Evan Pryor back to ‘original form’ after long recovery for Buckeyes
COLUMBUS — Evan Pryor swung out of the backfield to the right on what’s known as a wheel route in the second Ohio State preseason practice, and eyeballed a pass as he raced down the sideline.
He didn’t know it immediately, but running backs coach Tony Alford held his breath, if only for an instant. Irony and empathy hung heavy in the warm morning air, almost exactly to the day when Pryor went down with a knee injury in 2022 preseason camp.
“It was the same play that he got hurt on,” Alford said. “So he runs it. He gets knocked down. He comes back and says ‘I’m good.’ I said ‘What do you mean you’re good?’ He says ‘That was the same play I got hurt on.’ I said ‘I know.’
“It wasn’t about catching it or not catching it. In his mind it was ‘This is where I got hurt. I just did it, and I’m good.’ So for him mentally that helped validate, ‘OK, men, I’m back.’ “
This time a year ago the Ohio State offensive staff had plans for Pryor. He had come on in the spring of 2022, his second year, and left many seeing shades of the former Buckeye-now-Washington Commanders star Curtis Samuel in his versatile but more than anything speedy abilities.
Pryor appeared to have the ability to spice up the threat level of the already ultra-rich offense behind returning regulars TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams.
Then came the injury, a blown patellar tendon that needed surgery to fix.
A couple days later, on the eve of his surgery, he went into the Woody Hayes Athletics Center for some treatment, then made his way on crutches to the outdoor field to the spot “I got hurt at,” he recalled this week. “I wanted to pray over there, because of what I was going through at the time. I had a lot of stuff in my head.
He returned to the indoor field, limped the length of it on his crutches then leaned against the east wall, next to where his friend Henderson was laying on a blowup mattress for a mid-day nap.
“We chopped it up with Trey some, then went about my day,” Pryor said. “That’s all it was, just coming out here, talking to my guy, just soaking it in.
“It was a moment for me.”
His life has been full of steppingstone moments ever since, and as he said, cheered on and supported by teammates, Alford and the coaches and the training and medical staff.
After the surgery, Ohio State chief physical therapist Adam Stewart took on his case.
“Me and Stew, this whole offseason, we’ve been putting in work,” Pryor said. “I trust Stew, I trust what he did. Therefore, when I go out there now, besides that first day, I don’t have any worries. I’m just going out there trying to get better, trying to compete.”
The aim — from the first day walking on his own, then light jogging, then getting cleared to run again about seven months in, to being cleared late June finally to take part in offseason drills with the team – was focused on the start of Ohio State camp and, really, that first wheel route down the sideline.
“I didn’t even realize it till the ball was snapped, and I turned my head and I was, ‘Oh, this is awfully familiar,’ “ Pryor said of the play. “Coach Alford knew it before I did. When I got back to the huddle he was telling me about it.
“But I needed that, I need stuff like that. I need to get roughed up, I need to hit the ground. I need to run wheel routes the same place I got hurt, because it’s just a situation I’m trying to put behind me so I can put my best foot forward.”
Almost a year to the day, indeed, he has big plans again. Again diving into the competition in the five-deep Ohio STate running backs room, Pryor said his intention is clear.
“Eat,” he said. As he said, Henderson, Williams, Dallan Hayden, Chip Trayanum and himself, “we kind of have blinders on, we all continue to carve out better versions of ourselves.
“When we look up we still have the best room in the country.”
The approach with Pryor, Alford said, is to work him back into the grind, “not just throw him to the wolves, if you will, right away. So there’s going to be a transitional period of building him back into it, which he’s been good.
”And he’s champing at the bit to continue to go and get more reps, and kind of peel that back a little bit. We’re saying ‘You’re gonna get yours, we’ve got to build it. Not all at once.’ “
Just like when Pryor was dealing with the blow of the injury, Alford said the emphasis had to be on the welfare of the person, not just the player and what his absence meant to the Ohio State offense.
“I felt way worse for him than I did us,” Alford said. “I was worried about his mental state and where he was emotionally. So that was my biggest concern. …
“These kids put their heart and soul into this thing, this is a very, very important thing for them. So you want to make sure you are taking care of their mental state.”
Pryor said how close he is to full speed remains to be seen, because Ohio State doesn’t move into full contact drills – real football — until later this week.
“It’s a different gear I have to myself when we go live,” Pryor said. “But honestly these last two days I have felt like myself a lot. Wheel routes. Outrunning defenders. I’ve been doing a lot better job, a big emphasis on making guys miss, something I always kept in my bag before I go injured.
“So coach Alford has been on this [journey] with me, too, just helping me get back to my original form.”
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