Terrelle Pryor's Decision To Return for Senior Season Is the Right One

Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor has had some things to clear up recently.

First things first, Pryor, a former two sport star at Pennsylvania’s Jeanette High School, has assured his worried football brethren that he will not be lacing up his Nikes for Thad Matta and the Ohio State basketball team this winter—contrary to what many of his recent tweets led some Buckeye fans to believe.

I mean, you've got to let Jared Sullinger have his one season of glory, right?

Pryor is so steadfast in his commitment to the Ohio State football team that he's already stated his intentions on returning for his senior season.

The junior quarterback, who had a strong chance of being selected by one of the many quarterback starved NFL franchises in the first round of the 2011 Draft, is one of the rare elite junior players to say hey, I’ve got some business to attend to here at school, the NFL can wait.

It’s refreshing to see a young athlete like Pryor value things like a degree and loyalty to the school that gave him a chance to shine in these times when it seems everybody is so quick to make the jump for the millions the NFL has to offer.

It’s something we could surprisingly see a lot of this year from many underclassmen who could be scared straight by the NFL’s looming lockout next season.

In Pryor’s case, the dual threat quarterback likely knows he still has some growing and developing to do in order to be considered a legitimate NFL quarterback prospect by the consensus majority of the pro scouting community.

While he may be one of the best all around athletes we have in the college game today, Pryor is far from the most polished quarterback prospect.

We’ve all seen the ups and downs during Pryor’s career.

We’ve seen the uplifting Rose Bowl performance that had us all thinking, yes, this young man is finally going to live up to his tremendous recruiting hype. But we’ve also seen showings like the one in this year’s devastating loss at Wisconsin when the Pryor-led Ohio State offensive attack looked less than stellar to put it gently.

His arm? No, it’s not NFL caliber and it probably never will be. But you know what—that’s OK. No, he’s not going to win any arm strength competitions with Jay Cutler or JaMarcus Rusell, but that’s perfectly fine.

Pryor is Mike Vick mixed with LeBron James. He’s a rarity.

Pryor is a caliber of athlete that doesn’t come along very often at the quarterback position.

Now that he’s returning to Ohio State for a fourth season, he has a chance to create a legacy as a Buckeye that few of the school’s greats can compare to.

Can he be the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft?

We’ll see.

Is he your prototypical quarterback that all the “draft gurus” like Mel Kiper are going to pump up and offer to chauffeur his bandwagon?

No not at all, and that’s why we should love him.

He’s not going to get the silly hype that Jake Locker received going into his senior year. Instead he’s going to be picked apart just like he’s been his whole career, and you know what—he’ll probably keep proving the doubters wrong like he has all along.

Terrelle Pryor is a transcendent player who has a chance to change the way we view the quarterback position—all we have to do is let him.

Color me excited to see the talents of Terrelle Pryor for one more season at the collegiate level!