Column: Can OSU's Pryor escape Michigan again?

COLUMBUS - Just imagine if Terrelle Pryor were pulling on a Michigan jersey instead of an Ohio State jersey on Saturday morning.

Rory Nicol, like thousands of Ohio State fans, prefers not to think about that.

"That's not a good thought," the OSU tight end said earlier this week.

Ohio State's precocious freshman quarterback was the prize in a high-level recruiting battle between OSU, Michigan and some of the other heavyweights of college football last winter.

The recruiters made so many trips to his hometown in western Pennsylvania that they were volunteering local restaurant recommendations even if you didn't ask.

In the end, Ohio State and Penn State were the only two left standing. But for a long time, the assumption was the duel was between OSU and Michigan.

The biggest reason was that the 6-foot-6, 235-pound Pryor seemed a perfect fit for new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez's spread offense.

Rodriguez recruited him hard while he was still at West Virginia. Pryor's phone was one of the first he dialed after he agreed to go to Michigan. And West Virginia immediately fell off Pryor's list when Rodriguez left.

Also, Michigan's starting quarterback Chad Henne was graduating. And the heir apparent, Ryan Mallett, decided he didn't fit into Rodriguez's plans and transferred to Arkansas not long after Michigan's new coach arrived in Ann Arbor.

Some people wondered why Pryor would pass up an almost certain chance to start in an offense seemingly built for him to play a back-up role to a senior quarterback, Todd Boeckman, who had thrown for 2,300 yards in 2007.

Funny how things worked out. Pryor became Ohio State's starter just three games into the season, which means he got to start early anyway. And it was on a good team, not a bad one.

Would Michigan be better than a 3-8 team if it had won the recruiting contest for Pryor?

Now you've found a topic Rodriguez and his players don't want to think about, heading into Saturday's game against Ohio State at Ohio Stadium.

"It's in the past. Once he got signed and goes to another school, my focus is on the guys who play for us," Rodriguez said at his weekly press conference on Monday.

Michigan defensive lineman David Moosman wouldn't go near the topic. "Go on to the next question. I don't want to talk about that right now," he said.

Michigan probably doesn't want to talk much about its record, either. No Michigan team has ever lost more games in the 129 years the Wolverines have played football. And they have lost six of their last seven games against Ohio State.

But if they could pull the sweater vest over the head of their tormenter, Jim Tressel, and get the quarterback who jilted them off on the wrong foot in this series, it would offer some satisfaction.

After rushing for 113 yards in a 30-20 win over Illinois last Saturday, Pryor downplayed the personal side of this game.

He said, "They're just another team to me until I get into the rivalry. I keep getting it pounded into my ears, ‘This is why you came here, for Michigan.' I can't wait to find out."

That declaration left some OSU fans nervous that it would give Michigan incentive to pound something else into his ears, or just pound him.

But so far Pryor has answered every challenge.

"He's really kind of had people talk every week about how he was going to face some new challenge," OSU wide receiver Brian Robiskie said.

"I can remember his first start, his first Big Ten start, his first road game. Every time it was something new and people kept trying to throw stuff at him. He understands, like everyone else, that this is the biggest game on our schedule."