Next up? It may very well be Terrelle Pryor, whose high school career dwarfed those of all the stars that preceded him in one of the nation's most competitive and closely watched football regions.

Pryor, a 6-foot-6, 225-pound bundle of talent, is the latest in a lengthy line of exceptional players from western Pennsylvania that also includes Tony Dorsett, LaVar Arrington and Bill Fralic.

"Not in my lifetime have I seen a player like Terrelle, and I've watched football for 40 years," said Ray Reitz, his coach at Jeannette High School. "When you're great, you're great. He could compete at any level."

Reitz, who saw Dorsett in high school, isn't alone in tossing out such praise for the only player in Pennsylvania high school history to rush for more than 4,000 yards and throw for more than 4,000 in a career. He finished with 4,250 yards rushing and 4,249 passing.

Pryor has already won several national player of the year awards. He was the MVP of the nationally televised U.S. Army All-American Bowl game in San Antonio earlier this month. He is also the No. 1-rated player by nearly every major recruiting service.

Pryor is special for another reason, too: Only two weeks from NCAA Division I-A national letter of intent day, Pryor is uncommitted — making him the object of one of the most intense coast-to-coast recruiting competitions in recent years.

The reasons why are obvious.

Pryor's size, speed, arm strength, acceleration and athleticism are uncommon for a quarterback so young. Watching him play high school football was much like watching LeBron James play Ohio high school basketball: He was so much better than those around him, it was like a man playing among boys.

This past season, Pryor had 3,788 yards of total offense, rushing for 1,899 yards and passing for 1,889 on a 16-0 team that scored a state-record 860 points, or 105 more than the previous record. Pryor ran for 33 touchdowns and threw for 23, averaging a touchdown every four times he touched the ball.

No wonder why college coach after college coach has told Pryor the same thing: Go to that coach's school, and it automatically becomes a national title contender. He is looking at Michigan, Ohio State, LSU and Oregon, but schools frequently fall on and off the list.

"He's a program changer. If you get him, you're going to get a lot of other great athletes to follow," Reitz said.

How good an athlete is Pryor? Despite having no preseason practice, he had 24 points, 11 rebounds, six dunks, four blocked shots and five steals in his first basketball game this season, only four days after his final football game.

While Pryor competed in the second smallest of Pennsylvania's four classes, he has played basketball against players from those schools and dominated. Few recruiters who have watched him doubt he would have done the same thing in football.

Two major recruiting sites, Superprep.com and Rivals.com, list him No. 1 nationally and compare him to former Texas quarterback Vince Young for his ability to make as many plays with his legs as with his arm.

At a recent pep rally honoring Jeannette for being ranked No. 5 nationally by Maxpreps.com, Pryor was clearly tiring of the recruiting pressure.

Assistant coaches from Penn State and Ohio State were in the room, well aware that Pryor was traveling to Michigan for an official visit two days later. Before then, he had another basketball game to play and hundreds of text messages to plow through.

Despite the ban on coaches sending text messages, dozens of messages from recruiting services, fans, friends and outsiders who somehow obtain his number pile up on Pryor's cell phone if he leaves it off for more than a few hours.

"It's not overwhelming," Pryor said of the intense recruiting. "I was forewarned about it, but I wasn't prepared for it — I haven't been through it before, so I couldn't be prepared."

Juggling an all-state basketball career — he is closing in on 2,000 points for his career — and recruiting trips is also proving difficult.

"It is tiring," Pryor said. "I'm just trying to get it over with and move on. Of course, you're looking at all the top colleges in the country, so it's going to be hard."

Reitz offers another reason for Pryor's indecision: his difficulty in saying no. Pryor is inherently shy, his coach said, and is aware he will disappoint many coaches with his final decision.

"All this attention is embarrassing to him because he is such a good kid," Reitz said.

Pryor may be the most recruited player in western Pennsylvania since Washington High running back Brian Davis, a national high school player of the year in the mid 1980s. Davis' career at Pitt ended quickly because of academic problems, and he never played college football again.

No one who knows Pryor expects that to happen to him.

Pryor has a 3.4 grade-point average, goes to class and is being mentored by Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, who met him through a relative and is helping guide him through the recruiting process.

Pryor's parents split up years ago and neither currently lives in Jeannette, which is 25 miles east of Pittsburgh. Pryor has lived with his godfather throughout high school, yet has managed to stay grounded and focused with his life, school work and his athletic career.

"I don't think everybody will know where he's going for sure until signing day (Feb. 6)," said Batch, who went to Eastern Michigan and thus has no personal stake in where Pryor winds up.

Pryor is one player that doesn't need one of those prerequisite highlight DVDs to show off to his recruiters.

Every game provided highlights, from the 53-yard touchdown run on his first carry of the season, during a 60-0 victory against Brownsville in which he was never tackled, to his final carry, a 41-yard TD run that put the Jayhawks up 49-7 against Dunmore in the state title game.

No wonder there are dozens of Pryor "rookie cards" already selling on eBay, even though he is not yet in college. By the end of the season, strangers lugging bags of footballs began showing up at Jeannette's practices, seeking autographs they planned to sell.