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Clark, Pryor took different paths
Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark and Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor will share a football field Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio.
It won't be their first meeting.
Clark recalled giving Pryor a Penn State sales talk during Jeannette's march through the state basketball playoffs earlier this year.
"I went to one of his basketball games and actually sat and talked to him after the game to try to get him to come here," Clark said Wednesday. "But he had other plans."
When Pryor made those plans known in March, opting for Ohio State over a list of suitors that included Penn State as a finalist, he said one of the strikes against Penn State was that it was too country.
"I just didn't like that place," he said.
That grated on many associated with Penn State, including Clark.
"I resent the fact about it being country," Clark said, adding that because Pryor is starting as a freshman, it wasn't necessarily a bad decision on his part, though.
Pryor hasn't been made available to the media this week. But after the Buckeyes' 45-7 win last week at Michigan State, he made his geographical allegiance clear.
"I'm from Ohio now," Pryor said. "This is my hometown. Jeannette is still my hometown, don't get me wrong. This is where I'm at. I'm not at Penn State. I'm not in Pennsylvania. I'm here to not make Penn State happy, but Ohio State happy."
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel made geographic proximity part of his recruiting pitch to Pryor.
"Columbus is just as close (to Jeannette) as State College is," Tressel said. "I mapped it out for him."
Geography also is a subplot this week for Clark, who's returning home to play in a game with Big Ten Conference and national implications.
Ohio State didn't strongly recruit Clark, a Youngstown native, even though he lived much closer to Columbus than State College.
"Ohio State really wasn't interested," Clark said, attributing that to his academic problems coming out of high school. "They didn't want to take a risk on me."
Clark wasn't offended.
"I wanted to be different," he said. "So, I really didn't want to go to Ohio State."
Instead, after leaving Ursuline High School, Clark spent one academic year at Kiski Prep, got a qualifying score on his ACT and has moved on to Penn State, where his academic progress has been sufficient for him to recapture a lost year of eligibility. Even though he's listed as a senior, he can play again next year.
Tressel said Ohio State knew Clark during his high school years, but he added, "(I) look at him a lot more right now than I looked at him, that I can remember, five years ago. I think he's a success story. He's a guy that was patient and committed, and here he is leading an undefeated football team. To me, that's a great story."
Penn State coach Joe Paterno agrees. But it's a story he almost ended before it began.
Nittany Lions quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno, among others, convinced the elder Paterno to change his mind.
"I tried to back off on (Clark's recruitment) because I thought he was having trouble doing the work because he had trouble with tests," Paterno said. "But there were a couple of people in that high school that went to bat for him, and Jay said, 'He'll do it.' So, I can't take any credit for that."
Clark gives both Paternos credit for speaking personally to his parents about what he needed to do.
"No (other) coach did that," Clark said. "They stuck with me."
The reward to date is Clark's strong play, which has helped Penn State to an 8-0 start and a No. 3 spot in the BCS standings.
Ohio State (7-1) is 5-0 with Pryor as a starter.
Note: Defensive linemen Abe Koroma and Maurice Evans waived preliminary hearings yesterday in Centre County Court on marijuana possession charges and are scheduled for a Jan. 22, 2009, pre-trial conference.
