By: AP via SportingNews.com —

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — This was supposed to be Terrelle Pryor’s big day, the much acclaimed recruit’s college debut. Instead, he was shoved to the background.

Pryor played extremely well, rushing for a touchdown and showing some touch with his arm, but still took a back seat to Chris “Beanie” Wells’ injury in Ohio State’s 43-0 victory over Youngstown State on Saturday.
Wells hurt his foot in the third quarter. X-rays showed there were no broken bones, but his availability for the Buckeyes’ upcoming games is still up for grabs.

Pryor, meanwhile, is available and definitely lived up to all his press clippings.

“I’ve been dying to get in there,” said the 6-foot-6, 235-pound freshman from Jeannette, Pa. “There are always things that are good and things you find to work on.”

He completed 4-of-6 passes for 35 yards and carried nine times for 52 yards.

Despite being listed as third-team on the depth chart, he was the first quarterback off the bench to replace starter Todd Boeckman in the first quarter.

Met with a tremendous ovation before he ever took his first snap, he tossed a short look-in pass to Lamar Thomas for a nine-yard gain on his first play. In what would turn out to be a 12-play, 51-yard drive, he completed all three of his passes for 25 yards. The march stalled when he was thrown for an eight-yard loss on third and goal at the YSU 6 and the Buckeyes settled for Ryan Pretorius’ 31-yard field goal.

“I wasn’t nervous on the first snap,” he said. “I know the offense and I knew their defense, so I thought I’d be OK.”

Pryor didn’t play again until the start of the fourth quarter, again leading the Buckeyes to points. After completing a pass to Maurice Wells for 10 yards and then picking up 21 yards on a quarterback draw, he ran for four yards, handed off to Maurice Wells for 13 more and then scored his first collegiate TD on an 18-yard run around left end.

“I saw an opening and I wasn’t going to be denied,” he said. “That was my first touchdown medications without a prescription and I wanted it bad.”

Late in the game he misfired on two passes and gained three yards on two rushes. That didn’t ruin the impression he left.

“Terrelle obviously is a guy who can do some great things,” coach Jim Tressel said.

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STAT OF THE GAME: Youngstown State had never scored a touchdown in four games against opponents from Bowl Championship Series conferences (Pittsburgh, Penn State and Ohio State twice).

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DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY: Marv Homan, the former voice of Ohio State football and a 40-year employee of the university, is still getting around at the age of 82. He attended his 60th season-opener on Saturday.

Asked if he remembered his first debut game back in 1949, he smiled and went back in time.

“It was a 35-34 win over Missouri that was really an outstanding football game,” he said from Ohio State’s press box just before the kickoff against Youngstown State. “Missouri was running the Split T (formation) and Don Faurot was the coach. We didn’t know how to defend it and not many other schools did, either.”

He also has plenty of other vivid memories from openers over the years.

For instance, there was the 1950 debut against Southern Methodist.

“Fred Benners was SMU’s quarterback and SMU won 32-27,” he said, his hand shaking but his voice steady. “Benners, and this was not a coaching ploy, came into the game as SMU’s third-string quarterback. There again, they ran an offense called the “SMU Spread” and nobody knew how to defend against it.”

He also spoke of the 1978 showdown between Penn State, before it joined the Big Ten, and the Buckeyes. Coach Woody Hayes had recruited the nation’s top quarterback prospect, Art Schlichter, out of Washington Court House, Ohio. But Rod Gerald led the Buckeyes to a 9-3 record.

There was a frenzy over who would start for the Buckeyes.

Penn State took the ball first, so the crowd had to wait even longer. Then BOTH Schlichter and Gerald ran out for the first huddle — only Gerald went to a receiver spot and Schlichter went behind center.

The Nittany Lions won 19-0. Hayes was gone later that year after punching a Clemson player in the Gator Bowl.

Homan retired from Ohio State on New Year’s Eve in 1987, the same day John Cooper was announced as head coach. He laughed as he reflected on the three openers he had highlighted.

“Two were losses and the other was like that,” he said, his thumb and forefinger almost touching.

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IN CASE YOU WONDERED: The 608 Ohio State band members participating in the quadruple Script Ohio at halftime took precisely 3 minutes and 45 seconds to spell out those four letters.

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QUICK-HITTERS: Pretorius stubbed the big toe on his kicking foot in the shower and had it wrapped in bandages after the game. … YSU had to punt on nine of its 11 possessions. … OSU has drawn at least 100,000 fans to each of its last 42 games at Ohio Stadium. … The shutout was the first for YSU since a loss to Pittsburgh in 2005, a string of 32 games. … OSU DE Lawrence Wilson, who broke his leg against YSU in last year’s opener, had a sack in the third quarter. … The Penguins’ five first downs were the fewest ever at the school. … The Buckeyes are now 107-8-4 in home openers. … YSU travels to South Dakota State on Saturday at 7 p.m., while OSU is at home against Ohio at noon.

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