COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Continuing the series on the Ohio State NCAA issues three years later with former OSU star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who started the situation as one of the first players that Jim Tressel was warned about trading memorabilia.

Terrelle Pryor

Then: Saturday marked the three-year anniversary of Terrelle Pryor's announcement that his Ohio State career was over. June 7 isn't quite as memorable as Jim Tressel's Memorial Day departure eight days earlier in 2011, but it was appropriate that the quarterback and the coach, so closely linked ever since Tressel grabbed Pryor out of western Pennsylvania as the nation's No. 1 recruit in 2008, went out together. Tressel was a 10-year coach with a national title and seven conference titles. Pryor was a three-year starter who at the time, with 31 victories, was five short of the OSU record for quarterback wins. Both left because of the NCAA's investigation into their violations.

Pryor was involved from the start as one of the first two players that Tressel was warned about selling memorabilia. Pryor's decision to leave Ohio State, without talking to the NCAA, ended his role.

Pryor was also Ohio State's all-time rushing leader among quarterbacks and the Buckeyes' fifth all-time passer, but those records diminished after his 2010 numbers were wiped out as part of the NCAA sanctions.

Now: Pryor is getting acclimated to life with the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks after the Oakland Raiders traded Pryor to Seattle for a seventh-round pick in late April. After the Raiders took him in the third round of the supplemental draft in 2011, Pryor started 10 games in three seasons with the Raiders.

The eighth interview in a multipart series giving voice to those involved with the Ohio State tattoo scandal three years ago, with characters asked to both look back and examine where they are now.

Now he looks like Seattle's third-stringer behind former Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson, and he will play under former USC coach Pete Carroll after twice facing Carroll's Trojans, losing 35-3 at USC in 2008 as a freshman fill-in and losing 18-15 as the sophomore starter in Columbus in 2009.

Pryor said Carroll told him of the 2009 game, "you guys should have had us, we got away with one."

Pryor also said that he and Seattle QB coach Darrell Bevell, a former Wisconsin QB as well, give Wilson a hard time that Pryor and Bevell won the Rose Bowl and Wilson didn't.

"Me and Russell get along very well," Pryor said, talking about the extra film they've watched together. "We have a great relationship."

And Pryor is liking the Carroll coaching method as well, which, as was pointed out when the Buckeyes played the Trojans, is a little different than Tressel's style.

Former Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor is getting a new start in Seattle. He was traded to the Seahawks in April for a seventh-round pick after spending his first three NFL seasons in Oakland.

"Everybody has so much energy," Pryor said. "Coach Carroll has a past of winning, and I see why. They play music during practice, we play music during film room when we're watching film, it's crazy. It's just how he's organized."

The interview: Pryor spoke with cleveland.com by phone Friday morning after agreeing to an interview arranged through the Seahawks. He had talked a bit about his Ohio State past in the last three years, showing some anger at times and offering a more conciliatory tone at others. In this 15-minute call, Pryor's only harsh words related to the NCAA.

His words: Pryor still cannot be a part of Ohio State football. His departure in June of 2011 included a letter from athletic director Gene Smith disassociating Pryor from the Buckeyes for five years. He knows just how long he has left in his ban.

"Obviously, I can't go back for another two years or so," Pryor said. "I love Ohio State. You know, I learned a lot and I had a lot of fun there and I met a lot of friends there. I love the place. It's unfortunate that I let the fans down for making the dumb mistake I made when I was 18. But you know, things happen and you learn from them, and I think the reason it happened to me is for other people to learn, and I'll take that any day."

He can't have anything to do with the athletic department now. But Pryor said he would like to start a scholarship at Ohio State in the future, and he hopes there's a time when he can come back to Columbus.

"I'd love to, if I'm invited or accepted, I'd love to," Pryor said. "I don't want to cause any type of thing. I just want everything to be smooth. Even if I could talk to the guys about not taking things and being smart about the people you deal with, I'd love to do that one day, if the coaches are up to it or the head people at Ohio State are up to it. But that's a couple years away."

Running back Boom Herron, another one of the players suspended in the tattoo scandal, has been back at Ohio State and has spoken to the team. If something like that happens for Pryor, he hopes the fans accept him.

Terrelle Pryor left Ohio State in June of 2011, eight days after Jim Tressel announced his resignation at the coach of the Buckeyes on May 30. Pryor was entering the Woody Hayes Athletic Center for a team meeting on May 30, 2011, about that resignation.

"I hope so. On a personal level, as a leader, I believe I have done a lot for Ohio State. I believe I made a lot of people cheer. I made a lot of plays and I believe I deserve that (positive reception) one day," Pryor said.

"I feel like we're all family. We're all Buckeyes. Everywhere I walk I see Buckeye fans that scream O-H at me to this day. It's crazy. When I walk out the door someone is from Ohio. So I have a lot of love for Ohio State and I have a lot of love for the fans. I have a love for everything that has to do with Ohio State. It's just unfortunate, the situation that rained down on us at the end."

• Pryor saw both his father and his high school mentor, Ted Sarniak, pass away since he left Ohio State. He remains in touch with Tressel, now the president at Youngstown State.

"Tress is still a big father figure to me, he always has been," Pryor said. "It doesn't matter about the (NCAA) situation; he's still like a father figure to me. I've learned an awful lot from him. He'll call me when he has time. He's very busy now with his new job and I'm very appreciative of that, because he's very happy and that's all I want to see for him. The guy has taught me so much about life.

"And he took a big punch, man. He's very unselfish, and everything he's getting he deserves. He's having success and he's doing what he wants. I think God had a bigger calling for him. Instead of worrying about 100 guys, he has (14,000), students now. I know he misses coaching football, maybe someday he'll get back into it, but I know he's enjoying his job and he loves it."

• Former NCAA investigator Tim Nevius, in the course of this series, said he thought the underlying rules that the players violated that began the OSU-NCAA saga were "silly." Pryor, who said again that he sold his memorabilia to help his mother, which the players and the school have said from the start, agreed with that.

"I mean, it is very silly. Just like the guy said, it was silly, I believe it was silly. But at the end of the day, it was a rule and we broke it and we have to live with it," Pryor said. "We broke the rule and you can't do that. The rules were made and that's why the rules are there, you have to abide by them. And we didn't. It's silly, especially with some of the stuff that has been going on the last year or so (at other schools). It's silly compared to that. But like I said, it's the hand I was dealt and we were dealt. We've got to move forward and try to make the best out of it."

• Pryor did make those 10 NFL starts, but his pro career maybe hasn't matched the hopes he had coming out of high school.

He has been energized by the move to the Seahawks, saying, "I'm just performing at a really high level right now. I'm not missing any throws at all. My timing is good. I'm getting taught and spending a lot of time with the quarterbacks coach and those guys hammer us an awful lot just to get things right. I'm picking things up so far. I've only been here about six weeks, and it's amazing how fast I'm picking up the offense, so I'm very excited about that."

But he was set back by how things ended at Ohio State, with his five-game suspension in college applied to the start of his NFL career by commissioner Roger Goodell.

"I don't think I needed another year (at Ohio State)," Pryor said. "I just think I needed that time that I didn't get for the first five games coming out of college. That really held me back. I came into the NFL and I didn't have a chance.

"But I'm in a great, great position learning a lot. And my time will come again, and I'll be a force."

Coming Tuesday: A prison interview with former Ohio State receiver Ray Small