Two much?
Jeannette, Pa., quarterback Terrelle Pryor wants to succeed where others have failed, or at least where others haven't excelled as much as expected.
Despite being the nation's No. 1 prospect in football, Terrelle Pryor isn't ready to focus solely on improving on the gridiron.
Why?
Because he's also one of the best basketball prospect in the country. Terrelle Pryor feels he can be that rare player who can play both sports at a high level in college.
Terrelle Pryor is a 6-foot-6, 225-pound thing of beauty. He has long arms, a muscled torso and he can jump out of the building. He's a dynamic player on the football field. He can just as easily run for a 90-yard touchdown as throw a 70-yard TD pass.
On defense, he's a rangy safety who blitzes like a linebacker and hits like a truck. It's scary to imagine where he'll be in a couple years when it comes to football, since he's still very raw and will get bigger and stronger.
Terrelle Pryor rushed for 1,676 yards and 29 touchdowns while passing for 1,732 yards and 15 more scores as a junior.
Terrelle Pryor is even more polished on the basketball court and would likely be ranked in the top 15 if he gave up football. He's currently ranked 27th in the nation Rivals.com. Terrelle Pryor averaged 21.2 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists per game as a junior.
Despite his limitless potential in each sport, the question has to be asked: Can Terrelle Pryor play both at this same high level in college? It seems unlikely. The two best examples of high-profile players trying to do both over the last 15 years are Ronald Curry and Charlie Ward.
Curry was named the national player of the year in football and basketball during his senior year in 1997. He had a hand in 185 touchdowns during his high school career at Hampton (Va.) High School. He also averaged 17.9 points per game on the hardwood.
In the McDonald's All-American basketball game following his senior year, Curry won the MVP Award. He also won the slam dunk contest against the likes of Corey Maggette, Tayshaun Prince, Quentin Richardson and Al Harrington. Each of those guys averaged more than 10 points per game this past season in the NBA.
Curry could play with the best of them on the hardwood and gridiron. But we know the rest of the story. Curry went to North Carolina, tried to play both sports and was considered a bust -- at least based on the crazy expectations heaped upon him.
He was good at each sport, but not great at either. Clearly things didn't go as well as they could have had he focused on one sport or the other. However, he is such an amazing athlete that he's found success in the NFL as a wide receiver.
Ward had more success in college. He won a Heisman Trophy in 1993 after leading Florida State to a national title. On the basketball floor, he led the FSU to the Elite Eight in 1993 as the starting point guard. Ward was such a great athlete that he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1993 and by the New York Yankees in 1994 despite not playing baseball in college.
Ward made it clear to NFL teams that he would focus on basketball if he wasn't selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. As a result, he wasn't drafted at all and signed with the New York Knicks after being selected with the 26th pick.
Ward's basketball career was average at best, ending with his retirement in 2005. Could Ward have been an NFL first-rounder had he focused on football in college? Would he have had a better NBA career had he just played basketball? We'll never know because we never got to see the best of Ward in one sport.
So, will Terrelle Pryor make the same mistake -- or is it a mistake at all? Curry just signed a 5-year, $20 million contract with the Oakland Raiders. Ward had a 10-year NBA career. Time will tell, but Terrelle Pryor is going to give it a run. And whether he does it at Ohio State, Penn State, Florida or wherever, maybe he can be that special player who can do it all in both sports.
Sooners surging: Somewhat quietly, Oklahoma is having a great recruiting year. The Sooners have added five commitments in the month of June, pushing their total to 14. Of those pledges, eight are ranked in the top 250 players in the country. Led by running back Jermie Calhoun of Van, Texas, Bob Stoops has three of the nation's top 24 players on board. Impressively, he has also landed three of the top four players in the state of Texas.
Gators back on track: Urban Meyer received his first commitment in two months when Auburn, Ala., safety Dee Finley pledged this past weekend. Finley had offers from several other SEC schools and is one of seven players from the state of Alabama ranked in the top 100.
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