I think that if the seniors and team have so much respect for Boekman they ought to block for him better. I think that the best quarterback ought to play. I'm not convinced that Pryor is ready yet. I think the two quarterback thing is stupid and almost never works...Fla. managed to pull it off a couple of years ago and more power to them. I was telling Crazy John that the biggest problem is that half your playbook is with one guy and the other half is with the other guy...so the defense can automatically throw half of your playbook out on EVERY SINGLE PLAY. But...you know us...in Tressel We Trust. :wink:
Terry, I never thought Pryor stood much of a chance to play this year, except for a few reps here and there. Tressel has almost always given the more experienced player the nod. While we looked terrible against USC, I think Pryor has proven he can play early within our system. Saturdays game with Troy, should give Pryor a real chance to shine. However if Pryor makes some foolish mistakes, Boekman will be the starter for the remainder of the season. Don
I think it is inevitable....the more he picks up the playbook and learns the offense the more we will see of him. I expect that by the end of the year we'll see him on a regular basis, but I do not expect him to supplant Boeckman as the starter. Tressel has always been about ball security, sound decision making from the QB spot and the kid doesn't know what he doesn't know yet.....how can he be expected to make good decisions at this point when he doesn't yet know what his options are? I don't think we are a better football team with him under center, but I do believe there are some circumstances in which our probability of success are greater.....his time will come.
And repeating myself...the problem here is that it isn't as simple as having two similar quarterbacks and trying to figure out who is playing best. It isn't as simple as putting the youngster in as soon as he learns the playbook. The playbook is entirely different for these two kids...while Pryor is learning the playbook the team is playing and practicing an entirely different playbook. Or else they are practicing both playbooks and confused about which playbook is going to be used and when. I don't blame Tressel for getting into this predicament...Pryor was just too good of a catch and I think it was a good move... I'm just trying to say that the transition between two systems is painful, and a decision has to be made about when to make the switch...you cannot make a drawn-out soap opera out of it. I'm not trying to be negative here...I just think that there could be some more growing pains before this is all over.
It was similar at Texas with the transition between a I formation Pro Style offense run by Chris Simms and Vince Young. I think Vince was well served by not playing as a Freshman, but even as a Soph when he split time with Chance Mock (who was a dropback/pro style QB) the offense struggled quite a bit. Vince made a lot of mistakes and he made more than a couple of spectacular plays. It wasn't till his 2nd year when he was the sarter that they just chunked the Pro Style offense and went to the Read Option with Vince that the offense then gained consistency and explosiveness that got them on that winning streak that lead to the NC in his 3rd year.
A number of years ago Spurrier rotated two QB's on almost every play. We didn't have our best teams during that time but I wouldn't call it unsuccessful either. Two years ago when Meyer used Tebow it was somewhat different. First Tebow just rammed the ball down their throat like a big fullback. After a few of those he passed a couple of times with a lot of success. Also Tebow didn't come in for long series but in certain spots. From what I saw in that game Pryor would give Ohio State the best chance of winning. Also the more playing time he gets this year the better he will be next year.