Pryor Decisions

This Saturday is the Ohio State spring football game. Amazing. It feels like yesterday Fox19 Sports Director Brian Giesenschlag, photographer Dan Wood and myself were on Bourbon Street looking for colorful characters for BCS Championship coverage.

This will be an interesting year for Ohio State football. It's funny that a BCS team with only one regular season loss the past two seasons is maybe one of the most ridiculed programs in the country. I guess that's what back-to-back lopsided losses in the BCS Championship game will do...oh yeah...there's that winless record in bowl games against the SEC hanging over the heads.

The Bucks could get back to the national championship game again this year and America would hate it. If Ohio State goes to USC and wins and runs through a Big 10 schedule that includes road bumps at Wisconsin and Illinois, Ohio State will get its 4th shot in the BCS big one.

OSU can get there because the roster oozes with talent. I was stunned Malcolm Jenkins and James Laurinaitis returned for another season. Vernon Gholston gone, a a healthy Lawrence Wilson will step in and go for 10+ sacks. That said, OSU needs to play better defense. Hard to believe one of college football's most dominant defensive teams in recent memory could play any better, but they can. They need to be more explosive defensively. They need to be nasty. More turnovers and score touchdowns. They need to play tougher in the secondary. SEC defenses are nasty. Ohio State has that talent, they need to be unleashed.

Chris Wells is an absolute beast and could be a major hurdle for Tim Tebow's run at Archie Griffin's back-to-back Heisman benchmark. But, the key to OSU's offense is the passing game. Todd Boeckman needs to be more poised in the pocket against a strong pass rush and the Brians (Robiskie and Hartline) somehow need to create more separation for Boeckman to be successful.

All that said, the big story in Columbus is the arrival of Terrelle Pryor. The nation's #1 rated QB obviously won't play this Saturday because he's still finishing up high school, but how Jim Tressel will use Pryor this season will be fun to watch. He could be that athletic X-factor that's been missing the past couple of BCS championship games for OSU's offense. A backfield threat of Wells, Brandon Saine and Terrelle Pryor would keep NFL defensive coordinators up at night. I can't wait to hear the crowd reaction the first time Pryor runs onto the field at the 'Shoe.

Check out SportsWrap Saturday night for full coverage from Ohio State's spring game.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the BCS Championship game this coming year is in Miami.

- Joe D.