In wake of Jim Tressel's resignation and the impending implosion of Ohio State's football program, I thought it hilarious that after all the shenanigans by Tressel and Ohio State, it was a Notre Dame man that brought him down.The controversy surrounding OSU and Tressel has been swirling since December. As recently as March, the university president E. Gordon Gee said in response to questions if he had considered dismissing Tressel, "No, are you kidding? Let me just be very clear: I'm just hopeful the coach doesn't dismiss me." Well, all that changed this past weekend.
Sports Illustrated has been working on a story about Tressel and OSU for weeks. According the the article (released Monday):
Last Friday, SI informed Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch of the new allegations and asked that Tressel be made aware of them. Lynch said the school would have some comment by the end of the day. No comment came, and on Saturday, Lynch told SI to contact Tressel's lawyer, Gene Marsh, for any response from the coach; Lynch also said he could not confirm that Tressel had been apprised of the new allegations. The implication was clear: Ohio State was distancing itself from Tressel.What we now know is that Tressel was summoned immediately to athletic director Gene Smith's office on Sunday after returning from vacation. A discussion ensued and Tressel was given a choice: resign or be fired. On Monday morning, he met again and turned in his letter of resignation.
So Notre Dame alumnus Gene Kelly dealt the final death blow to Tressel. The author of the article that finally brought down Tressel after months of controversy that was deflected NUMEROUS times by Tressel, OSU and the NCAA - George Dohrmann. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and you guessed it - another Notre Dame alumnus!!!
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On a related note, I wanted to comment also on the nature of the issues surrounding Tressel and OSU. Many are suggesting this is an isolated compliance incident at OSU, and one that EVERY major BCS school has. The issue is Tressel's lies and coverup. While I agree Tressel's deceit ultimately brought him down, it is only a fraction of the overall problem.
Tressel is a hypocrite. He preaches honesty, integrity, faith and family. Yet he has disregarded these standards repeatedly throughout his career.
- As an assistant at OSU, he rigged a raffle so top recruits would win gear at a football camp - thus making them prefer OSU.
- At Youngstown State as head coach, he hooked up QB Ray Isaac with a booster who provided cash and cars to him and other players. The NCAA gave sanctions, but Tressel was gone to OSU.
- At OSU, he ran a football factory. Family and integrity were just buzzwords. Sure we all know about the tatoos, cars and memorabilia. But the most damning Tressel story I have read isn't an NCAA violation, but strikes a dagger in the heart of Tressel's supposed ethics.
Furthermore, when Maldonado tried to transfer to close-to-home Maryland, he was shocked to find that of his 57 credits over 2 years at OSU, ONLY 17 WERE TRANSFERABLE TO MARYLAND! As a result, he has had to work hard just to transfer and earn his eligibility. OSU doesn't regard it's football players as students, only as athletes. They do whatever they can to keep them eligible with classes like HIV awareness, coaching football (taught by Tressel), remedial reading, remedial math, issues affecting student athletes, and even getting course credits for playing football!
Ohio State football is an absolute joke, and Jim Tressel is only part of the problem. People can make fun of Notre Dame and our football performance over the last 15 years, but I can tell you one thing: Notre Dame is preparing our football players to not only play football, but to have a career after football is done. We are doing things the right way. It has taken time to find the right man for the job, and I hope Kelly is finally him. However, we have NEVER sacrificed our principles to achieve instant success on the field. Unless Ohio State makes a commitment to overhaul their program, I will continue to give them the same respect they give to their own players' education.
9 comments:
Et tu, Theodore?
Why did you have to send out the e-mail blog reminder for easily the worst blog entry ever?
Booooo to this blog entry. BOOOO.
He's such a two faced cheater pants
CFB is going to implode soon. Now that the SEC is talking about implementing "full cost scholarships" it's going to become a shootout with recruiting. It's ridiculous and it makes me sad as a CFB fan.
That said, I love watching tOSU get wrecked. And now they're after Pryor for showing up to Tressel's resignation announcement in a souped up sports car. Is that kid retarded?!
This is Kevin, and I'm on vacation with an OSU fanatic (my brother-in-law), and his thoughts on this are threefold:
1) The article really doesn't come out with anything new or damning - anything in it had already been in the Columbus Dispatch. I also agree with him - I didn't read anything in the article that was shocking or new that I hadn't already read in the Dispatch.
2) tOSU is getting rid of Tressel because there's more problems and if they get rid of him they hope to stop the NCAA from digging more.
3) Urban Meyer is coming to tOSU for the 2012 season. It's a done deal (his thoughts, I just laughed).
4) Terrel Pryor is leaving ASAP. The promise he made to stay was to Tressel, and with Jim gone, and rumored allegations personally pending against Pryor, there's no point or reason for him to stay.
He makes good points, but I think he's just trying to sugar-coat things. I simply can't wait until they get ROCKED at Nebraska in week 6.
Kevin,
I pretty much agree with all of what your bro-in-law says except for the Urban Meyer speculation (no ones touching the job until the punishment is known and if it isn't worse than USC). Even best case I can't see an Urban Meyer, Stoops, Pelini hire.
Just making one point, but first have to get the disclaimers and caveats out of the way lest anyone think I'm giving people a pass. Tressel deserved to be forced down and Ohio State deserves to be punished to the nth degree. I do hate the NCAA and their hypocrisy and think this article by Whitlock (stay with me here): http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Former-Ohio-State-coach-Jim-Tressel-is-product-of-flawed-system-053111 is excellent. However, you play the game, you'd better stick to the rules. In this case and in most the cover-up is way worse than the crime.
But I'm getting a huge kick out of the media here as you guys as Notre Dame fans have repeatedly said as well in the past and innumerous blog posts. They shake their heads and act so shocked and outraged that something like this went on. I keep thinking they're getting the vapors and need to retire to their fainting chair. College kids over the years have sold stuff given to them for some spending cash and hung out playing video games, getting tattoos and smoking the pot. OMG, MERCIFUL HEAVENS!`!111!! How could Tressel not known about such horrible things!11!`1! That CNNSI article was the worst. As hard as that 'writer' wanted to drop a bomb shell there is nothing in there except what we already knew and some axe-grinding. I mean c'mon we're talking piddly crap here. This ain't Baylor basketball where a coach covered up a murder of one player by another. At worst Tressel looked the other way and best he didn't or didn't want to know. Now if the school set up a slush fund to pay players after being warned by the NCAA (*cough* SMU *cough*), call me. Whatever, the media had their field day.
What this really is about is Tressel presented an image of one who was above the fray...his book was quite ridiculous in that regard. I get that. The media loves to tear people down like that. OSU will get their punishment now and we'll go on...somehow I think they'll be ok. Michigan fans have been the funniest, but again I understand that after getting their heads kicked in for 5 years, they might have a shot now. Might. As from a Catholic family from northern Indiana that has a looooong tradition of Notre Dame love, (I still have a 1922(?) ticket from Notre Dame/ Georgia Tech at Soldier Field from my grandfather and my 98 year old aunt doesn't miss a game on TV), I can only hope no one ever digs up dirt on the Irish. Tressel presented himself as above the fray, but no one does it better than Notre Dame. The media and head-shakers would truly need to change their pants.
If it turns out that ND has been cheating, boy will I be pissed! Not because we weren't doing it by the books, but because we were cheating and we've still sucked for the past 20 years.
But I really believe if ND is cheating, they're the Lance Armstrong of CFB - a private school with tons of money and run by the Catholic church. No one's every digging dirt on them...
Ahhh! The ULTIMATE damage control by OSU apologists. "The article really doesn't come out with anything new or damning." and "Where's the bombshell?"
OSU fans are completely missing the points on this article. This is absolutely damning on more than one level.
1) All along, OSU has claimed this tattoo incident was an isolated event. They do things right and simply made a mistake for the best of the players. This article goes into EXTENSIVE detail with ironclad dates, witnesses and names that all corroborate the same stories. This was an extensive problem at OSU, over a long period of time. The very definition of "lack of institutional control!"
2) This article has already brought the NCAA teams to Cbus. The more the NCAA digs, the worse it will get. If I rooted for OSU, I'd be REAL nervous about hoops. I wonder how Thad Motta has turned them into an instant powerhouse?
3) Worst of all, Dohrmann did his own investigation for this article over a period of about a month or two. He had no access to current players, coaches or administrators. He had no power to compel his sources to talk. With all those obstacles, he was able to piece this whole mess together into the story. This begs the question, WHY COULDN'T OSU FIGURE THIS OUT IN THE 5-6 MONTHS SINCE SINCE THIS BROKE? The answer is simple, they didn't want to know. They had neither the means or will to properly investigate even when the evidence was THROWN at them. Hell, untill this article was leaked, they were steadfast behind Tressel. That is pathetic, and the athletic department will pay dearly.
ps: Jason Whitlock is a race-baiting mutherf$&^er. I refuse to read anything that his name is attached to, and will instantly change the channel if he is on. I will never forgive his stance on ND and Ty, and hope he burns in hell as Satan's a$$ wiper.
There's a reason he has been fired from every job he has ever worked out. I guess he gets to write for FoxSports now. Better update my bookmarks to delete that site.
LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA
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