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Published Dec 16, 2020
Signed: Rivals100 running back Evan Pryor
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Joseph Hastings  •  DottingTheEyes
Recruiting Reporter

Buckeye Nation certainly has to be happy with the amount of weapons on offense Ohio State is going to be adding over these next couple of years.

With pledges from elite quarterbacks Kyle McCord and Quinn Ewers, as well as top-20 wideouts Caleb Burton, Emeka Egbuka, Jayden Ballard and Marvin Harrison Jr., the Buckeyes’ aerial attack will be fun to watch when these players get on campus.

Also coming to the program are Evan Pryor and TreVeyon Henderson, both of whom will be enrolling at Ohio State next month. Pryor, who is the second-ranked all-purpose back on Rivals, just faxed in his LOI to Ryan Day’s program.

Even though he wasn’t based in Pennsylvania like Harrison Jr. and McCord are, Penn State was also in contention for Pryor’s services prior to his final decision being made. His sister attends the school and his mom is a fan of PSU, but Ohio State won out yet again over the Nittany Lions for a Rivals100 target when Pryor committed to them on March 16.

Since then, Pryor has not entertained any other schools, even though some coaching staffs had attempted to get him to change his mind. The product out of Cornelius, North Carolina, also got to check out Ohio State’s campus once again a couple of months ago for the Buckeye Bash event, which helped to once again solidify the choice he made.

As mentioned above, Pryor is gearing up to make the move to Columbus in less than a month.

Why Pryor Committed to Ohio State

“Just making sure that I made the right decision,” Pryor told us a month ago. “They haven’t really – since I made my decision – had to do too much with recruiting. I did my research and I know that’s the right school for me. That’s the right place all around. The offense, the coaching staff… just them being Ohio State was good enough for me.”

Analyzing Pryor's Skill Set

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Pryor is the type of running back who is not going to overthink anything and will take advantage of every opportunity presented in front of him. While some running backs will often psyche themselves out and try to do too much, Pryor hits every hole hard and lets the offensive linemen in front of him do their jobs.

The 5-foot-10, 190-pounder is not as shifty or fast as Henderson, but he’s still a home run threat on any given play. This is because of his vision and how well he reads blocks as Pryor does a good job of mixing in both patience and an aggressive mentality to make defenses pay.

After spending time with him last month during our road trip along the mid-Atlantic, I am also impressed with Pryor’s mentality when it comes to the football field. He’s not scared of any competition, and is looking forward to the opportunity of trying to earn some playing time as soon as his freshman season.

During BuckeyeGrove’s trip a month ago, Kevin Noon also had the chance to see Pryor train in person, and had the following to say about his game.

“Pryor certainly looks the part and has the capability of being able to do everything at a high level, not only as a traditional running back but also coming out of the backfield as a pass catcher,” Noon said. “I had the chance to see him going through some extensive drill work recently and he is a fluid receiver that has great ball skills and all of the ability to turn a short gain into a long score.

“It is not as if Ohio State needs any more capable pass catchers on the field with its current run of receiver recruiting, but Pryor’s ability to do everything well will be another arrow in this offensive quiver that is rewriting Ohio State offensive records.”

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove.

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