Pryor has a coming out party against Troy
How it goes could
drastically affect the rest of the Bucks' season.
By Bill Smith
For the first time, Terrelle
Pryor got the reps in practice of a starter.
For any QB, reps in practice are very significant. That is doubly true for a true freshman. We have seen some flashes of talent that has
made him a fan favorite. However,
without the reps at practice and substantial game time, any opinion of his
abilities is based on a sample of plays far too small to be trusted.
There is
every indication that Coach Tressel will give Pryor that opportunity
today. In my opinion, this was EXACTLY
the right move. The fans and the
coaching staff need to know what they have in Pryor prior to the start of the
Big 10 season. We will not be able to
tell how the offense would work with both Pryor and Beanie because the Coach is
wisely holding Beanie out. But we will
at least get a feel for Pryor's play behind our offensive line that has been
the subject of so much conversation following the loss at USC.
It is also
helps that Troy
is a more than respectable opponent. We
would have had a much better picture of Troy
had they played the game at LSU. That
game was postponed due to weather. Troy won at Middle Tennessee St.
31-17. That might not sound like much of
a win but MTS defeated Maryland
24-14 the next week. This is also the
same Troy team that played both at Arkansas
(46-26) and at Florida
(59-31) close for 3 quarters last year in hostile territory before defeating Oklahoma St. 41-23
in week 3 of the 07 season.
All in all,
we are going to know a lot more about both Pryor and the offense by 4 PM
today. Let's hope we get answers that
give us encouragement.
Bill Smith is a
former coach of several semi-pro teams and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://BrutusReport.com. He has
also published several novels on http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com