NCAA Football

Wednesday Roundup: The Future’s decided, but The Present leaves us guessing

The Terrelle Pryor saga is finally over, as he (unsurprisingly) chose Ohio State, who he was all set to choose last month before deciding to delay his announcement.

So, Rich Rodriguez’s search for his next stud QB continues. Russell Shepard, the top dual-threat QB in the class of 2009, committed to LSU two weeks ago, so with Pryor committing to OSU, it might be time to put the full-court press on Shepard.

While Pryor will spend the next four or five years trying to transition from the #1 prep prospect to the #1 pro prospect, Boston College’s Matt Ryan spent yesterday trying to make his case to be #1, as he worked out for in front of a horde of scouts and coaches at BC’s Pro Day.

There are differing reports about just how well things went, but here are a few reports.

CBS Sportsline’s Pete Prisco isn’t sold on Ryan’s potential, but his colleague Clark Judge is, and so is ESPN’s Seth Wickersham.

As for me, well, I wasn’t there, so I can’t really pass any judgment on his workout.

However, this is the one thing that sticks out to me: Ryan elected not to throw at the combine, so that he could wait and show his stuff at BC’s Pro Day with familiar targets, while Brian Brohm threw at the combine, and by all accounts, threw well at that.

To some, that might not mean anything, but in the NFL, guys that you’re familiar with five or ten years down the road don’t start out that way. So, your ability to work well with guys that you don’t know as well as the guys you’ve been throwing to for the last few years in college should speak at least a little about your intangibles and ability to adjust well on the fly.

We know the debate about who’ll be #1 overall is still very much up in the air, with Ryan likely still in that debate, but is Ryan now the surefire #1 QB on the board? I guess we’ll find out soon, won’t we?

For now, check out our QB rankings and the rest of our prospect rankings and NFL Draft coverage

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