NEW ORLEANS — Surely Ohio State officials approached quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s media availability at the Sugar Bowl on Saturday morning with some anxiety.
They had good reason.
In an interview session that lasted about 25 minutes with shifting swaths of Sugar Bowl media, Pryor managed to insult former Buckeyes quarterback and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit and send various other ripples through the Ohio State program, college football and the Arkansas locker room.
The heavily hyped dual-threat quarterback,who has led Ohio State to an 11-1 record, was unleashed and ready to cut loose, which reflects Pryor’s ambitions against Arkansas on Tuesday.
Pryor reiterated his plan to return for his senior season - or what is left of it after his NCAA-mandated five-game suspension for selling memorabilia - but said the pledge to return in 2011 made by other teammates caught in the NCAA investigation could be interpreted more as an apology.
Pryor’s session was almost through when he was asked to comment on Herbstreit’s assertion that if Pryor leftthe program it would be addition by subtraction for the Buckeyes.
“I don’t worry about what Kirk Herbstreit says, to tell you the truth,” Pryor said.
Then, as a Sugar Bowl representative said the interview was over, Pryor chipped in: “Has he beat Michigan?”
Ohio State was 0-3-1 against Michigan during Herbstreit’s four seasons.
That ended the media conversation for Pryor, who was engaging in a question-and-answer session for the first time since the NCAA issues, which date to the winter of 2008-2009, came to light.
Pryor was feisty at times Saturday. He was candid here, guarded there, and composed throughout, revealing one of the key reasons why the Buckeyes are 30-4 during his tenure as a starter, including a 3-0 record over archrival Michigan.
Pryor’s passing and scrambling ability rank with the nation’s best dual-threat quarterbacks, such as Auburn’s Cam Newton and Mississippi State’s Chris Relf, both of whom Arkansas faced this year.
“Not only is he a great runner, but he can also pull up and throw the ball 60 yards down the field,” Arkansas defensive end Damario Ambrose said.
When he didn’t receive first-team honors in the Big Ten this year, Pryor contended that his numbers would be every bit as good as the other top quarterbacks if he played in their systems.
On the one-year anniversary of what is considered perhaps his greatest college performance - 338 total yards and two touchdowns in a 26-17 Rose Bowl victory over Oregon - Pryor hung in there against the media blitz and answered pretty much every question, but his responses didn’t all toe the company line.
Asked if he had learned anything from the NCAA issues, which required him to pay back $2,500, Pryor said not really.
“It was two years ago, you know, so I already knew I shouldn’t have done it because of what I know now,” he said. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t really learn much because I already had learned that I shouldn’t have done that.
“I’m grown now, and I wouldn’t make the same decision, so I can’t tell you that I learned something that I already knew.”
Pryor announced midway through the season he would return as a senior. But in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of his five game suspension, he wavered and had thoughts of declaring for the NFL.
“Obviously on the first, when we got that first little five-game suspension, it definitely crossed my mind,” he said. “Because that’s five games, you know?
“But then I look back at this Ohio State family and stuff like that, and things I want to be a part of as a senior, and I still have a lot I could learn.”
Pryor said Arkansas was a great team in one breath, then gave the Razorbacks’ defense a “pretty good” label later.
He said he was “going to do more” in this game because it’s his last game until next October, if the five-game suspension holds, then later he said he had to “just go handle my business.”
Pryor said he didn’t feel a burden - “not at all” - to try to match the performance of Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett. But later he said, “I just try to outplay him, any quarterback I go against.”
Pryor, who entered college football with as much hype as any player in the past decade, might be playing his last game in nine months, and he might be playing his last college game ever.
One thing’s for certain, though: He intends for it to be memorable.
“As of right now, we won’t be playing the first five games next year, so this is basically our last game until the five are done, until the suspensions are over,” Pryor said. “So me, Boom [Dan] Herron and the other guys are going to focus, I can assure you. We’ll be ready to go. I think it’s going to be a different step into the game.”
Sports, Pages 23 on 01/02/2011