By: Brian Hamilton (ChicagoTribune.com) —
Yes, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was surprised that Terrelle Pryor, his sophomore quarterback with a whopping nine starts under his belt, was tapped the Big Ten’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

He was surprised, because apparently he is completely oblivious to arcane summertime media voting schedules.

“I guess I’d forgotten they do such a thing,” Tressel said Monday, during Big Ten Media Days.

“Then when it was mentioned, I got to thinking through – man there’s a lot of good guys coming back in this league. (Penn State’s) Darryl Clark and (Illinois’) Juice Williams have been around here a long time, and you can go down the list of guys in our league. I guess it’s a good reminder from an individual stand point, the respect they have for his ability.”
In Pryor, Tressel actually sees a microcosm of the challenges faced by the preseason favorites for the league title: A young if somewhat battle-tested talent that must mature quickly, especially with a Sept. 12 date looming with Southern California.

Pryor did complete 60.6 percent of his passes as a freshman, throwing 12 touchdowns against just four interceptions. But while he scampered for 78 yards in the Fiesta Bowl against Texas, Pryor completed just 5 of 13 passes for 66 yards in a 24-21 loss.

“He has a real passion to do well,” Tressel said. “He wants to make sure he can do all that the team needs. For a freshman, he was pretty careful with the football and learned from every experience he had. There were some tough experiences along the way.

“He’s a guy that’s passionate about being good. He studies the game extremely hard. He loves to study film, to be on his own with his DVDs and grow as a quarterback. Not unlike our team, the buying online maturity in September will be a great challenge.”

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