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On a day of great games and glorious finishes, Ohio State needed one of those newfangled freshman quarterbacks. Instead, they had a sophomore who played more like a freshman than did the freshmen.
As a result, the Buckeyes lost yet another one of those monster opportunities for a statement that they have been trying to make for a long time. Really, they're an outstanding team — just not one of the elites of college football these days.
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The great teams have great quarterbacks, and USC showed that it has one of those, even though the kid taking snaps for them has only been in college for a few months.
Even worse for OSU is that Michigan has one of those can-do kids, too — a youngster who led a dramatic, corner-turning victory over Notre Dame, and who is going to give the Wolverines a real chance to lead a statement victory over the Buckeyes 10 weeks from now.
In the meantime, the Buckeyes' superfrosh of a year ago, Terrelle Pryor, is still looking like a potentially excellent quarterback who is just good enough to lose big games.
Freshmen are supposed to be like that. For as wonderful as having a sensational freshman quarterback might be, it's never as good as seeing that freshman mature into a sophomore, junior, and in some cases, senior quarterback. But as a sophomore, Pryor is being counted upon to be much more than their "quarterback of the future." He was being touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate, a leader who had improved his passing, and whose decision-making was ready to show significant progress.
Not so fast. Not so much.
Give Pryor credit for his post-game leadership ("It comes down to me; I take the whole blame"), but he looked no different during his night of 11-for-25 passing (no TDs, an interception that led to a USC touchdown) than he looked through his potential-rich freshman season: Dangerous runner, inconsistent-at-best passer.
He was supposed to become sort of a new-but-better Troy Smith. He was being groomed to show a resemblance to Tim Tebow by now. But guys like Washington's Jake Locker, Baylor's Robert Griffin, Central Michigan's Dan Lefevour, and Virginia Tech's Tyrod Tayler (to name a few) are all more accomplished double-threat guys than Pryor.
His two-for-seven passing in the fourth quarter, along with a delay-of-game penalty and an intentional-grounding penalty on the last drive, show that Pryor still has lots of work to do. USC's Matt Barkley and Michigan's Tate Forcier also have lots of work to do, but they have the luxury of being 2-0 and possessing learning curves that seem to be pointing straight up.
How else to explain the dramatic touchdown drives that Barkley and Forcier put together when their teams needed them most?
Birth of a legend
Barkley was saddled with terrible field position and was foiled for much of the game by Ohio State's defense. But when there wasn't time for him to think about anything but getting the job done, he did exactly that.
In the final minute of the first half, Barkley led a 77-yard drive to a tying field goal by completing three of four passes for 42 yards, and running for six yards.
And, of course, during the remarkable 6 minutes, 10 seconds of the Trojans' "must score a touchdown" 86-yard drive late in the fourth quarter, he completed three of five passes for 55 yards, including three third-down completions, two sneaks for first downs and the two-point conversion pass.
That's 7-for-10 for an even 100 yards and two points in USC's two most important possessions of the 18-15 triumph.
As Trojan linebacker Chris Galippo offered, "He played sooo not like a freshman."
If the Buckeyes could only have said that about their sophomore star, they'd have been the ones celebrating.
Force to be reckoned with
