Wolverine Wednesday: Kids Don't Go to Ohio State to Study Public Relations

They clearly don't understand PR in Columbus.  They have made one mistake after another trying to manage tattoo-gate. 

Let's take a look at how poorly OSU has handled their Public Relations in this matter:

12/23/2010: AD Gene Smith:  “There are no other NCAA violations around this case,” Smith declared. “We’re very fortunate we do not have a systemic problem in our program. This is isolated to these young men, isolated to this particular incident. There are no other violations that exist.”

Really?  Why would you say "we do not have a systemic problem in our program" if you don't?  He knew they had one. 

3/8/2011: Tressel Press Conference after Yahoo report that he knew the players sold their gear.

• Jim never apologizes and just says he made a minor mistake not letting OSU know about the email.
• The school suspends Tressel two games against two weak MAC teams
• President Gordon Gee drops this line (regarding JT's job status) “No, are you kidding me? I’m just hopeful that the coach doesn’t dismiss me”

3/18/2011: Tressel extends his suspension from 2 games to 5 games under media pressure on 2 games being a joke

4/20/2011: AD Gene Smith calls the Tressel situation a nightmare in a interview


5/18/2011: During the Big Ten Spring Meetings:  AD Gene Smith gives his support to his head coach Jim Tressel

5/30/2011: OSU decided to fire ask Tressel to resign.  On Memorial Day when there was little to no sports activity.  No NBA finals or even the Indy 500.  A day with only a few baseball games.  

The reason for the timing was not for the respect for the Military or anything else you have read or heard.  It was because the SI article was due out the next day and OSU wanted to get in front of the article.  OSU was alerted about the article and potential violations on Friday.  Jim was on vacation and returned on Saturday.  Sunday they discussed the situation and Monday they made it public. 

5/31/2001: NCAA and OSU are investigating Pryor and his 8 cars in 3 years. 

Stay tuned I'm sure it will get worse.

...Jim Tressel

So as you may know Jim Tressel resigned as head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. This comes after months of lies, scandals and cover-ups stemming from an incident that in which players received cash and discounted tattoos from the owner of a local tattoo parlor who was the subject of a federal drug-trafficking case. Tressel said that the ongoing investigations were a distraction for himself and the team. I assume he though tit would be best if he resigned. He and 5 other players were already suspened the 1st 5 games of the upcoming season. Tressel signed a NCAA compliance form in September stating he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by athletes. His contract, in addition to NCAA rules, specified that he had to tell his superiors or compliance department about any potential NCAA rules violations. Instead he chose to forward emails to Ted Sarniak, reportedly a mentor for Pryor back in his hometown of Jeannette, Pa. I am going to end that there and talk about how sad and stupid this is. Tattoos!!!! Seriously? You did this over tattoos and cash. It is well known that many student athletes are broke and hungry. A lot of them receive illegal cash payments from boosters and outsiders looking to get a piece of their future pie or to just do whatever it takes to get a championship and money for their school. Whatever the case is do student athletes need to be paid for their participation? Possibly. This has been an issue for years and some say yes and others say no. How much would they be paid? What sports deserve the most money for their athletes? Many other questions come up but so far no solution. A lot of fans are going to be upset with Pryor for what they see as getting their football coach fired. This is understandable and he should accept it. While I agree with their anger I would like them to eventually get over it. While he is a man, he is a young man, and he will make many more mistakes, though this may be the biggest one. I am giving Jim Tressel a Digit Up for owning his mistake and not taking anyone down with him. He was willing to impose a 5 game suspension on himself, and now he is will to lose his job to try his best to take the heat off of Ohio State before the season starts.

Surprise! Tressel Has Always Been Dirty

The SI rumored article is out.  I hope we now can  stop hearing all over ESPN radio and other places that Jim is a guy with high integrity and just made one bad decision to "protect" his players.  This is a man that hasn't played by the rules since he was at Youngstown State.  This man did what ever it took to win, which included taking a blind eye to everything wrong outside the program and setting up "special" deals for his players with boosters.  I just heard OSU's President/part time comedian Gordon Gee say that Jim and the Ohio State program continues to have reputation of high integrity.  Think again Carrot Top!

The article details a number of infractions over an 8 year period.  Including:

• Tressels NCAA problems at YSU - that have already been reported and are very similar to the problems currently at OSU.
• Not 6 players trading gear for Tattoo's at least 28 players
• Players driving cars they couldn't afford
• Players would hang out at 2 different tattoo parlors where they would: drink, play video games and smoke weed. 
• Some players traded signed gear for marijuana
• Tressel was setting up phony raffles as an OSU assistant so that top recruits would win
• SI informed OSU about the article on Friday, which clearly lead to his firing resignation today.

The story basically portrays a man that tricked us all by having a "senatorial" image but was clearly playing outside the rules to win football games.   Bolded below is my favorite line from the piece.  The section refers to when Jim was an assistant under Earl Bruce at OSU in the mid -80's.

One of Tressel's duties then was to organize and run the Buckeyes' summer camp. Most of the young players who attended it would never play college football, but a few were top prospects whom Ohio State was recruiting. At the end of camp, attendees bought tickets to a raffle with prizes such as cleats and a jersey. According to his fellow assistant, Tressel rigged the raffle so that the elite prospects won -- a potential violation of NCAA rules. Says the former colleague, who asked not to be identified because he still has ties to the Ohio State community, "In the morning he would read the Bible with another coach. Then, in the afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to buy those raffle tickets. That's Jim Tressel."

That's Jim Treseel, former Ohio State Football coach.  What a memorial day to remember.

Michigan Monday: Tressel is Done

Like I suggested months ago, Jim Tressel has decided to resign from Ohio State.   Many of you know the story and the crime, but do you?

Pultizer Prize winning SI writer George Dohrmann is about to release a story that is supposed to bring new allegations to light on the OSU program.   The story is expected to be released today/tonight.  The story was originally going to be released on Tuesday at 12:00.

So this firing/resignation was a clear attempt to get in front of that story. It seemed OSU was pretty intent on riding forward on the Tattoo-gate allegations with Tressel.

Is this a good day for Michigan?  I don't know.  It's clear our biggest rival hasn't been playing by the same rules.

Is Tressel's era at OSU a total fraud?  I think there can be a clear case for that.  His YSU allegations were known when OSU hired him.  OSU knew what they were getting when they hired him.  They danced with the devil and now they are in hell.

OSU has been owning the Wolverines for years and most years had the better team.  Now there will be an asterisk on all those games.  OSU and Tressel cheated and has been cheating for many years.  This isn't an isolated incident this has been going on for a number of years.

What is next for Tressel?  He is done in college football for a number of years.  He will get a "show" penalty from the NCAA and won't be able to coach in college until his NCAA suspension (TBD) is up.

Who is the next coach?  Luke Fickell will coach next year and then anything can happen after that.  A number of people are predicting Urban Meyer.   If I'm Urban why would I want to leave Florida for a school that is under a huge NCAA cloud?  I wouldn't count him out but I would be surprised if he took that job.   He has a new job at ESPN and will only work a couple of days a week.  He can work on his health and spend more time with his family with his current gig.  He turned down ND for Florida, I expect him to stay at ESPN for at least a couple of years.

I'm willing to bet Les Miles is trying to figure out at way to turn this situation into a raise or contract extension.  :)

How will this effect recruiting for the Wolverines in Ohio?  It won't hurt!  Expect the Wolverines to continue to do well in Ohio this year. 

Did he get fired or resign? Did Gary Moeller resign?  Clearly both were fired.  If Tressel was paid a "package" he was fired.  If OSU doesn't own him a dime he resigned.  OSU clearly wouldn't have to pay a severance package since Jim lied to the NCAA.

What makes me the most sick is Tressel came off as this high integrity, clean cut coach, who always did the right thing and clearly that was as far from the truth as possible.   

I will repeat my earlier statement:  OSU danced with the devil to beat Michigan and now they find themselves in HELL.

Last point to ponder:  Did Terrelle Pryor get two coaches fired?  Thank you for picking OSU TP, Thank you!