OSU Notes: Pryor takes aim at decades-old standards for rushing by QB

COLUMBUS — It’s only three games into the season, but Terrelle Pryor is Ohio State’s leading rusher.

The last time a player at least nominally designated a quarterback led Ohio State in rushing for the season was when Les Horvath did it in 1944.

Pryor’s 631 yards rushing last season, which ranked second on the team behind Chris Wells, was the most by an OSU quarterback since Cornelius Greene ran for 842 yards in 1974.

Would Ohio State coach Jim Tressel be satisfied if his quarterback was his leading rusher at the end of the season?

“How many yards will it be?,” the OSU coach asked. When a figure of around 1,000 yards was thrown out, he said, “Close to 1,000 yards and he’s our leading rusher? I’d need a little more total offense than that.”

Part of the reason Pryor is the leading rusher with 176 yards is the absence of a dominant running back. Dan Herron has gained 158 yards and Brandon Saine has 100 yards rushing.

STOCK RISING: While freshmen like Duron Carter, Zach Boren and Adam Homan have played from the start of the season, defensive linemen John Simon has emerged in the last two weeks as a first-year player who is contributing.

Simon, a freshman from Youngstown Mooney, impressed his teammates right away with the amount of time he spent in the weight room.

“John will live and die in the weight room,” linebacker Ross Homan said. “Last Friday night at the hotel, playing Toledo at Cleveland, John asked me where the fitness room was. I looked at him like, ‘You’ve got to be crazy, the day before an actual game you can’t be working out.’ I said, ‘Just go to your room, chill out, relax.’ ”

ROLLING A 300: Today’s game is the 300th of Jim Tressel’s career as a head coach.

Earlier this week when he was informed of this, he said, “I didn’t know that, but that’s a lot of games.”

Tressel has coached 106 games at Ohio State and 194 at Youngstown State.

PARKING AT A PREMIUM: While OSU football players have a gated parking lot at the Woody Hayes Practice Facility, they park with the general student population on the rest of the campus, which became more of an issue when classes started this week.

“There will be a C Lot (student parking) wars going on, trying to find parking spots,” Ross Homan said, with a laugh. “Because it’s parked full, you’re zooming in and out of the aisles, waiting to see tail lights come on. It’s pretty much a battle. I have to get my game ready.”