by Ken Gordon, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH , The Columbus Dispatch

In the locker room, feelings were mixed.

The general sense was one of disappointment, of letting an opportunity slip away. But some players were proud that the Buckeyes (10-3) fought back from a 17-6 deficit to take the lead.

Freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor, though, was having none of that.

"It's not good enough," he said. "We needed to win that game. We did hang with them, and we should have had them."

In no uncertain terms, Pryor is setting the tone for next season, which will be his first full year as the starter.

On Monday, he split time with senior Todd Boeckman, and despite having a poor night passing (5 of 14, 66 yards), Pryor contributed with 78 yards rushing and by catching a 5-yard touchdown pass from Boeckman.

Together, he and Boeckman turned a 17-6 deficit into a 21-17 lead with 2:05 remaining.

Pryor "will be a guy that's in a Heisman (Trophy) race, and it may be sooner than we think because he is a leader," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "He played with poise tonight. He took them down to win the game, and Colt (McCoy) just came back. We had a little bit too much time on the clock."

McCoy, Texas' quarterback, accounted for all 78 yards on the 11-play drive to win it, completing 7 of 10 passes.

Ohio State mixed up its defenses on the drive, alternating between zone and man-to-man coverage. McCoy hit some throws against the zone, then barely eked out a 3-yard completion to James Kirkendoll on fourth-and-3, a play on which Chimdi Chekwa was playing tight man coverage.

The winning pass to Quan Cosby came against a blitz. Linebacker Marcus Freeman was playing a short zone in the middle, with man coverage behind him.

McCoy fired a slant over Freeman. Safety Anderson Russell jumped up to try and play the ball and whiffed on Cosby, who had an open path to the end zone.

"On that last play where they brought everybody, (Cosby) said, 'If I catch the same look, give me a slant behind the linebacker,' " McCoy said.

Freeman chalked it up to the fates of football.

"They made the play and we didn't, and there's nothing more to it than that," he said. "We were in a great defense, they made it and we didn't."

Linebacker James Laurinaitis was slightly more bitter.

"There is no perfect call for anything," he said. "We had a chance to make a tackle. We have a chance to get to the quarterback or do this or that. We've got to do it."

The next item of business for OSU is whether running back Chris "Beanie" Wells will give up his senior year and enter the NFL draft. He said the loss would have no bearing on his decision.

"We're going to have a hell of a football team (next season), with Terrelle Pryor, (running back Dan) Herron, and if I did choose to come back, it's going to be a hell of a football team," Wells said.

It's unusual to think that a team can build off a loss, but this is a club that ended the previous two years in shambles after lopsided losses in the national championship game.

Pryor certainly sounded as if this loss, in the final seconds against the nation's third-ranked team, could have a springboard effect.

"It's going to motivate us all just to come back and learn to put some points up on the board and get ready," Pryor said. "We've got to take this, swallow it and come back strong."

kgordon@dispatch.com

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