Former Ohio State Buckeye Terrelle Pryor Opens Up About Former Head Coach Jim Tressel

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Terrelle Pryor was one of the greatest Ohio State Buckeyes of all time. He was the Buckeyes and Jim Tressel's introduction into modern football, where teams began using their quarterbacks as offensive weapons, not just to drop back and hand it off.

Pryor revolutionized the game of football, and while he was dominating the football field, he was also making himself the center of one of the biggest stories in the history of college football off the field.

As the quarterback at Ohio State, Pryor was the headliner of "Tattoo Gate," where he and four other Buckeyes were caught trading team memorabilia in exchange for free tattoos, among other things.

The scandal resulted in Ohio State vacating 12 wins from the 2010 season, including their Sugar Bowl victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Pryor had not spoken about the incident until he took to the Certified Game Podcast and talked about why he chose Ohio State and how his instincts were right after what Tressell did for him and his teammates.

Pryor grew up just east of Pittsburgh in a tough upbringing. When he was being recruited for college football, he was the No. 1 recruit in the country. Every team was in to see him, and he recounted a couple of them.

He noted that Oregon was recruiting him, and they basically promised him that he would be a Nike athlete for the rest of his life. He went further to say that "Joe Pa" was in his house to see him and was a decent guy, but he just felt something wasn't right.

Hindsight proved to be pretty good there.

When Pryor got to talking about Jim Tressel, he recalled him as being very "thorough." He noted that all throughout the recruiting process, he was very thorough with him and made sure that he was very detailed.

The result of that was when Tattoo-Gate started going down, Tressel had his players' backs in a very real way. It ultimately ended up costing Tressell his job and put the Buckeyes program in a very bad spot.

Pryor's career at Ohio State was special. In three seasons, he threw for over 6,000 yards, 57 touchdowns to just 21 interceptions through the air. On the ground, he rushed for 2,164 yards and 17 career touchdowns. He even tallied two touchdown catches in his career. 

He was a pick in the 2011 supplemental draft as a quarterback and eventually turned into a wide receiver to finish his NFL career.

Pryor is synonymous with the tattoo scandal, but what was most important to him was that his coach had his back in his biggest time of need.

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