Pyror a priority

COLUMBUS - Unless his name was Brett Favre, probably no quarterback in the United States attracted as much media attention on Thursday as Ohio State freshman Terrelle Pryor.

Thursday's OSU team photo day at Ohio Stadium was the first time the Buckeyes' prized recruit could be interviewed. So, not surprisingly, he became a magnet for the media.

At one point, while starting quarterback Todd Boeckman chatted with two reporters, Pryor was surrounded by nearly 30 media members.

Even Pryor claimed to be taken aback by the attention.

"There are all these other great players and I'm the one getting hounded," he said.

Pryor's prominent place on picture day was set in motion when several recruiting services anointed him the No. 1 recruit in the country.

After Ohio State wrested him away from its biggest rival, Michigan, in a prolonged recruiting battle, he became an even bigger deal.

The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Pryor passed for more than 4,000 yards and ran for more than 4,000 in his high school career in Jeannette, Pa. Those numbers, plus his 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash, have created visions of a repeat of Tim Tebow's super-sub role as a freshman quarterback for Florida in 2006 in the minds of many OSU fans.

So, just what will Pryor's role be? Check back later.

"The common thought is that Terrelle can do such extraordinary things at times that you might want to utilize those things in the right situations," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "But exactly how it will shake out, we've got about another 24 practices to figure that out."

Pryor offered a conservative assessment of his goals and was careful not to speak out of turn.

"I'm just working as hard as possible just to get some playing time - get some plays in the running game and throw a couple times a game. That's all I'm really looking for," he said.

"You can't just come in, hop into college and think you're going to take over and start throwing the ball all over the place and making plays. It's just not going to happen."

And when the question was raised about whether he thought he could beat out returning backup Joe Bauserman for the No. 2 quarterback job behind Boeckman, he resorted to the verbal equivalent of running out of bounds.

"No comment," was Pryor's only reply to the Bauserman question.

Tressel says in some ways Pryor is ahead of schedule, but he quickly added he hasn't faced live, no-holds-barred competition yet.

"If you watch drills, he throws it maybe even better than I thought he would," the OSU coach said. "Now, when you get into the group things and he's trying to figure out the coverage, it slows down his release a little bit. He has still shown a good ability to make decisions. But we haven't seen him out there when the game is live."