Top high school quarterback will make one coach very happy
The Philadelphia Daily News
January 9, 2008
By Bill Conlin
He wants to start as a freshman. He wants the offense he runs to be a spread. Picture Pat White, West Virginia's elfin quarterback. White was the most exciting player in college this season. White is listed at 6-2, 185.
The one-loss Mountaineers were No. 2 in the polls and BCS standings when White went to the sideline with a dislocated thumb in a rivalry game against a so-so Pitt team. The junior's injury ended West Virginia's dream.
With a healthy White imitating quicksilver rolling downhill on glare ice, a Mountaineer team I believe is easily the equal of LSU or Ohio State annihilated heavily favored Oklahoma in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Some folks thought the Sooners were the best team in the land by the time the BCS roulette wheel stopped spinning. But White and the dynamic spread attack devised by departed coach Rich Rodriguez turned Oklahoma into a big bowl of jalapeno dip.
Now, picture a kid who towers 6-6, weighs a sculpted 230 pounds, runs with the power of an 18-wheeler and who posseses a rocket-launcher arm. Not only that, but, unlike Titans quarterback Vince Young, his physical analog, this amazing athlete throws a football with classic form. His judgment on when to run, when to pass and when to make decisions as a play unfolds underline the 3.5 grade-point average he carries at Jeannette High, out west in the football mother lode that produced Tony Dorsett, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Joe Montana and enough Hall of Famers to fill a whole wing at Canton.
I am talking about Terrelle Pryor, of course . . .
Frankly, I had no prior knowledge of Pryor until Joe Santoliquito wrote about his exploits for the Daily News last month after he helped dismantle Dunmore in the PIAA Class AA championship game. I am always partial to athletes who leap over a defensive back into the end zone, which Pryor did as a sophomore on the way to becoming the first quarterback in state history to run and throw for more than 4,000 yards in each category.
Putting up incredible numbers at the high school level is one thing. I wondered how the nation's No. 1-rated prep player would showcase those skills on national TV last Saturday afternoon in the prestigious U.S.
Army All-American Game in San Antonio's Alamodome. The game is a coming-out party for the college-bound elite, BCS stars of the future on parade. During breaks in the action, some of the young stars snap on the hats of the colleges they will favor with their presence in 2008. Eight committed Saturday.
There was this plethora ofParade All-Americans, all-staters and all-everythings. There was enough muscle power on display to lift the Alamo itself. And jaw-dropping speed.
And then there was Terrelle Pryor, a man trifling with kids.
If Pryor had played every snap for the victorious East All-Stars, his 155 yards of total offense would have been impressive.
But he rotated with two other quarterbacks and the 79 yards he ran and 76 he passed, the TD he scored and the sensational 25-yard scoring pass he threw off his back leg from the right side of the field as he was getting hit into the left end zone amounted to a cameo. Before the game, he was named the Army National Player of the Year. After the game, he was handed the MVP trophy.
On Feb. 6, national signing day, Pryor could decide the next three BCS championships. I won't go past the 2010 season. Terrelle probably will be playing on Sundays by 2011.
He could put a national championship ring on the finger of Rodriguez next season. It is not a stretch to conclude that Pryor's short list of preferred
colleges, which includes Michigan, could have been an underlying factor in Rich's stunning decision to walk on his Mountaineer contract, which had 6 more years to run and an unresolved $4 million buyout clause.
Three Big Ten teams are on Pryor's list of five finalists - Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. The other two are Florida and Oregon.
He showed up at the game Saturday wearing a Michigan jersey, apparently to get a rise out of some players with Ohio State commitments. Officials made him take it off. During the game, he had a Buckeye decal on his helmet. I looked hard but didn't see one of those blue Nittany Lion paw prints on his cheek. Not a Gator or Duck hint in sight.
With a full deck of talented receivers returning next season and a young offensive line that mauled Texas A & M, Terrelle Pryor could make one old man very happy in his final curtain drive to add a third national championship to his 42-year legacy.
But Joe Paterno has a long and consistent history of not serving quarterbacks before their time. He has, however, veered from Penn State's traditional smash-mouth tradition to accommodate a quarterback with exceptional running skills. But he didn't
install multitalented Michael Robinson as the Lions' clear starter until his senior season. That gifted team came within one blown end-zone coverage at Michigan from a possible national championship.
Anthony Morelli was widely recruited, chose Penn State and didn't win the job until 2006, his junior season. It is widely held that an offense loaded with skill-position talent underachieved under his quarterbacking.
Meanwhile, Rich Rodriguez has been busy turning the Wolverines' offense from a Humvee into a Formula One rocket.
If Terrelle Pryor winds up behind the wheel, prepare to be lavishly entertained.