[Poz79]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

High School Notebook: Pryor has choice of colleges, sports
Friday, September 22, 2006
by Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

College basketball coaches are pulling Jeanette's Terrelle Pryor from one side. College football coaches are tugging from the other.

Pryor is willing to compromise. He now hopes to play both sports in college.

Pryor, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound Jeanette junior, already has Division 1 scholarship offers in both sports. This tells you about his football potential: Ohio State offered him a scholarship last week. Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia also have offered, while Michigan and Notre Dame are starting to show interest. Pryor plays quarterback and safety.

"I think I'm going to play both in college," Pryor said. "I want to get to a school that will let me do both."

This thinking is a change from Pryor's sophomore year when he said his future was just basketball. A guard-forward, he made a verbal commitment to Pitt in January for basketball. A few months later, he changed his mind about his decision and opened up his recruiting again. Some scouting services rank him among the top 30 juniors in the country for basketball.

Playing both sports is a challenge--physically and academically--at the Division 1 level.

"I think I could do both," Pryor said.

Said Jeanette football coach Ray Reitz: "I think it's a possibility that he could play both. I know some of the schools talking to him say they'll let him play both, but it's a tough thing to do. I think maybe down the road, at some point, he might have to make a choice."

But Pryor seems to have the athleticism to play both.

"The kid is special. He has a gift from God," Reitz said. "I timed him in the 40 this summer and he ran a 4.47 with his shoes untied."

Pryor played linebacker-defensive end as a sophomore but moved to the secondary this season.

"I feel a lot more comfortable in football now," he said.