Gardner the next Pryor BS...

Submitted by pee on freep on
I am so tired of hearing people compare Devin Gardner to Terrell Pryor. I hear it said way too often that Gardner could be the next Pryor. God I hope not... 1. Pryor is a douchebag. Gardner by all accounts to date clearly has a humble and hard-working head on his shoulders. 2. Pryor was/is overrated. He was I believe the number one overall recruit. Gardner in my opinion has been underrated as he has all the physical tools of Pryor but with a better head on his shoulders. 3. Pryor hasn't done shit beyond on Rose Bowl win. I understand that he has been held back by Tressel, intentionally or not. But honestly with all of the hype he had should he not have accomplished more with the caliber of players and coaches around him? (Not too mention with Michigan not playing Michigan Football...) If Gardner accomplishes what Pryor has to date then I will be thoroughly disappointed. If Gardner has multiple photos and accounts of him being a douchebag outside of football I will be thoroughly disappointed. Can we please put a ban on comparing Gardner to Pryor? I hate limiting him so much...
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August 7th, 2010 at 2:59 PM ^

And I get why people are sick of the overhype.  But I don't get the endless "he is crap and hasn't done anything yet" stuff around here. Yes, he's not Peyton Manning as a Colt.  But everyone realizes he was just a sophomore, right? And he still has his junior (and probably his senior) year left, to get REALLY good. Every two posts someone mentions "how great it will be to not have a first time quarterback again" or "BUT they'll only be sophomores"...or how "Devin HAS to redshirt".  Well, if all that is true, wouldn't it have been valuable for Pryor to have redshirted...or played back-up...or whatever?  I mean, even holy one Tim Tebow didn't start his first year. People have WAY too high of expectations of talented underclassmen around here, and if they aren't world-beaters instantly...awww, they never panned out, or lived up to their hype.

People seem to forget, Charles Woodson spent a lot of his freshman year getting torched (See: MSU '95), and really didn't start to show who he was going to be till OSU at the end of the year.  And came into his own as a sophomore. And was CHARLES WOODSON as a junior.  And he was only, maybe, the greatest player ever to don a winged helmet. (And playing a lot easier position to transition in than QB). And I don't think anyone is calling Pryor OSU's greatest ever.

This goes to Michigan players "Oh, man, Turner redshirted as a freshman....he didn't come in and DOMINATE!!!! He must not be very good"; well maybe he will, when he's an experienced player....."Brandon Graham wasn't the beast we know now, he must have been fat and lazy before Barwis"; or maybe, he was just an underclassman. Players don't walk in and dominate in football. There's a reason the NFL doesn't want underclassmen.  Because 99.999999999999999999% of them would get killed.

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M-Wolverine

August 7th, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^

I DON'T like that fact.  Frankly, it terrifies me a little that the best is probably to come, and we have to face it for two more years. I don't throw up my hands and give up.  I just don't like that he's been good, and beat us twice, and probably is going to be better.  It sucks.  And the fact that they have a top rated QB coming in this recruiting class perfectly timed to replace him sucks too. How did we mostly beat OSU all those years? Sure, Cooper vs. Tressel has helped a lot...but mostly, it's because our QBs were loads better than theirs. We didn't really stop getting good QBs...had a couple of stop gaps the last couple of years, and Navarre one year too early (I mean, does anyone think we're losing Tressel's first game vs. us if Henson is the starter?)...and OSU started getting QB's to match, with Troy Smith, that was the missing link in all their talented teams.

So yeah, I hope Devin Gardner is better than Pryor.  But he damn well better have a better team around him too, or it's not going to be any good.

Joined: 10/04/2009

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