time because he’s a long stride guy, and he’s big,” Tiller said. “I think he’s more of a challenge for us physically.”
Contact Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6510.
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