You can well imagine what dominated the conversations throughout Ohio yesterday. Everyone was buzzing everywhere about it. Here’s the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s frontpage for today.
Tressel’s downfall was death by a thousand papercuts. It was a slow painful process. He could not contain things. One more thing happened just as it seemed the worst was over. The Dohrman piece in Sports Illustrated was more of the same. Nothing so outrageous or damning by itself. Little that directly tied — only implied or strongly suggested — Tressel was well aware of much that was happening. It was just the final few nails for the coffin.
Ultimately the one thing that truly did Tressel in was back in March when he was forced to acknowledge that he had been alerted to what was happening.
Andy Staples at SI.com really does nail this.
Former Buckeyes walk-on Chris Cicero tried to do his program a solid in April 2010 when he sent Tressel the e-mails about players trading memorabilia for cash and tattoos at the Fine Line Ink tattoo parlor. Those e-mails ultimately unraveled the carefully crafted narrative. Sad as it sounds, Cicero would have saved the Buckeyes a lot of grief had he loved his school a little less and forgotten to press “send.”
Of all the tools a coach has at his disposal — schematic brilliance, the ability to inspire loyalty, a knack for winning over the best recruits — the most important is plausible deniability. Unsavory things must be taken care of in every high-profile program, but it’s the job of low-level staffers to ensure none of the nastiness ever reaches the head coach’s desk. A graduate assistant who hears about players taking discounts from a local business is supposed make it go away quietly and not leave a paper trail.
What infuriates Ohio State fans most is that other head coaches have sailed along with no personal punishment or a mere wrist slap. Those fans fail to understand that those coaches wore the armor of plausible deniability. Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari has had Final Four appearances vacated at UMass and Memphis, yet the NCAA never convicted Calipari of any wrongdoing. However when Marcus Camby got that money or Derrick Rose got that SAT score, someone else did it. Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun got hit with a three-game suspension earlier this year for failing to monitor the men on his staff in a case involving an agent funneling money to former UConn recruit Nate Miles. Why didn’t Calhoun get hammered the way Tressel might? All the NCAA could prove was that Calhoun’s staffers did it. Those guys lost their jobs. Calhoun had plausible deniability.
The moment Tressel responded to a Cicero e-mail — thereby acknowledging its receipt — he stripped himself of his armor. From that moment, he was exposed. He could have reported the e-mail to his superiors, who would have passed it along to the NCAA. That probably would have gotten quarterback Pryor and receiver DeVier Posey, the 2010 Buckeyes listed in the e-mail, suspended for four games. That was the penalty for Georgia receiver A.J. Green, who was penalized in 2010 for selling an autographed jersey.
That might have been the end. With the players suspended, maybe no one would have dug deeper to find out Buckeyes have been getting hooked up for years at tattoo parlors. Tressel almost certainly would still be Ohio State’s coach. Tressel chose another option, though.
The key feature of plausible deniablility is the emphasis of plausible, no matter how much it stretches the term. As long as there is no direct link or indication of direct knowledge, coaches can always claim to have not known. There is always a loyal assistant to sacrifice. Some buffer between what is happening and what the coach claims he doesn’t know.
When Tressel acknowledged the e-mail, sat on it, and then willfully lied to the NCAA about his knowledge — several times. That was what sealed his fate.
Scarlet and Gray homers may still try to argue that Tressel made an error in judgment — relying desperately on the FBI investigation aspect — or that he didn’t understand the rules. Neither of which holds much credibility. Tressel was too experienced, he has shown in the past he knew how to willfully stay out of the loop.
Tressel was sloppy or lazy. He forgot about public records that put it out in the open. Did not seem to Otherwise, yes. It would have stayed unknown. And he would have been fine. Everyone would have suspected that Tressel and Ohio State knew what was happening, but no one would have been able to prove anything.
Two players in this situation came from Western PA. Dorian Bell’s name keeps coming up in this, and Terrelle Pryor. Pryor. Yeesh. Think Pitt, Michigan and Penn State aren’t all breathing a deep sigh of relief, even as they laugh at OSU’s downfall?
As Brian notes, the NCAA is devoting resources into investigating just Pryor. More importantly, in one of the better years for talent in Western PA, Tressel and Ohio State are out of the picture. We’ll see how that goes for Pitt.
I for one am glad to see these cheating programs systematically go down. USC and Ohio State that have dominated the last decade are showing why they dominated. My guess is the others are just as bad and its only a matter of time for Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and the rest of the usual suspects. The problem is that college football is so financially successful that the corruption will never go away until the dollars start to go away.
If Pitt ever wins a national title again I hope they do it the right way.
This is a really interesting time in terms of NCAA investigations, etc: with more and more social media and other “news” outlets digging into pretty much everything, I’m guessing this is just the start of an avalanche of similar stories, violations, punishments, etc.
“I never thought this would happen to OSU, I always felt they were “too big to fail”.”
That is spot on BnG, which leads me to believe that OSU is hoping Tressel’s resignation will call off the NCAA dogs. And that means they would have a lot more to hide than free tattoos.
The Tattoo artist is a suspected drug dealer, this could get real ugly. You connect the dots.
Wonder who will ‘dot the i’ at a game next year..
Maurice Clarett ?
The Drug Dealer is also a tattoo artist, which would be a good front for a drug dealer.
According to the new article in SI, the facts are that ever since his days at YSU, Tressel consistently looked the other way and claimed ignorance when it was obvious his kids were involved in things they shouldn’t have been. This time, there was evidence that he knew of it, but continued to deny it until he couldn’t get away with it any more.
Now ESPN (and to a lesser extent, SI) blew this way out of proportion, and Tressel paid probably too steep of a price for his sins. But then again, he’s paid very well to be held to a higher standard. He knew the deal going in, and has plenty of money in the bank.
Dohrman’s piece in SI is a joke, BTW. Given the timing of the SI piece and Tressel’s resignation, I thought that Dohrman was going to reveal the smoking gun. He didn’t. He just rehashed a bunch of seven year old stories and added a few new names to Tat-Gate.
Anyone who doesn’t understand why they make such a big deal out of players selling a few gold pants needs to watch ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary on SMU. Still, I tend to think that players getting arrested for assault (hiya Penn State) is a bigger deal. But the NCAA doesn’t agree. Whatever.
Hail to Pitt, and here’s hoping that OSU’s coaching search goes smoother than Pitt’s did.
(Just as an explanation to anyone who hasn’t seen me post before, I’m a proud alum of both Pitt and OSU. They’re both great universities that I’m lucky let me in.)
What I don’t get, is, why would a coach do this. I mean, with a 100 4 and 5 star recruits, lining up, hoping to be one of your 20 guys, why sell out for one guy???
Sounds like greed, I guess. I mean, if you have 100 slices of the best pepperoni pizza knocking on your door, why through it all away, because someone has one more slice, that might have an extra piece or two of pepperoni on it.
Oh, well, guess Mr. Rogers wasn’t as clean as his appearance led on.
A bad mark, on, Blackeye Nation!!!!
And I also agree, Frank, that all the kids who were going to go to Ohio State but suddenly aren’t sure, should go to Pitt. Screw Notre Dame, Michigan, or Penn State. But then again, I’m biased as hell.
I don’t care how much of a can’t miss the kid is suppossed to be, you got 100 other 4 and 5 star kids lined up???
Again, not arguing, agreeing with you. Just amazes me, why a coach with his resume, Nat Champ, bowl after bowl, always at least a top 5 or top 10 ranking, would do that for one guy???
I guess what I’m saying is, Coach Tressell, “why’d you cheat??”, you could have won without cheating!!!!
Very disappointing!
Terrelle Pryor is at the center of this whole Tressel mess. Pryor was the number one college prospect in the country. He was reported to be heading for Michigan when Rich Rod got their head coaching job.
My guess, Tressel was scared to death that Pryor in Rich Rod’s offense, could turn the Michigan program around QUICKLY. Pryor was a potential game changer. Again, my guess, is that during the recruitment of Pryor, Tressel told his minions, “Do whatever it takes to get this kid and keep him out of Ann Arbor.” If that meant looking the other way if a few extra benefits were given, so be it.
And then when the relatively minor tattoo stuff happened, Tressel tried to bury it. Why? Because he knew that it was only the tip of the iceberg with Pryor. And once the NCAA started digging, they would find a whole lot more. It seems like that is what is happening now.
This has been a trend with Tressel going back to YSU … and quite simply, it has all caught up to him. Pryor just is the superstar pro tempore
He is an outstanding athlete. If he had a future in the NFL, I thought that he would have opted for the draft, especially in light of what was going on before the draft. He is not the classical QB, but perhaps he can be another Michael Vick.Or perhaps his football career ends after his last OSU game.
The OSU web site indicates that as of 08/05/2010, Pryor has not declared a major. He said that he is still “exploring”. Although not stated in his bio, my guess is that he is not a regular on the Dean’s List.
Also my guess is that when he seeks a job in the real world, the interview my go something like this:
“What do you mean do I have a resume? Didn’t I tell you that my name is Terrelle Pryor? That should be enough information”
I trust that he will order the tattoos that he desires while the auto dealer can still afford to pay for them.
The focus has been shifted on Pryor to keep it from focusing on where it belongs…..the two along with Tressel who tried to make these violations ‘go away’.
That being AD Gene Smith and OSU President G. Gordon Gee. And Jim Delaney was also part of the coverup and of strong arming the NCAA to let Pryor and the others play in the Sugar Bowl, to finally beat an SEC team. (Arkansas at that, not exactly an annual national power)
Pryors and the Dorian Bells of the world. If truth be known these two couldn’t legitimately get into ACC.
