Buckeye quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, has been this weeks top news story in the realm of college sports (minimal in the grand scheme of things, but hey – it’s something for fans to yell about!). After an admittedly crap performance against a similarly crap Purdue team, Ohio State fans have been calling for Pryor’s head. First of all, we all need a reality check. Pryor is just a kid. A twenty year old playing at one of the top programs in all of college sports. He’s playing a game. Let’s not loose our heads. Now that we’ve all taken a deep breath, we can be crazy fans again.

In the beginning of the week, it was Coach Vest keeping the media wolves at bay, saying he’s on Pryor’s side. Then Pryor’s high school coach, Ray Reitz, called out Ohio State on how they’re using him, saying he should be able to run the ball more and that he looks like a robot in this offense. Even worse, the coach went on to indicate that Pryor would have been a better fit for Rich Rodriguez’s offense over at Michigan. All of this unwanted attention noticeably shook the young athlete, but he seemed a bit more relaxed yesterday. Of course, you’d be feeling relaxed, too, if LeBron James was on your side.

James said he has been speaking to Pryor on the phone in recent weeks to try to help him deal with celebrity at a young age. James knows something about that, since he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated under the headline “The Chosen One” while he was still in high school in Akron, Ohio.

While LeBron increases his kindest athlete street cred, Pryor can breathe a bit easier with the King’s advice. Only time well tell, though, just how relaxed he’s really feeling now. Will Pryor look like the robot his high school coach seems to think he’s become, or will he be the Vince Young sequel he was predicted to be? We’ll see when the Buckeyes take on the Golden Gophers Saturday. I would say it should be an easy game, but I also said that about Purude and look what happened…

[via ESPN]