Dave Thurman (8:41 pm)

The USC showdown is history and after the dust has settled there are some good things to take from the game as well as some painful/disturbing truths.  All things being equal, coaching decisions and execution aside, the game came down mostly to the play of Terrelle Pryor.  Had he performed as the Buckeye faithful hoped/desired Ohio State would have won.  That's the simple and somewhat painful truth.  Obiously he is not as far along as we anticipated and that is taking nothing away from the Trojan defense.

So the question now is what can be done to help TP develop into the superstar he has been billed as since his days in high school?  Is all hope lost?  Will Pryor simply be a great athlete attempting to play quaterback, or can he still become a Heisman candidate and carry OSU to big-time success?

Maybe the best way to answer those questions is to look back at the development of Troy Smith, who also came to Columbus with a less than polished game.  Unlike Pryor he had a couple of years of getting acclimated to college and the quarterback position as he was redshirted in 2002 and then used only on special teams in '03.  When he did burst on the scene as a third-year sophomore Smith was mostly an athlete who could burn teams with his feet and showed a strong, if sometimes erratic arm.  He almost always took off under pressure, running for 339 yards and throwing for 896 while splitting time with Justin Zwick.