OMG Recruit - Michigan Fan Style...

Champ Summers helps us out today, offering yet another insight into the maize and blue sections of the brain, which is located just left of the "I'm batshit crazy" section. Consume, dear reader, consume. I think I may actually weigh in on this one, because I think much of the Maize and Blue section in Champ's head is rationalizing the fact that this year's OMG recruit isn't going to be attending Michigan. Of course, just saying this will elicit some sort of snarky retort in the comments section. But...without further ado, I bring you Champ Summers:



I want to commit this to text right now, I want it written down somewhere for future reference, whether I am proven right by the course of time or proven to be a fool a few years down the road. Here it is, straight from a dyed in the wool Maize and Blue fan: I want absolutely no part of Terrelle Pryor, none, nada, zip. I’m tired of watching people make excuses for this kid because he has some serious potential on the gridiron. His act is tired, and as time marches onward, the red flags are starting to accumulate. It’s in times like these that people need to remember that one player will never be bigger than the team, let me go ahead and say that again: never. One of the things that I’ve always been proud of as a Michigan fan is that despite astronomical expectations, the program and the fan base have never been about win at all costs, and now is no time to start. I’m not saying that Pryor is a bad kid, I’m not trying to say that he will be bust, but there are too many signs and symptoms of a Mo-C type of situation here for my liking and folks, I don’t care if he beats Michigan four years in a row, I want no part of that humiliation. Bring up the name Maurice Clarett to any true Ohio State fan and watch their face contort in pain and anger, I want no part of that. The very fact that there is even a concern in that direction makes me want to simply walk away and pick up a very talented QB recruit next winter (which is a virtual lock at this point).

As I walk back along the timeline of Pryor’s recruitment, I find that it simply does not add up. For a player who was a virtual lock (according to a number of sources) to head to Columbus, why on earth has he not reached a decision yet? No one else finds it a bit odd that somehow, someway, nearly every other player who's going to be playing D1 football on scholarship managed to go ahead and figure out which school they'd like to attend despite what are no doubt very busy schedules?? But poor Terrelle Pryor plays basketball!!! You’re kidding? A high school football recruit who plays basketball?? When has that EVER happened before? How does he even find time to eat with that kind of schedule? Frankly I think the kids on the swim team at Jeannette High ought to seek out Mr. Pryor and one by one go over what their day-to-day schedule entails. I’m also not going to buy into the whole “huge magnitude of the decision” nonsense either. Guess what Terrelle, you knew that after this year, you'd be going to school, likely to play a sport of some nature, and perhaps in spite of all your time spent with your two sports that nearly EVERY talented highschool recruit participates in you should've set some time aside to decide a few things regarding your future. Now then, let’s say he was all set to make a decision and his father decided to nix it… does that make you feel any better about this whole mess? Me either.

Terrelle Pryor may or may not turn out to be a once in a great while type of college football player, but frankly, at this point, I don’t think he’s worth the gamble. It’s sad in a way, because now even if he somehow ends up at Michigan, the microscope will be on this guy from day one, and my anxiety level will be that much higher (selfish I know). I may end up eating these words, I may end up regretting the fact that I passed on the next great thing, or maybe I’ll be writing in this space in a few years about what a tremendous Michigan Man Terrelle Pryor has been and what his legacy will be… but standing here now, without the benefit of hindsight to aid me, can you honestly say you’d be all aboard for taking on this circus act? Not me, no thanks. I'll take a kid like Justin Feagin who's thrilled with the opportunity to play in Ann Arbor and certainly appears to have a good head on his shoulders… even though he may be rated as less talented. Why? Because it's about the team, the team, the team and thus far Terrelle Pryor has shown that he’s about nothing but me, me, me.

Champ. Out.