Football
Tressel, Players Standing Behind Pryor
By Brandon CastelWith a palpable frustration mounting for Terrelle Pryor this past Saturday at Purdue, Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel had a decision to make: bench his sophomore quarterback after his fourth turnover of the game to see if backup Joe Bauserman could provide a spark or stick with his guy and let him fight through it.
For fans who watched Pryor fumble the ball twice while throwing a pair of interceptions in a nauseating 26-18 upset loss to the 1-5 Boilermakers, the decision was an easy one.
For Tressel, it was one that never needed any debate.
“Do we have any immediate plans that we've sat down and said, okay, now we're going to put Joe in at this point in time or we're going to commit ourselves to putting him in the game, haven't had that discussion,” Tressel said Tuesday at his weekly luncheon press conference.
One major concern with handing the offense over to Bauserman Saturday would have been the psyche of a young quarterback to whom Tressel is committed over the next two-and-a-half seasons.
“I think you always try to keep in mind people's feelings, but not to the point where it will hurt the team,” he said.
“If you think something is the best thing to do for the team, I think you have to do a good job communicating with the person that might have their feelings hurt and all that, but you've got to do what you think is the best thing for the team. Our responsibility is to the group.”
Tressel and the Buckeyes were faced with a similar decision last season after senior quarterback Todd Boeckman turned the ball over three times – including an interception that was returned for a touchdown – in a 35-3 loss at USC.
“We felt at the time, last year, that the best thing for the team in order to be successful was to make the decision that we did,” Tressel said.
"I'm not sure that they're comparable at all. They don't feel to me as being similar situations.”
Despite the struggles on offense for a second straight week, junior wideout Dane Sanzenbacher says benching Pryor was never on his mind and likely would have had the reverse affect.
“We were all frustrated. When we’re going out there and going 3-and-out, it’s frustrating for all of us, but I don’t think there was ever really a point in the game where anyone on the offense was thinking that we need a change,” said Sanzenbacher, who did not catch a pass in the loss to Purdue.
“In that situation, where you’re down, you’re away from home; I think to sit him down probably would have made the problem worse. Everybody’s frustrated already and then to throw a curveball in there like that, I don’t think that would have helped out.”
Sanzenbacher’s comments echoed those made by fellow wideout DeVier Posey after the game Saturday, as the players seem to be rallying around their guy.
“I really don’t think that that’s an option because he’s our quarterback. That’s our guy and we love him, I love him and it’s just something where he’s going to get better,” Pryor’s classmate and new favorite target said.
“I don’t know what you guys want, I don’t know if you guys want a Heisman candidate right now but every path is different. I’m going to defend him, he has a lot of getting better to do but he’s a great player. We’re going to get better and he’s going to be our quarterback.”
The decision to build an offense centered around the playmaking abilities of Pryor is something that dates back to last season. Sanzenbacher says that now is not the time to scrap everything they have put in place and start over just because the offense has had two bad weeks that followed two good weeks.
“I just think since the beginning of the season, and even since last year, we’ve built our offense around Terrelle being our guy. We’ve all signed on to that and I think as a team you have to all buy in to a certain concept. You have to buy into the program for it to work, so trying to call for changes like that doesn’t help in the long run,” he said.
After looking at the film from Saturday’s game, Tressel said there were fewer negatives for Pryor than what it may have felt like in the heat of battle, but the ones he did have cost them the game.
"From the film grade standpoint, he probably had less minus plays than he did in the past couple weeks,” he said.
“Now, that's the good news. Here's the bad news. The minuses that we had were those triple minuses."
As for how long Tressel will continue to stick with Pryor as his guy under center before thinking about using Bauserman:
“As long as we think he's the best guy doing the job for the team, that gives the team the best chance to be successful.”
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