For college football’s brightest stars such as Mark Ingram, Terrell Pryor, Jacory Harris and Tyrod Taylor it is something that is impossible to avoid. They hear it from their fellow students, their family, their friends, and so called “expert” sports analysts.

You are awesome

You are the best

Nobody can beat you guys

You are unstoppable

You could probably not even practice and win big against that team

Yes, I’m talking about hype and the false reassurances from everyone besides a player’s coaches and fellow teammates. Any coach will stress how important it is not to listen to all of this noise, remain focused, and never take any opponent lightly or game for granted.

Here is a dangerous idea though, what happens when you start buying into all of this hype and begin taking more time reading your press clipping then focusing on next week’s opponent. Most of the time, the moment you get caught in that cycle is the moment things begin crumbling quickly.

So what does a player such as Ohio State quarterback Terrell Pryor do? Pryor is being mentioned as one of the favorites to win the Heisman trophy by every college football analyst at ESPN from Lee Corso to Craig James. He has over 50 thousand students on the Columbus campus that all want to preach to him how unstoppable he and his teammates are. Finally, he constantly hears the talk about games on the schedule that are “sure things” or “definite wins”.

Well Buckeye fans will be happy to hear that Pryor is determined not to let the hype drag him or his team down. In fact he was very candid when speaking about magazine such as Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, and ESPN the magazine who have all been singing the praises of Ohio State.

"Actually, I hate magazines," the junior quarterback said. "I don't even want to see that, because I don't want my mind to be distracted."

Terrell does a nice job of putting this ludicrous concept of unearned praise into perspective, but I think his teammate linebacker Brian Rolle describes the preseason rankings and experts’ projections the best.

"The polls haven't played anybody. So they just go off of what we've done previously," he said. "At the end of the day the way we play is going to determine where we're ranked."

Wow, truer words were never spoken. That is the important thing to remember about these preseason polls and opinions they are basing these projections on the past and what they think will happen in the future. The present isn’t taken into account and that is what coaches and players across the country are thinking about…. the present. Yes, it would be easy for Alabama to reminisce all offseason about last season’s National Championship and rest on their laurels but that will not help them one bit in week one. If top teams such as Alabama, Ohio State, and Texas focus too much on their past accomplishments and the possibilities of the future then there is no way they can focus on their current opponent and the task at end.

While it isn’t done intentionally the nice words and the complements are just one extra hurdle those teams at the top have to clear if they want to reach their ultimate goal of a National Championship. Games aren’t won because of the pregame analysis on ESPN college game day or because of a write up in Sports Illustrated. No, games and eventually titles are won by the work that is done on the football field. It’s nice that Terrell Pryor appears to be aware of that age old truth because not everybody remembers it and it has derailed many teams’ dreams in the past.

Thoughts comments opinions

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