OT- Terrelle's time? I think I just threw up

the insistence by all parties to turn him into an NFL passer have probably done him a disservice.  

I guess I'm philosophical on this point. It is Tressel's job to win games and help his players to grow personally and professionally. If TP believes that he needs to learn to throw the ball well to play in the NFL, and JT can both do this and still win games, then I don't really have a problem with it. Now, is TP ever going to be Peyton Favre Brady Jr? No. He doesn't need to be, though. He needs to be able to hold on to the ball, read defenses and make good decisions, and throw consistently accurate passes. None of those things requires him to throw for 350 yards per game.

While I don't doubt that OSU could have won more games (thus far in his career) by simply lining up TP and running some variant of the zone read, I think ultimately that's a bad decision. It puts the team in a position wherein its completely dependent upon his health for success, it puts him in a position wherein he is not prepared to make the leap the NFL, and - in a more meta sense - it's riding the tail end of a wave of popularity in an offense (that is, defenses are adapting to the spread). So while I'm not willing to say that a coach is obligated to develop his players for the NFL, I think that good coaches try to help their players reach their goals in life AND win games. If Terrelle wants to play in the NFL, then he has to learn to throw the ball effectively. That's the long and short of it.

That being said, I think that TP could be a devastating passer in the same way that he's a solid runner. That's right, I said it. Will he become that passer? I'm leaning toward no, for this reason: every single story about him emphasizes that he's a perfectionist who wants nothing more than to please people. That's can be a really bad mindset to have (believe me, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to cooking and software - it takes me forever to get things done "the right way"). Every time he sees a new wrinkle in a defense, he seems to lock up trying to analyze it and make a decision - often making a decision far too late (throwing it up for grabs) or eating a sack. Even in running the ball, he seems to look for the big play instead of getting what's there to take (running laterally instead of downfield in an attempt to outflank the defense).

Basically, his issues seem to be related to having confidence in his reads and decisions. Physically, he's as good as anybody in the game right now. You might not want to admit it, but he is a man amongst boys (if you've ever seen him in person, he puts your jaw on the floor with how he's put together). If he ever gets to his happy place, mentally speaking, people had better look out. Remember when Vince Young went from "guy who looks tentative trying to figure out what to do" to "guy who makes a decision and goes balls to the wall"? That's what I'm talking about. Vince Young didn't suddenly get stronger and faster between the end of the season and the Rose Bowl against UM; he flipped the switch and became more decisive.

In summary, the decision to help develop him into a passer isn't a good or bad decision, it's just a decision made to help him reach his personal goals. He's got all the tools to be dominant, but needs to get right mentally. That's the long and short of it, and I think it's a very fair assessment.