Tressel, Pryor, and today's Ohio State game
I didn't get to watch today's Ohio State game (or today's Michigan game, for that matter), but I was going through the game summaries, and I saw that Terelle Pryor had six touchdowns. Since Ohio State ended up winning by 53 points, it didn't seem right to me, so I looked at the play by play. Pryor racked up all those yards and touchdowns because he was in the game until almost the fourth quarter! Ohio State had a drive start with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and were up 45-20. It's only 25 points, but c'mon, it's Eastern. I think this was a surprisingly unsportsmanlike move by Tressel, who seems to be a pretty stand up guy normally. On that drive, they scored a touchdown on what must have been some sort of trick play, because it was a pass from Jordan Hall to Pryor. He came out of the game after that, up 52-20.
I tried to think of reasons Tressel would run up the score in such a way. I first thought that was Woody coaching again, and he threw EMU in with M because they're close. He didn't, however, go for 2. On a more serious note, maybe he saw Pryor falling behind Denard in stats and acclaim, so he wanted to give him a big day so people would start talking about him again? I don't know, but running up the score on a bad MAC team doesn't really sit right with me. I would be disappointed if Rodriguez did something similar.
Last week, Rodriguez said he would have taken Denard out if we had the ball with an 18 point lead in the second half, but UMass kept scoring (thanks defense) so he left him in. Today, there were like 2 passes in the 4th quarter--almost all runs by Cox, Fitz and Gardner. Rodriguez wasn't trying to score 73 points like Oregon or OSU.
September 26th, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^
i don't know what i should be defending? you want me to call Jim Tressel an ass for calling a play that results in a TD? that makes sense!
September 26th, 2010 at 4:21 PM ^
Your team was up 24. Had the play call been, run or screen pass, fine, but a trick play with a QB acting as the receiver? All class. I'd be pissed if Rodriguez ran it, but shockingly, your fanbase can't seem to understand why anyone else would think it's a classless move. Nevermind the chance of injury, it was a dick move.
September 26th, 2010 at 4:23 PM ^
your team scored 65 points and you are calling others classless????
September 26th, 2010 at 5:58 PM ^
By running, running some more, and then running once again. See a whole lot of trick plays? I didn't. Should they have just taken a knee every after they were up by 28? After UMass last week and our defense every week, no way do they keep the total below 35 points.
I'm really curious here. You're trying to justify your coach having your starting QB be involved in a trick play where he could potentially be injured, while also giving away said trick play for the year, while up on an EMU team (that hasn't won a game in...how long?) by 24. How exactly, again, is that justifiable?
September 25th, 2010 at 9:54 PM ^
Tressell can run that stuff up all he wants against cupcakes like EMU but karma's a bitch like that...(see tUofOSU v. Florida a couple years ago).
Coaches know, players know...when the inevitable happens and Pryor takes the cheap shot on his knee and Joe Bauserman is starting we'll see what happens...
I'm going to enjoy it for years as RichRod piles up numbers against Tressel...they know it's coming and so do we...
September 25th, 2010 at 10:05 PM ^
Pryors "epic" day was 20/26 224 4/0 and 104 yards rushing at 14.9 a carry.
Denard was 4/4 60 0/0 and 129 rushing at 25.8 ypc in one quarter.
At the pace he was going he could have easily had a better day if he had gotten the number of snaps that Pryor did. OSU pads the stats and Pryor is still the second best qb in the Big Ten.
September 25th, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
I mean everyone wants to analyze every move a coach makes... some idiot saw me after the game coming back to Ohio and started giving crap about Coach Rod going for it on fourth down at the end of the game... Who cares....let em get the stats....let UM roll over people. Too many people worried about offending others....
September 25th, 2010 at 10:30 PM ^
People are mad about sports on the internet, alert someone.
September 25th, 2010 at 10:32 PM ^
if tressel wants to put his only good QB in more danger than necessary then that's his choice.
but that doesn't mean it isn't really stupid
September 25th, 2010 at 10:40 PM ^
eh. this is all pretty stupid. focus on your own fucking team and enjoy their win. especially don't talk about it considering we dropped 65 on BGSU. do you really want to go down that road? if you watched the OSU, EMU game, EMU actually was making a move, momentum-wise, and I thought it was wise of OSU to put their foot down.
whatever, moving on...
September 25th, 2010 at 10:46 PM ^
It was a good game, needed to get our younger guys some PT
September 25th, 2010 at 10:57 PM ^
OSU gets media attention for blowing up Eastern. Michigan's story? QBs go down. Hilarious.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:31 PM ^
OSU had to keep regulars in for three quarters to do the same thing to a baby seal that Michigan did to a much better MAC team with its second and third-string in the game for the entire second half.
Can anyone name OSU's second-string QB without looking it up? I sure can't.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:42 PM ^
My thoughts are that he was running up the score because he has to. They are currently #2 in the country, with a hot Boise State chasing them down. They need to run up the score because of BCS implications later in the season. The more they win by the better it looks to the computer.
September 26th, 2010 at 1:31 AM ^
only count in the eyes of the voters. The computers that comprise part of the BCS formula do not account for margin of victory. You point is still valid though.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:43 PM ^
I didn't really giggle, of course - but I could have. I asked one of my many intolerable buckeye-loving co-workers yesterday if they were going to hang 70 on Eastern. His reply, "no way man, Tressel is way too classy for that. He never runs up the score." I've never been so happy to see OSU put 70+ up on the board. I love when they're forced to face one of their many delusions head on.
September 26th, 2010 at 7:09 AM ^
Are the guys whose quarterback has 5,000,000 yards of offense through 4 games really complaining about stat padding?
September 26th, 2010 at 11:30 AM ^
The one game where you could accuse Michigan of padding Denard's stats was UConn. Notre Dame went down to the last minute, the final margin of victory against UMass was five points, and against Bowling Green Denard didn't play past the first quarter. Denard's stats have more to do with the ineffectiveness of our running backs to date than any padding. And have you seen our defense?
I personally suspect the length of time Tressell kept Pryor in the game has more to with a lack of confidence in Pryor's backups, especially if (as suggested elsewhere on this thread) Eastern had a little momentum before the trick play touchdown. Keeping Pryor happy and building his confidence may have been another factor.
Edit: Playing to the polls as well.
September 26th, 2010 at 4:06 PM ^
you don't know what stat-padding means.
We played a couple actual opponents, UMass was embarrassingly close and RR mentioned several times he wanted backups in but couldn't, and he played for 6 minutes v BG. Unlike OSU, our D is poor and we have to rely on a high-powered offense and even then Denard hasn't played as much as he could have. Seriously, this was an incredibly stupid comment.
September 26th, 2010 at 7:58 AM ^
Maybe I never paid any attention to it before but he seemed to go down on one knee to "pray" after the touch down. I know this is nothing new to the game but I never saw TP do that until after Denard did it for ever touch down.
It seems like TP had finally found someone to look up to...
September 26th, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^
He does it every single game as he runs onto the field so you were right, you didn't pay attention.
September 26th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
It may have been to pimp Pryor to the Heisman voters, but I think it was more likely just to make sure his team covered the spread. They were 44 point favorites, leading by 25 points late in the 3rd quarter (the OSU defense was actually scored on several times) and he needed to make sure that OSU covered the spread.
Tress did the EXACT same thing last year against New Mexio State. OSU was a 44 point favorite in that game as well. He not only had Posey throw a HB pass to Pryor for a TD, but he had his team kick an on-side kick in the 2nd half of a game that they had absolutely no chance of losing. Final score in that game: OSU wins 45-0 (covered by 1 point).
I have no doubt that there are some powerful OSU boosters who "encourage" Tress to make sure that he does everything he can to cover big spreads against hapless opponents.
/ conspiracy theory
September 26th, 2010 at 11:49 AM ^
The HB pass was to either Posey or Sanz, the only other TD pass Pryor has caught was from Boeckman in the Fiesta Bowl against Texas.
September 26th, 2010 at 4:47 PM ^
"I curse your children" look to Tress
