Tuesday, March 18, 2008

It comes to an end..

Tomorrow at Noon EST, Terrelle Pryor will end this three-ring circus that his recruitment has become.

He's said he's down to two schools, however will not disclose who these teams are. It's been reported that Ohio State and Michigan are the only two left standing, however only Pryor knows for sure.

My hunch, however, is that he's made his decision already, and the whole "It's down to two teams" thing is just so there's at least some drama tomorrow when he makes his decision. It's silly, really. There's no point in not telling anybody what the two teams that he's deciding between are. It's not like it'll be a super surprise if he not only doesn't tell us who he's picking until tomorrow, but doesn't even tell us who he's choosing between.

Terrelle Pryor looking absolutely enthralled by the Michigan basketball game taking place before him. (Photo Courtesy: AP)

In my mind, there's a 95% chance he picks Ohio State. Unless something happened to hurt his view of the Buckeyes considerably, like Jim Tressel mugging his grandmother or something, he'll be in Scarlet and Gray next season.

What does this mean for the world of college football?

For one team, it means a highly-touted quarterback with a bit of an attitude problem will be suiting up with them next season. He's got the potential to be great, but he's got the potential to be busted for aggravated assault during his freshman season and be kicked off the team (unless he goes to OSU, where he'd be nailed with a one-game suspension).

For the rest of the college football world, it's one massive sigh of relief. Message boards across the Internet will stop the ridiculous amounts of "Terrelle Pryor rumor!" threads, and blogs will be forced to cover something else.

Whoever lands Pryor will be more than confident in the fact that he will bring four straight National Championships to his team, and he will bring home four consecutive Heismans back to his dorm room (that's right, he'll stay for his Senior year, because he's a team player.)

Teams that don't land him will be confident in the fact that he'll end up off the team because of disciplinary problems, or academic problems, or he'll end up not being that good after all, or he'll break his foot and never be the same player again, and there will be a statue erected at the end of the bench where he used to sit every game of him with crutches and a cast on his foot. Or something.

Regardless of if Michigan gets him, or if Ohio State gets him, or if Penn State gets him, or if Oregon gets him, or if he decides to become a man of God and move to Israel, tomorrow will be the end of an era for anyone that has followed recruiting for the last year.

"GET OFFA ME!" (Photo Courtesy: Lake Fong/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Terrelle Pryor wasn't like #1 prospects of years past.

He played the media, he played the fans, and he played the analysts.

He got the entire football world to pay attention to National Letter of Intent Day, and pissed the entire football world off when he didn't even sign a Letter of Intent.

He said after his basketball season was over that he was going to go on a few more unofficial visits, and an official to Penn State (and maybe Oregon). He went on one unofficial visit, to Ohio State, and nothing else.

He was the topic of discussion in thousands of news stories and blog posts, from speculation to support to opposition. From love to hate. From 'a skilled dual-threat quarterback' to 'a self-centered thug'.

He's caused as much sleep loss amongst Michigan fans as the coaching search did, only he's stretching this out for much longer than RichRod did.

He's even caused fans to doubt the recruiting prowess of their entire program.

One thing's for sure, however. After tomorrow, I'm not going to make any more posts about him. He's not that important in the broad scope of things.

Besides, of course, the post after he makes his decision.

And obviously if he picks Michigan, there will be quite a bit to post about him.

Or any sticky situations he may get into.. I'll have to report on those.

But yeah, nothing too much to post about Terrelle after tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

UPDATE: Pryor is actually down to three teams. Oregon is out for sure.

UPDATE II: Who really care's how many teams he's down to?

UPDATE III: Something that may be of interest, from the same article:

One source who only spoke on condition of anonymity, but is very close to the situation has informed us that Michigan has made up a lot of ground recently and could be the wild card in this situation.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

As a fan of the Maize and Blue, I really dont want this kid. Attitude problems to start and I think Threet is a good QB. We dont need some 18 year old that thinks he is all that at Michigan. We can and will win without this head case.

GO BLUE!