Jim Tressel stuck to his tradition of sending seniors to Chicago, though his junior QB is the conference's best Heisman candidate.
Ohio State junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor will not represent the Buckeyes at the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon in early August.
Three seniors - defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, receiver Dane Sanzenbacher and offensive lineman Bryant Browning - will speak for Ohio State during two days of interviews.
Each team is bringing three players to the event, in Chicago on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3, and seven of the 11 Big Ten quarterbacks will be there, including Iowa's Ricky Stanzi of Lake Catholic, Wisconsin's Scott Tolzein and new Purdue quarterback Robert Marve, a transfer from Miami.
Senior All-American candidate Cameron Heyward will be one of three Buckeyes speaking for the team at the Big Ten meetings.According to the Big Ten release, since 1970 every Big Ten Heisman winner - Archie Griffin, Desmond Howard, Eddie George, Charles Woodson, Ron Dayne and Troy Smith - has attended the Kickoff Luncheon. Pryor is the most talked-about Heisman candidate in the Big Ten this year, as a third-year starter for the conference favorite.
Pryor's accessibility to reporters has been an issue during his time in Columbus, as his interviews were very limited during his freshman year. That included Ohio State not bringing Pryor to a mandatory bowl interview at the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.
Pryor gradually did more interviews last season, and he was made available for two lengthy interview sessions before the Rose Bowl and handled himself well.
However, Jim Tressel has a history of sending seniors to speak for the Buckeyes at this event. Dating back to 2004, including this year, 20 Ohio State players have been selected to go to Chicago, and only two of them were juniors. They were Marcus Freeman and Vernon Gholston in 2007, when the Buckeyes were short of senior leadership.
Neither linebacker James Laurinaitis nor running back Beanie Wells were chosen to attend by Tressel when they were already stars as juniors.
Still, this exclusion, for a junior quarterback and third-year starter, is a bit of a surprise, even though the Buckeyes have an impressive senior class returning. Pryor is clearly the biggest story in the conference, and Tressel spoke a lot around bowl time about how Pryor and his teammates from the Class of 2008 weren't young guys any longer.
While Heyward is an All-American candidate worthy of plenty of coverage, and Browning and Sanzenbacher are long-time starters and leaders who have always handled themselves with maturity, they're all going to come to Chicago and get a lot of questions about Terrelle Pryor.
Previous Ohio State players who have attended the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon
2004 - Sr Dustin Fox, Sr Lydell Ross
2005 - Sr A.J. Hawk, Sr Nick Mangold, Sr Nate Salley
2006 - Sr Troy Smith, Sr Doug Datish, Sr Quinn Pitcock
2007 - Sr Kirk Barton, Jr Marcus Freeman, Jr Vernon Gholston
2008 - Sr James Laurinaitis, Sr Malcolm Jenkins, Sr Todd Boeckman
2009 - Sr Jake Ballard, Sr Doug Worthington, Sr Kurt Coleman
2010 - Sr Cameron Heyward, Sr Bryant Browning, Sr Dane Sanzenbacher