FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

Well the wait is finally over for schools trying to recruit Terrelle Pryor, the much sought after quarterback recruit from Pennsylvania announced today his decision to play for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

At his news conference Pryor, who is also a basketball star at Jeannette Senior High School near Pittsburgh, unzipped his windbreaker to reveal a Ohio State t-shirt and put on a Buckeyes hat. Michigan and Oregon were both in the running but fell short for various reasons - Pryor never considered nearby Penn State. Pryor will come to Ohio State as a back-up to current starting quarterback, and senior, Todd Boeckman.

Pryor is the only player in Pennsylvania history to both rush and pass for at least 4,000 yards - he also has 2,285 career basketball points. Below are some video highlights of Terrelle Pryor - enjoy and get ready to watch him be one of the top talents in College Football in a couple years.

It is about time. That is what I have to say about former Southwest Conference opponents Texas A&M Aggies and Arkansas Razorbacks resuming their rivalry. The two teams will play for the first time since 1991 when the new Texas Stadium opens in 2009. The two teams made the announcement today at the site of the new NFL stadium and will be part of a “long term agreement” starting with their first game on October 3, 2009. The Aggies and Razorbacks last played on November 16, 1991 a year before the Razorbacks left for the SEC. The Aggies beat the Razorbacks 13-3, but the Razorbacks lead the overall series 38-24-3.

The Penn State Nittany Lions have suspended their 6th player this offseason. The latest player is tight end Andrew Quarless who was suspended indefinitely for a unspecified reason. Quarless was not a major piece in the Penn State offense - catching 14 passes for 205 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2007.  Quarless, who will be a junior this fall,  was also suspended for the first 2 games of the 2007 college football season after he got in trouble for underage drinking.

Quarless joins 5 other Nittany Lions who have been suspended this offseason since January 15th.  The Nittany Lions suspended defensive tackles Chris Baker and Phil Taylor; linebacker Navorro Bowman; defensive back Knowledge Timmons; and wide receiver Chris Bell - most of these players were involved a October 7th on-campus incident.

Is Joe Pa getting soft in his old age? Come on kick these kids into shape!

Funny what you find surfing the net. Below is the West Virginia Mountaineers official 2008 recruiting video.

Apparently the most underrated running back at the 2008 NFL Draft / 2008 NFL Combine is East Carolina burner Chris Johnson. At the NFL Combine Johnson ran a 4.24 40-Yard dash…someone just jumped up a lot of draft boards. Below is a highlight video of Johnson courtesy of tcbailey24 over at YardBarker.com.

There are a couple more days left in the 2008 NFL Combine, however before doing a complete wrap-up I wanted to post some of the highlights I have seen so far.

• Arkansas running back Darren McFadden ran a 4.33 40-yard dash - that is the second fastest time among running backs. Anyone who thinks he is not the top talent in the 2008 NFL Draft is a fool.
• East Carolina running back Chris Johnson ran the  40-yard dash in 4.24 seconds - tops amount backs. 4.24 is FAST - like Olympic fast.
• California wide receiver DeSean Jackson posted a position best 40 yard dash time of 4.35 seconds. What Jackson lacks in size he has in speed.
• Florida State wide receiver De’Cody Fagg suffered a serious knee injury yesterday running routes.
• Teams are very concerned about LSU’s Glenn Dorsey’s stress-fracture injury from back in 2006. Many people feel that the injury has not completely healed. Could this affect his NFL Draft ranking?
• My Prediction on who will be the biggest winner of the 2008 NFL Combine? Kansas cornerback Aqib Talib. McFadden was already at the top of the rankings so he had nowhere to go. Talib is proving he is a top position prospect and deserves to be drafted in the top 10.

Ok that is it for now, after the NFL combine is over we will do a more in-depth analysis  along with a new 2008 Mock NFL Draft.

Big news out of Baton Rouge as LSU Tigers coach Les Miles made the announcement that sophomore quarterback Ryan Perrilloux has been suspended indefinitely from the football team.

“Ryan has been suspended indefinitely due to his failure to follow team rules,” Coach Miles said today. Miles also stated that Perrilloux’s status for spring practice is uncertain at this time and would not comment anymore. LSU’s spring practice starts February 29th.

Should be interesting to see what comes out of this and what exactly? “suspended indefinitely” means. However, considering the timframe I am guessing whatever Ryan did was serious.

What do you get when you combine Vinny Testaverde on a scooter, “The Boz” and Phil Collins? This masterpiece from CBS introducing the 1986 showdown between #1 Oklahoma Sooners and the #2 Miami Hurricanes.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Charlie Weis, the offensive genius who helped the New England Patriots win 3 Super Bowls, is not going to be calling the plays next season. Weis has handed over the offense responsibilities to offensive coordinator Mike Haywood.

Weis felt that he needed to focus more on being the head coach “I think that when you’re play-calling on offense, you might not necessarily be the best head coach. So what I’m trying to do is I’m trying to be a better head coach,” Weis said today. “It means that all the offensive coaches now won’t have to worry about the head coach breathing down their neck all the time, when you have a number of good coaches sometimes they get stymied or stifled a little bit when you have a very domineering presence as head coach that’s also involved in the offense.”

On the defensive side, Weis is going to give defensive coordinator Corwin Brown and assistant head coach for defense Jon Tenuta the ability to run their own show as well.

Weis was given some coaching advice from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick before the Super Bowl and has reached out to other coaches for advice as well. The Irish are coming off their worst season in a very long time, finishing 3-9.

With national signing day past us it is time to see who did the best job at getting top High School prospects to come to their school. Below are the top 10 schools with the best recruiting classes - the rankings are based on two factors: 1) How many top prospects they signed and 2) how well they did at filling gaps.

Top 10 2008 College Football Recruiting Classes

1. Clemson Tigers - The Tigers surprised a lot of people on signing day, they were able to get a bunch of players who verbally committed to other schools to switch. Top recruits: tight end Dwayne Allen, offensive tackle Antoine McClain and running back Jamie Harper.
2. Alabama Crimson Tide - New coach? So what! The Tide rolled with top wide receiver Julio Jones and offensive tackle Tyler Love.
3. Miami Hurricanes - The hurricanes joined Clemson is getting a ton of defensive talent, including linebackers Arthur Brown, Sean Spence and Ramon Buchanan.
4. Ohio State Buckeyes - The Buckeyes have the best class in the Big Ten, their class is heavy with top defensive talent including linebacker Etienne Sabino.
5. USC Trojans - The Trojans lost a couple prospects who verbally committed but, as usual, have their share of talent like top cornerback T.J. Bryant and defensive end Nick Perry.
6. Florida Gators - Like USC, the Gators lost a couple prospects but also like the Trojans they were able to get big time players like wide receiver T.J. Lawrence and safety Dee Finley.
7. Notre Dame Fighting Irish - The Irish and Charlie Weis are coming off a horrible season and needed a big recruiting class, they got it. The Irish are bringing in top receivers Michael Floyd and Deion Walker as well as top quarterback prospect Dayne Christ.
8. Texas Longhorns - Texas is great at recruiting people who will fit need, not just going after the top player at a position - this recruiting class is no different.
9. LSU Tigers - Rolling with their BCS title the Tigers got top wide receiver Chris Tolliver and tight end Tyler Edwards, plus defensive end Chancey Aghayere.
10. Oklahoma Sooners - The Sooners have a class that could get better once a couple key prospects  decide where they are going, so for Oklahoma signed top prospects Jameel Owens at wide receiver and defensive tackle Stacy McGee.