By: MATT MARKEY (ToledoBlade.com) —
COLUMBUS — Ohio State has a multidimensional individual lining up at tailback. There is Chris “Beanie” Wells the draft horse who can erode the starch right out of a defense by relentlessly pounding at them while carrying his team on his back.

Then there’s Beanie the cheerleader, who can rah rah and root with the best of them when injury keeps him off the field. And Beanie the philosopher, who sees the game through his own customized prism.

Now there’s Beanie the big brother, who has orchestrated a pseudo adoption of freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor. After Pryor spent a few hours over at Beanie’s house the other night, Wells came away from that visit talking like a proud surrogate something or other.

“This kid, he just does it all right,” Wells said. “It’s incredible to see the desire this young quarterback has. Being a young guy, you’re not expected to come in and know everything, but he’s in the film room, always looking for ways to get better.”

Pryor came to Ohio State as the top prize in the 2008 recruiting class, but he was expected to spend his first season here learning under senior starter Todd Boeckman before taking the reins and running the Buckeyes. When Boeckman floundered against Southern California, Pryor sliced through that opening and now commands an offensive huddle filled with seniors and veterans like Wells.

“That guy, the passion he has for football is incredible, he’s just so excited to be in the backfield,” Wells said. “He definitely has a competitive attitude.”

Wells said Pryor has a fire and bravado like Wells saw in the resident quarterback when he arrived at Ohio State — Troy Smith. Smith went on to lead the Buckeyes to a pair of wins over Michigan and a couple of Big Ten championships and won the Heisman Trophy in 2006 as a senior.
“When I look at Terrelle, that’s exactly what I think of — is Troy — with the attitude and everything. It’s incredible just the similarities that those two guys have,” Wells said.

“After every play you can always look up and see Terrelle yapping because that’s the type of guy he is. He is a competitor, and I love that in him. You really don’t find that too much in quarterbacks — they’re usually the laid back guys. But Terrelle, he is a guy who is gonna get in your face.”

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said he has been impressed by Pryor’s ability to remain composed while being pressured, a quality Smith refined later in his Ohio State career.

“Someone asked me, do you like it that maybe he’s a calm guy out there, and that’s all I’ve seen,” Tressel said. “Whether it was the first scrimmage, he was calm. He lined up against the first defense, he was calm. First game, Ohio Stadium, he was calm. Now, maybe inside he was dying, but outwardly and performance-wise, he was calm.”

Pryor will be starting for the Buckeyes tomorrow night at Wisconsin in a critical early Big Ten game. Ohio State and the Badgers were picked to finish 1-2 in the conference in the preseason polls. Wells is not anxiety-ridden over how the freshman will fare in the ultra-hostile Camp Randall Stadium environment in Madison.

“I think everyone in this room has seen Terrelle play and knows he doesn’t play like a freshman at all,” Wells said after practice earlier this week. “Him being a freshman, to me, it is irrelevant. He’s the type of guy who is going to go out there and perform and play hard no matter who we are playing.”

Wells recounted several experiences from this past spring when he would be sitting in class at Ohio State and receive a text message from Pryor, who was back home in Pennsylvania. And the messages did not involve “what up” or any other trivial electronic exchanges.

“I was in class, and I would think he should be in class, but he’d be texting me and saying that he was going over film,” Wells said. “Being a young guy, you are not really expected to just come in and just know everything and to just automatically want to get better like an older guy does. His love for the game and his determination are really something.”

Wells said the other night the pair got together and just talked football and about life issues, but the conversation rarely wandered too far from the Buckeyes.

“Terrelle is a football head,” Wells said. “That’s what he loves.”

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