The Official NCAA College Football Thread

Another update. The score is now 7-3 and the offense has sputtered a bit, but Pryor is the future w/o a doubt and the future is here today! He's made a couple plays that wound up being nothing, but it shows just how good he can be. One play, he scrambled around and avoided a sure thing sack if it was Boeckman, then delivered a nice pass down field that was really catchable, but the receiver just didn't make a good effort. Too bad too since the receiver had beat his man deep and would have been off to the races for a TD. The other play was again a sure thing sack if it was Boeckman, but Pryor was able to scramble away and make a nice pass, but the receiver had stepped out of bounds before catching the ball which negated the play. Obviously Pryor still has a ways to go and a lot to learn, but he is the QB for this year if we want to win the Big Ten.

As I was typing this, he just threw a very nice 40 yard TD pass to make it 14-3!

My final analysis:
There is no doubt that Tyrell Pryor needs to be the QB moving forward. He will make "rookie" mistakes and maybe even lose a game for us, but he is so much better than Todd with his ability to scramble and avoid the sack that we have to stick with Pryor. Many of the plays he made today would have been a sack if Todd was in for that play. Our receivers still are not doing what you expect out of a veteran receiving core. I saw a lot of routes that did not have crisp cuts, letting the DB stay on the receiver. We need to get better there for sure. I have no clue what to say about Beanie, maybe he's really hurt or maybe Tress is holding him out 1 more week to get him healthy for the Big Ten? Defensively, I still don't like how a spread offense can move the ball on us. That will be a problem down the road (can you say Illinois?). Overall, I do feel much better about the team now than I did 6 days ago. Are we a top 10 team? I don't think so, but we are on the fringe and depending on how TP progresses over the next couple weeks and whether Beanie can come back healthy, I do see us winning the Big Ten, going to the Rose Bowl to play the Pac Ten #2 team, and finishing off in the top 3 or 4 in the final polls.