QB Terrelle Pryor says Buckeyes must avoid letdown

[November 12, 2009]  COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Terrelle Pryor has a warning for his Ohio State teammates: Forget last week and take Iowa seriously.

Pryor said Wednesday night that the 10th-ranked Buckeyes must be careful not to follow last week's big victory over Penn State with a letdown in the winner-take-all Rose Bowl battle against No. 15 Iowa on Saturday.

The sophomore quarterback said coach Jim Tressel had illustrated the pitfalls of resting on week-old laurels.

"Coach Tres showed a statistic how all these teams go and beat a big team and then come in the next game (and lose)," Pryor said after practice.

He cited the Buckeyes' loss to Purdue, which was just 1-5 at the time, earlier this season. He said Ohio State was coming off an emotional victory against Wisconsin and didn't see the Boilermakers waiting to ambush them.

Pryor also used Oregon as an example. The Ducks walloped Southern California two weeks ago and then turned around and lost to Stanford last week.

"Maybe sometimes there's a mindset where you think you accomplished something," he said. "It happens a lot, I'm sure, and we can't let that happen to us. Because we have a goal that we want to reach and we have places that we want to go and if we do that, we're definitely getting knocked off by this (Iowa) team because this team is pretty good. They're the real deal on defense. We have to come in focused."

The winner of the game at Ohio Stadium will get the Big Ten's automatic Bowl Championship Series berth in the Rose Bowl and be assured of at least a share of the conference title. The Buckeyes are seeking at least a piece of their fifth straight Big Ten crown.

Whether the winner is Ohio State (8-2, 5-1) or Iowa (9-1, 5-1), even if that team lost a week later in the regular-season finale, it would win any tiebreaker and earn the spot in the Rose Bowl.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz has seen the films of Pryor and is impressed with how he has developed this year in his first full season as the Buckeyes' starting quarterback.

"He's found a rhythm. He's more comfortable now. He's more experienced, certainly," Ferentz said. "He's always been a phenomenal athlete and now he's becoming a better quarterback, a more comfortable quarterback. And it takes time."

Pryor's teammates think he has found a calmness that has helped him handle the pressures and problems of being in the spotlight so early in his college career.

DeVier Posey has become Pryor's No. 1 target as a receiver -- and one of his best friends. He said the players surrounding Pryor have helped ease the burden on him.

"We've taken some pressure off of him. We've been trying to focus on team concepts and let Terrelle know that he's our guy, that he really doesn't have to get into too much what the media's saying about him and the criticism," Posey said. "I feel like he's playing with no pressure now. You can see him a lot more comfortable in the pocket and he's actually running the offense now. He's just being more of a leader and he's getting better and better every week. You can see what kind of player he's going to be in the future."

The game against Penn State might have been a glimpse into how far Pryor has come. Considered the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit when he came out of Jeannette, Pa., he had included Penn State on his list of finalists before deciding on Ohio State.

A large crowd at Beaver Stadium taunted him and held up derisive signs on Saturday night but he seemed to shut all that out while playing one of his finest games.

"His decision-making grade was, I think, one of the best he's had," Tressel said. "He needs to do some of the little things better, things like carrying out fakes and this and that, but his decision-making was very good."

Earlier in the season, Pryor was hurt by poor decisions. He arced long passes that led to costly interceptions and made ill-advised pitches on the option.

Pryor's position coach, Nick Siciliano, said Pryor has gotten calmer when there is more riding on the game.

"I don't know why it happened that way but it did and I'm sure glad that it happened that way Saturday night," Siciliano said. "He did seem to be a little bit calmer. He did make great decisions with the football. There were a couple of bad ones here and there (but) that's part of the deal. But we didn't turn the ball over and there wasn't anything even close to a turnover. If we can do that again this week, we've got a chance."

Pryor, who said he is still sore from several hard hits in recent weeks, feels he is improving at letting the game come to him.

"Sometimes I get caught up in different emotions in a game," he said. "I thought I was pretty calm, though (against Penn State)."

[Associated Press; By RUSTY MILLER]

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