Pryor's arm holds all the hope for OSU titles

You can’t be a Buckeyes fan without walking around with expectations as grand as that canyon in Arizona, even while they're staring at a mountain of evidence to the contrary. For what do people who shed Scarlet and Gray tears expect this season -- a National Championship?

That is, of course, what the faithful expect; it is always so at Ohio State.

They share the same inflated dreams as men and women who root for Florida, Southern Cal, Texas, LSU or any of the other college football powerhouses. It’s BSC title or bust, which explains why OSU fans -- and even sportscasters -- are so hard on Terrelle Pryor.

They’ve forgotten, however, Pryor is a sophomore, simply a gifted underclassman who has plenty to learn about playing quarterback. No one claims he isn’t an extraordinary talent, but no one sees him as a finished product either. His play, thus far, has been typical of an inexperienced player: as many lows as highs.

In a win over unbeaten Wisconsin, Pryor had plenty of lows last Saturday. His play was hardly a performance for the video archives, except for critics to examine in the years ahead if he doesn’t show progress.

His progress has been agonizingly slow, making all the lofty talk about how good Pryor was going to be sound like the talk that surrounded Justin Zwick when he came into the program earlier this decade. It’s difficult to point out what Zwick did during four seasons at Ohio State, aside from retarding the progress of Troy Smith.

Expectations can be funny things, because they can keep coaches from using their best judgment. Coach Jim Tressel used poor judgment in sticking with Zwick too long. Is it possible Tressel’s doing the same with Pryor? It’s not as if Tressell has another Troy Smith tucked away on the bench. Buckeyes fans could use one, though.

They can’t entertain the thought of a National Championship until their Buckeyes, who play Purdue this afternoon, learn to use the forward pass as more than a tease. They can't think of winning the Big Ten either unless Pryor learns to throw. His legs do dazzle, turning routine plays into SportsCenter highlights. But his arm is what will cement his greatness, if greatness is achievable in a program that can shackle it.

For the road to greatness comes littered with risk, and Tressel isn’t a coach who tolerates risky play. Because he doesn’t, he keeps Pryor from achieving what his potential says he should achieve. He should be showing many of the football traits Tim Tebow displayed at Florida as a sophomore.

Watching Pryor, you see nothing in his play that resembles Tebow's. Is Pryor the offensive threat Tebow was a sophomore? Is Pryor as good now as Tebow was as a freshman?

That’s what troubles Buckeyes fans, because most think the answer to the latter is “no.” They keep waiting for Pryor's breakout performance, the game that will start to define what Pryor can be. He needs to be more than he is now if the Buckeyes are to make this season or the next one hold hopes of a National Championship.

I don’t think the planets aligned for that title this season. Not just because of Pryor, but because the Buckeyes have too many loose pieces to firm up for me to believe they are contenders for anything more than a Big Ten title.

Not even that title is thinkable without better play from Pryor. For he won’t be able to count each week on the OSU defense, as it did against Wisconsin, scoring touchdowns against Penn State, Iowa or even Michigan.

He’ll have to make plays – and make those plays with his arm. With a dozen or so starts on his OSU resume, Pryor has given no indication he can. His mediocrity makes me wonder whether Buckeyes fans should temper their expectations for now till Pryor proves he can win a game with his arm.

(Photo of crowd outside Ohio Stadium by Brent Veverka)

Tressel puts season at risk against USC

Style doesn’t count. If it did, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel would be one of the most disagreeable men on the planet this week. The staid Tressel saw his Buckeyes, in a win last Saturday over Navy, perform like an '84 Escort with two pistons.

Their ugly victory resurrected questions about the quality of Tressel’s football program, and with No. 4 Southern California visiting the Horseshoe this weekend, OSU fans might have reasons to worry.

For the Trojans aren’t the Midshipmen, and considering the trouble Ohio State had in beating them, Tressel can hardly be sending his Buckeyes onto the field with overconfidence. He needs nobody to tell him that his teams haven’t been impressive against elite opponent outside the conference since upsetting Miami to win the National Championship in 2003.

Those were the glory days, although it would be foolish to argue that Ohio State hasn’t had success since then. Tressel has a powerhouse – at least inside the conference.

That’s the point: The Big Ten might not be an elite conference anymore. Even in the first week of the season, the conference had its struggles. Iowa barely beat Northern Iowa, and Illinois lost to Missouri.

The Big Ten teams that won were playing opponents beneath their stature. Who didn’t expect embattled Michigan to beat Western Michigan, Iowa to beat Northern Iowa or Penn State to beat Akron?

The schedule gets tougher in Week 2. Michigan plays Notre Dame; Purdue plays Oregon; and Minnesota plays Cal. And the marquee matchup of this week’s schedule is Ohio State vs. USC, a game that Tressel can use to validate his program.

Lose to the Trojans, and even if his Buckeyes run the table, they won’t enter the discussion for BCS Championship Game. Even if they do beat USC, they will have a difficult time making critics forget lousy performances against Florida and Louisiana State.

Those losses have defined what Tressel’s Buckeyes – and, consequently, the Big Ten itself -- are. On paper, they look good. They have size and quickness and speed. Everybody agrees on that.

What they don’t have is superior quickness, disciplined aggression and top-end speed. Man to man, the No. 6 Buckeyes have been a step slower than they can afford to be against the USCs, LSUs and UFs of college football. Overwhelming bulk can’t counter quickness, Tressell and OSU fans have learned the hard way.

These have been painful lessons. Public canings always are. But big-time football isn’t played in a garage; it’s played in 100,000-seat stadiums with national TV cameras focused on the outcome. In these settings, players earn Heismans and coaches grow into legends. Their reputations are forged, forever etched into the game’s archives.

Coaches must win, though. When they don’t win, they suffer the wrath of the second-guessers – partisans who never see too many wins or too much success. It’s never about the past with them; it’s about the present.

But this is the bargain with the devil that coaches like Tressel make when they accept jobs at an elite program. They’re expected to pound the lesser programs like Navy and hold up well against the Trojans, the Tigers (2006) and the Gators (2007).

That’s the situation Jim Tressel finds him in a day before he sends his Buckeyes against Southern Cal. They had their tune-up; they worked out the kinks. Now, they play to stay alive for a National Championship.

They can push that thought out of their minds if they lose, as critics of the Big Ten say they will, to the Trojans.

(Photo of OSU coach Jim Tressel from One Raised Eyebrow)