By STEVE HEMMELGARN (NewsAndSentinel.com) –

Quarterbacks, quarterbacks, quarterbacks.

Every football coach always is interested in quarterbacks, and Ohio State is no exception.

Even with Terrelle Pryor now at the controls of the Buckeye offense for the next two years at least, that hasn’t stopped coach Jim Tressel from looking at some other notable QBs as possible Buckeye recruits.

In the last week, OSU apparently has gone 1-1 in landing potential Class of 2010 quarterbacks. First, Joe Montana’s son Nick spurned the Buckeyes among several other elite college-program pursuers, giving a verbal commitment to new Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian.

Montana, seen as one of the top QBs available next spring, said he wasn’t deterred by the Huskies’ 0-12 record last season.

But Tressel did get a verbal from hotshot Illinois signal-caller Tyler Graham, son of former Buckeye QB Kent Graham, to bolster Ohio State’s 2010 recruiting class.

• Meanwhile, Storm Klein, one of OSU’s 2009 linebacking recruits who enrolled in January and was a standout performer in the spring Scarlet and Gray game, has been voted one of four captains for the USA Junior National Team that will compete in the first-ever International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Junior World Championship, which starts today in Canton, Ohio.

Klein, a three-time All-Ohio selection from Licking Valley High School in Newark, is one of 33 incoming college freshmen this fall, including another early-entry Buckeye teammate in offensive lineman Jack Mewhort, who will represent the United States in football’s first junior world championship (players age 19 and under). The week-long tournament field also includes Canada, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand and France, whom Team USA will play first at 8 p.m. today.

• Ohio State’s Athletic Hall of Fame will induct 12 new members Sept. 25, with the most familiar names being former Buckeye gridders Neal Colzie (DB/PR, 1972-74), Andy Katzenmoyer (LB, 1996-98) and Dick LeBeau (CB, 1956-58), current defensive coordinator of the NFL champion Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as ex-OSU basketball star Michael Redd (1998-2000), three-time Buckeye MVP playing with the NBA Milwaukee Bucks.

• Lindy’s Football, one of the first 2009 preseason prediction magazines out this month, has Ohio State at No. 8 nationally, although I’ve seen the Bucks ranked as high as No. 5, and tops in the Big Ten, ahead of Penn State and Michigan State.

Also, I like Phil Steele’s annual College Football Preview because it extends its predictions out into the bowl games, and has Ohio State meeting Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. However, Steele seems to think if the Buckeyes get past USC in Game 2 on Sept. 12 under the lights at home, their only loss will come at Penn State Nov. 7, putting the Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl for the second straight season.

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