Tressel resigns at Ohio State

“It’s the cover-up that got Tressel, not that crime itself,” said Brent Musburger, ESPN’s college football expert, on SportsCenter this morning.

On a day that many Americans gather as a family and grill out, kicking off summer and remembering the men and women of our armed forces, Jim Tressel decided to call it a career at Ohio State, resigning amidst a cloud of NCAA investigations.

The University released these statements earlier today:

“In consultation with the senior leadership of the Board of Trustees, I have been actively reviewing matters attendant to our football program, and I have accepted Coach Tressel's resignation,” said President E. Gordon Gee. “The University's enduring public purposes and its tradition of excellence continue to guide our actions.”

Jim Tressel said, “After meeting with University officials, we agreed that it is in the best interest of Ohio State that I resign as head football coach. The appreciation that Ellen and I have for the Buckeye Nation is immeasurable.”

Athletics Director Gene Smith said, “We look forward to refocusing the football program on doing what we do best representing this extraordinary University and its values on the field, in the classroom, and in life. We look forward to supporting Luke Fickell in his role as our football coach. We have full confidence in his ability to lead our football program.”

Ray Ratto of CBSSports.com wrote, “And no, this is not a tragedy. Tragedy is when you don't have it coming. Retribution is when you do. Jim Tressel took care of himself while acting like he would never do so, and shamed himself.”

And of course, after my dad, Ohio State class of 1984, made some pretty scathing comments in late April (http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/04/thoughts-on-ohio-state-and-jim-tressel.html) people may want to know what he thinks.

So here you go: “Can we get rid of the cheating players too?”

The Columbus Dispatch’s website still proclaims the amount of days that have passed since Michigan last beat Ohio State. The count sits at 2,746, and in 180 days, that count might re-start. On the last Saturday in November the two schools will meet in what should be a very muted rivalry game, depending on how many Ohio State players are still eligible at that point.

According to the ESPN.com Big Ten blog, “Tressel boasts a 9-1 record against archrival Michigan and is the only Ohio State coach to defeat the Wolverines in seven consecutive games.”

But, as my dad has noted on more than one occasion, it really doesn’t matter if you can beat Michigan if you’re not doing it the right way.

Thoughts on Ohio State and Jim Tressel

It seems that everyone wants to see Jim Tressel ousted at Ohio State. But one OSU graduate had some very, very passionate remarks regarding his alma mater’s head coach.

I really could care less what the school up north of here decides to do with their head coach. It seems that they are in a lose-lose situation. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty, “The question The Ohio State University needs to be pondering is this: At what point does its soul matter more than its football coach’s ability to beat Michigan?”

Well, a 1984 graduate of “The” Ohio State University, my dad, Steve recently took to everyone’s favorite quote machine to answer these questions. In response to a question posed to him by my former co-worker Joe Stanek, my dad said, “I say fire the coach and never let the players step foot on the OSU field again. Cleaning house is not a bad thing. OSU will still win games. They fired Woody, and lived through Earle Bruce.”

My dad, Steve (on the right), is a 1984 graduate of Ohio State. He's pictured here with me (left) and my brother Tony (middle) before the 2007 Brickyard 400

Well, they fired Woody Hayes right before my dad got to Ohio State, so he actually lived through the Earle Bruce era, and he always says that he was a part of the only class to go through Ohio State that never beat Michigan.

In fact, Tressel is revered for his record against Ohio State’s biggest rival. There’s even a counter on the Columbus Dispatch’s website counting the days it has been since Michigan last beat Ohio State on the gridiron.

“Tressel has done far worse damage than Woody’s 68-year-old weak right cross that player didn’t even feel. FIRE him,” my dad continued.

It’s always fun to hear my dad talk about Ohio State because he doesn’t necessarily care too much about the Buckeyes anymore. After all, he’s paying for his two sons to attend the University of Cincinnati (and one of them actually works for the UC football program—that’d be me, in case you were wondering). When Ohio State is on, he pays attention, and he wears Buckeye shirts, but he’s by no means a diehard fan of the program.

Which makes his argument stand up even more in my mind. Diehard fans of the OSU program are way too often blinded by their own fandom to see the facts. When I suggested in late 2007 that Ohio State was ducking UC and buying out a portion of the contract because they didn’t want to play against the Bearcats, I was mocked. A few months later, lo and behold, an official announcement was made that Ohio State was buying out UC.

Call me a hater, but I knew the facts before super fans wanted to admit. Not that they’ll ever tell me I was right beforehand.

And what about the five players, who now look like saints up against their head coach and protector. “Also, the players have disgraced the reputation of the school and should never set foot on the field again,” my dad said.

One grad has spoken. Do you agree? I don’t mind the reasoning behind my dad’s argument, but I could care less what Ohio State does. Until they want to play us.

A Christmas Wish List: Sports and More

One of my favorite parts of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” is where Charlie writes his sister Sally’s Christmas wish list. “If it seems too complicated,” she says, “just send money. How about tens and twenties.”

“Tens and twenties!” her older brother yells. “Oh! Even my baby sister…”

I’m not asking for tens and twenties (yet) but I thought I’d compile a Christmas wish list for my favorite sports teams, amongst others, and by doing so, I’ll create a wish list of sorts for myself.

So, let’s get this thing started…

Dear Santa,

Here’s my Christmas wish list. Don’t send tens and twenties please, save those for people who need them (like Terrelle Pryor or DeVier Posey). Wait, that was mean, oh well.

For the UC Bearcat football team (and fans), a packet of mind-erasing, memory clearing medicine.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a billion times; no one, absolutely no one, could have expected the colossal drop off that the UC football team experienced this season. No expert, real or perceived, could have said Butch Jones was going to take over and win only four games in his first season as UC head coach. At worst UC was a 7-5 team.

Injuries mounted up and the Bearcats imploded. I’d sure love to be planning another BCS bowl trip, but sometimes you don’t get what you want. Santa, please, take us back to a bowl next season!

For Ricky Dobbs, current Navy quarterback, a political advisor.

My favorite part of watching the Naval Academy play football is watching their patented triple option offense click at the highest level. It’s been tough to find someone more adept at running this offense than current quarterback Ricky Dobbs. In just a little over an hour he gets to do it one final time.

Oh, and after football, after his chance to serve his country in the Navy and after he gets his shot at the NFL , Dobbs wants to run for President in 2040. Santa, I’ll vote for him. Will you?

For Mark Martin, a Daytona 500 win, a Brickyard 400 win and a Sprint Cup title.

He deserves each of them, and it’s a surprise he hasn’t gotten at least one of the three already. And even though this season was a bit of a downer after the awesome run of 2009, I fully expect Mark Martin to be up on the wheel when we get to Daytona in a few weeks. Let’s see what magic you can pull for us Mr. Claus.

For the NASCAR fans of Cincinnati, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

Oh, wait. That already happened? Shoot. Consider this a typo of habit. We’ve been waiting so long that it’s been on my list for a decade now. Well, we’ll take that one off Santa. Thanks Bruton Smith!

For the Florida Marlins, a fan or two to show up at their games would be nice.

I kid of course with you Santa. I know fans show up to Marlins games, but my goodness. Could any team take more of a beating for their poor home turnouts than the poor Florida Marlins? If someone could find a way to get me tickets to a few games I’d be forever grateful Mr. Kringle. However, my one trip to Joe Robbe Stadium was pretty cool, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

For my two favorite college coaches ever (Joe Tresey and Greg Forest), jobs in the college game.

Sure Coach Tresey is in the UFL, but we’d sure love to see him back in the college game. As for Coach Forest, I said earlier this month that I’d love to see him get a job, and hopefully he’ll be close enough to go to that NASCAR race with us. See what strings you can pull for us Santa, please.

Thanks,
Adam
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P.S.- Merry Christmas everyone. Go Navy!

Ohio State President up in arms about TCU and Boise State

“They will have to drag a college football playoff system out of my cold, dead hands,”—Gordon Gee, President of Ohio State circa January 19, 2008

Back in 2008 everyone’s favorite whipping boy in college football was Ohio State. And who could blame them? They had just gotten whipped in two straight National Title games by SEC opponents, and Jim Tressel looked a lot more befuddled than he had when he won a National Title in 2003 at Ohio State.

Now, two years after the defeats, Ohio State’s President, Gordon Gee, stuck his neck out and made some very provocative statements to the Associated Press about non-BCS automatic qualifying schools Boise State and TCU.

“Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football,” said Gee. “I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.

“So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame.”

Well, at least he didn’t say this last year when the “little brother” down the road was within a second of making the National Title game. We all know that the Big East is basically the Little Sisters of the Poor, just in a different habit (take that comment as tongue-in-cheek).

I could go on and on and on about how TCU and Boise may, or may not deserve to be in the National Title game at year’s end. I could rant and rave about how we should have a playoff in college football, but honestly, no one wants to hear my babble. Plus, the ‘A’ I received on my English paper a few years ago arguing for a modified playoff system (just call it the Niemeyer theory) was pretty good.

Maybe one day I’ll share it with the world. Lord knows Gordon Gee won’t agree with me.

“It’s not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that’s a slippery slope to professionalism,” Gee said. “I’m a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well.”

Crazy thing is, I agree with that last statement. Stay tuned for more fun developments involving college football, including the week 13 Big East preview, and maybe a more in-depth look at the playoff vs bowl system debate. Maybe Jake would join me in that endeavor? We’ll see.

Is UC the best football team in Ohio? Maybe…

In years past there has never been a debate as to who carries the banner as the best team in the state of Ohio. Yet, many Ohio State fans have all but erased the near loss to Cincinnati in their national title season of 2002. Ohio State fans dismiss the near loss as a lucky near win for the Cincinnati Bearcats—who weren’t even in a BCS conference at the time.

In just seven seasons the winds have changed in both Columbus and Cincinnati. After getting waxed by Florida and Louisiana State in two straight national title games and being embarrassed in other big games the groans toward former untouchable head coach Jim Tressel have fired up.

Meanwhile, two hours down the road in lowly Cincinnati the Bearcats have won an outright conference title and went to their first BCS bowl game ever. It’s only a small step for the school once better known for its basketball. Head man Brian Kelly is practically a god in the Queen City and his style of running the Bearcat program has excited the whole fanbase.

Although Ohio State bought their way out of a road trip to Cincinnati in 2011 by paying the Bearcats a cool million dollars to travel to Columbus that season, we won’t know until then who really is the best team in the state.

Ohio State fans easily outnumber UC Bearcat fans in the state and nationally, but through the winning ways of Kelly those who were never really a fan of either program in the city of Cincinnati have now changed their allegiance. Those who used to wear scarlet and gray on Saturdays in Cincinnati now wear red and black Bearcat gear.

Of course until the teams meet up on the field—which may not even happen in 2011, it’s honestly up to Ohio State—we truly will never know who is the better team. But this week a reporter asked Oregon State head coach Mike Riley, “Coach, you’ll obviously never get Ohio State to play a home-and-home series here, but are you playing the best team in the state of Ohio this weekend?”

(And I shall make no comment on the fact that what the reporter said was true because no sane Ohio State fan would admit that they’d duck an out of conference opponent… Well, one not named Cincinnati)

His answer Buckeye fans, will surprise you. You’re no longer alone at the top.

“We might be,” Riley responded.

To make a statement the Bearcats just have to win on Saturday afternoon. And until they actually play Ohio State, UC will just sit on the fact that Riley said the Bearcats are the best team in the state of Ohio. They’ve certainly played like it in the first two contests.

Navy visits Ohio State to open college football Saturday

Let’s get a few things straight: I love the Naval Academy’s triple option offense. I don’t like Ohio State. And, this Saturday should be a interesting matchup in Columbus between the two teams.

Ohio State will be heavily favored in the game which kicks off at noon on ESPN. The #6 ranked Buckeyes should win the game. After all, they’ll have 105,000 fans behind them and what some people consider to be one of the best quarterbacks in America, sophomore Terrelle Pryor, leading the show for his second year.

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum is the Naval Academy, led into battle by second year head coach Ken Niumatalolo. They’ll be led under center by junior Ricky Dobbs, who will be making his second start. He takes over for former Navy great Kaipo Noa Kaheaku Enhada, who left Navy after a few great years of leading the Middies.

Ohio State is worried about replacing all but two starters on offense. The only returning players that started at their position last season are Pryor and center Mike Brewster. The Buckeyes replace four starters on defense. Navy replaces Kaheaku Enhada and six other offensive starters and like the Buckeyes they must replace four defensive starters.

I love watching every Navy game that I can only to watch that offense grind out yardage on the ground, in an old fashioned style rushing attack. Navy’s defense has been suspect the past few years, and I expect Ohio State head coach and playcaller Jim Tressel and Pryor to exploit those Naval Academy weaknesses.

I don’t expect Navy to win, let’s get that straight. But, Navy could scare Ohio State with the combination of speed and quickness that has given the slower Buckeyes headaches over the past few years. Add in the fact that it’s tough to prepare for the triple option attack that the Midshipmen will bring to the table, and it could be a tough day for the Buckeyes.

And Tressel feels the same way. Yesterday he told reporters,

“Whenever you play someone like Navy it raises the urgency because you can’t look at them and say, ‘Well, I know what they do. Yeah, this is what they run. We know how to stop that.”’ he said. “Plus our guys have a tremendous respect for the people who choose to go into that particular world. You’ve got to be courageous and our guys know that. … It’ll be an eye-opener for us.”

One year ago Ohio State had trouble dismissing in state rival Ohio University on this same weekend in September. Although the Buckeyes pulled away they have had trouble defeating lesser opponents in the past. They won’t overlook Navy in favor of a prime time rematch with USC next Saturday.

Ohio State offensive guard Bryant Browning said, “First off, those guys have won a lot of games. They go to bowl games, and they win. We’re usually facing, I guess you could say, a lesser opponent sometimes—you could say it that way. But Navy is not one of those teams. They’re going to come in here looking for a big upset.”

And if they do, well, expect me to be one happy guy.
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Tomorrow I’ll let you in on the first time I heard a phrase that became a household saying last year at UC. I’ll tell you about the 2007 trip to Piscataway, New Jersey where the UC Bearcats beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. As always, I’ll include some photos of the trip. Friday will be a two part bonus post including NASCAR and UC football (only because my line of work is involved, check back later for more).

Have a great Wednesday and thanks for reading.

My Take: the Big East vs. the Big Ten

It’s an argument that pits the two best teams college football teams in Ohio: the University of Cincinnati (and our 2008 outright Big East conference championship) and the Ohio State Buckeyes (and their share of the 2008 Big Ten title, they lost to Penn State, also a “co-champ”).

Who is better? Well fans may have to wait until they die to find that out (Ohio State has repeatedly paid off UC to not play them in the near future; a fact, not an opinion) but we can at least look at statistics to see who plays in a better league.

By far the Big Ten is a better league for football right? They played in two straight national titles just a few seasons ago. Ohio State got throttled in both games. The only true way we would have had to see this Big East vs Big Ten battle play out is if West Virginia beat Pitt in 2007 (an oft talked about game on this blog). West Virginia would have played Ohio State. Big East vs Big Ten to settle the battle once and for all. Instead we were left to play it out on video games to see who would have won.

The Big Ten began in 1896. They have 25 national titles. By comparison the Big East has just one championship. The Big East began as a football conference in 1991. Since the Big East began playing football the Big Ten has captured two national titles (Michigan in 1997 and Ohio State in 2002) to the Big East’s one (Miami (FL) in 2001).

Miami (FL) no longer plays in the Big East. They defected for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2004. Even though many writers, fans and college football gurus wrote off the Big East after that season, the Big East went on a tear in BCS bowl games. The first Big East loss in a BCS game since the re-alignment? The 20-7 win by former Big East member Virginia Tech over Big East newbie Cincinnati in last year’s Orange Bowl.

In the 2008 Sagarin ratings, done by college football expert Jeff Sagarin, the BCS conferences were ranked according to strength of schedule and more factors. The Big East was fifth of six BCS conferences. Not good at all. The Big Ten was sixth.

Michigan head man Rich Rodriguez—the same guy who was at the helm for West Virginia’s near national title game run in 2007—compared the Big Ten now to the Big East right after that re-alignment. “When Miami, Virginia Tech and BC left, everyone said the Big East was way down and wouldn’t survive,” he said. “I said then that the best thing for Big East was for each individual school to make a commitment to the program to do the very best it could. If every school got better individual, then the league’s perception would get better. That’s what happened.”

Last season the Big Ten went 1-6 in bowls. The Big East went 4-2. Arguments from Big Ten supporters state that the Big East didn’t play anyone in their bowl games. Why? Most experts know how much national support the Big East lost in 2004, and their bowl tie-ins were hurt as well. The Big Ten made up two of the ten BCS teams, the Big East had one. All three lost.

Ohio State is often known as a “pro factory” and one OSU magazine proclaims them as, “Wide Receiver U.” Last year the Buckeyes finished an abysmal 105th in the nation in passing offense out of 117 Division-I FBS teams. But, only six teams had multiple receivers drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft. Of those six teams, Ohio State ranked last in average passing yards per game. Rutgers, of the Big East, ranked second. It’s tough to argue with Ohio State headman Jim Tressel’s comments about his receivers.

“Yeah, you can go somewhere else and catch twice as many balls for maybe less yards per catch,” he said. “But come here and we’ll train you and see if we can win some games and send you on.”

Rutgers averaged 270 yards per game through the air, OSU averaged 150. Let’s say each team has two wideouts that split the catches and the yards. At ten catches a Buckeye would average 7.5 yards per catch. At twice that number—Tressel’s figurative suggestion—a Rutgers player would catch 20 balls for 13.5 yards per completion. Last time I checked 13.5 was greater than 7.5, case closed.

A few weeks ago Matt Hayes of the Sporting News released his list of the top five coaches in America. His list included Florida’s Urban Meyer (a UC alum), USC’s Pete Carroll, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Alabama’s Nick Saban. The fifth best coach in America? According to Todd Porter in the magazine named “Buckeye Battle Cry” (which by the way was mailed to Cincinnati media outlets, I guess that means these media folks should cover Ohio State and not Cincinnati. Yet another reason for UC fans to dislike the school in the state’s capital, but I digress) that fifth coach, who is referenced with the other four, is Jim Tressel.

Porter covers Ohio State football for the AP. Hayes, a guy who writes for The Sporting News, a non-team affiliated group, disagrees. Brian Kelly is the fifth best coach in America according to Hayes’s list released last month. Brian Kelly, the head coach at the University of Cincinnati. The “little brother” of the state. The second best team in the state.

Get the point? For as high and mighty as Big Ten fans—especially those wearing Scarlet and Gray—can be, they fail to realize the plain and simple truth: The Big East and the Big Ten are fairly similar. One just has more recognition. I guess having 113 years of history will do that for you. Check back in 100 years and we’ll see who is better. Until then, I guess we’ll have to wait for a Big East vs Big Ten matchup in a bowl game to prove it once and for all.

Honestly, Penn State and Minnesota wiping up Syracuse this season just doesn’t cut it. But don’t tell your Big Ten friends that. They’ll think it means they rule the world.

Yahoo! Sports blogger questions validity of the Big East as major college football conference

Yesterday’s post was a very blunt rant, as I questioned the comments—directed at the University of Cincinnati—as made by NAACP president Christopher Smitherman. Today, I question the comments of a Yahoo! Sports blogger, Matt Hinton, who goes by the moniker “Dr. Saturday”.

Before you go off and dismiss my comments and say that maybe I’m just mongering my hatred toward all of humanity this week, I invite you to read on. After all, had I not taken such offense to what Smitherman said, I doubt I would have found out all that I did about the University of Cincinnati and our African-American student enrollment.

Hinton, who is as entitled to bash anyone he wants, maybe even more so than yours truly, wrote about the Big East conference last Friday. When referencing college football guru Phil Steele’s rankings, which favor the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to win the Big East, Hinton says this,

“If the early consensus is any indication, either one team will separate itself from the rest and carry the conference banner high, or pundits (maybe even yours truly) will be holding their nose at the end of the year over another weak, disputed champion, a la 2004, and wondering exactly who let this league inside the high-roller's club, again?” (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Rutgers-for-Big-East-champ-Makes-as-little-sens;_ylt=AoLAGmrrcun07jL9VdmKLfUcvrYF?urn=ncaaf,166844)

Yes Mr. Hinton, who let the Big East into the “high rollers club” again? Now, coming from the inside viewpoint of a Big East championship winning program, some may dismiss my views as blatant homerism, but I ask you to hear me out.

In 2003, when Ohio State played Miami (Fl) for the National Title, the Big East was in the National Championship game. That’s right, Miami (Fl)—“The U”—was a member of the Big East. Ok, so maybe that was such a long time age that no one—that isn’t an Ohio State fan—remembers it. So, even after Pittsburgh’s loss to Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl (the so called low point for the Big East) we reached a string of BCS bowl victories.

West Virginia over Georgia in 2006, Louisville over Wake Forest in 2007, and West Virginia in 2008 beating up on Oklahoma—who was one year away from making the 2009 National Title game—all have made the Big East reputation go up. Maybe.

Pundits everywhere will always question the “new” Big East’s validity as a major conference. I guess they feel a conference that had to add the Universities of Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida in 2005 is a “weak” conference.

As the Big Ten—namely Ohio State—got beat up in BCS National Title games, the Big East rolled in BCS games. No love for the little guy. Even though the Big East Champion lost it’s bid to win their BCS game this year (I promise I’ll have photos and videos up here after school gets out. We’ll have a “football hangover” day in July) the Big East has shown year in and year out that it can hang with the “Big Boys” in college football.

Some recent examples of note: In 2007, my second game as a student video guy here at UC, we beat (soundly) Oregon State 34-7. Oregon State has beaten USC at home the past two times they’ve hosted Pete Carroll’s Trojans, a note I’ll be sure to reference before we fly out to Eugene in September. This past year, Pitt beat Iowa, a Big Ten foe that made a bowl game.

And, perhaps the best evidence of all, in that same 2007 season, West Virginia came into their last game of the season 10-1, ranked #2 in the nation. The goal was simple for Rich Rodriguez and the Mountaineers; win and go play Ohio State in the national title. They lost to their archrival Pittsburgh, 13-9, in the “Backyard Brawl” (a game that Big East guest columnist Jake Meyer attended) hence losing their shot to play for “all the marbles”.

LSU went on to beat up on Ohio State, leaving the media to bash the Big Ten and claim the SEC’s superiority over everything in this universe. We’ll never know what the West Virginia/Ohio State game would have been like, but I imagine that the Mountaineers would have won the National Title, using their speed and spread attack to breeze by the Buckeyes.

As Frankie Valli once sang, “Oh what a night.” It would have been a night that sealed the Big East’s fate once and for all, as a major college football conference. Then, ignorance like Hinton’s would be a thing of the past.

Hey, maybe UC will be in such a situation this season, ranked number two heading into our final game, and a win will take us to Pasadena to play Ohio State (a game they couldn’t buy their way out of). Maybe in that fantasy situation we’ll beat Pittsburgh and go on to play Ohio State, win a National Title, and cement the Big East as a major player in the world of college football.

Hey, I can dream, right?

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52 days until the green drops in Indy. Tomorrow you’ll get a few of my thoughts heading into the race at Pocono which is a great indicator of who will run well at Indy. Check back tomorrow for a few thoughts—and maybe another ill fated prediction—for the Pocono 500.