Caught Up!

Tressel out as Ohio State head man!

Jim Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigned Monday amid NCAA violations from a tattoo-parlor scandal that sullied the image of one of the country's top football programs.
"After meeting with university officials, we agreed that it is in the best interest of Ohio State that I resign as head football coach," Tressel said in a statement released by the university. "The appreciation that [wife] Ellen and I have for the Buckeye Nation is immeasurable." Luke Fickell will be the coach for the 2011 season. He already had been selected to be the interim head coach while Tressel served a five-game suspension.

Like I've said since the beginning of this entire fiasco, it could easily have been any big time program in the country. My only problem with Tressel was that he made the Tatt 5 promise to come back to school and serve out the 5 game suspension. I thought that it was completely bogus of him to do that because that decision should've been up to those kids and their parents to make.

Now he resigns and it’s too late for them to declare for the NFL draft or be drafted because it was last month. Parenting and parental guidance is so important because there is no way that Jim Tressel would've made that decision for my child. That decision would've been completely up to my kid and I to make.

Once the news broke of the tattoo scandal just before the Sugar Bowl you knew that it was only going to get worse because the NCAA wasn't going to let it go. So why make those kids stay in school? They were all draftable players. Even Terrell Pryor who many scouts said wasn't ready to play quarterback in the NFL. Some said that he would be a 3rd or 4th round pick or would probably have to play tight end.

Well... that's better than standing on the sideline at Ohio State for 5 games while serving a suspension. He can't get better standing around for nearly half of the season. That didn't make any since to agree to do. I wrote an article entitled "All Crapped Out" back in March that explained in detail why I had no problem with Tressel not telling the NCAA or the universities compliance office about the tattoo situation.

As a big time college football coach he's gotten hundreds of calls or emails in the middle of the night about some player doing something that he's not supposed to be doing. Do you realize how many times players get into trouble on campus that could result into suspensions or NCAA violations? If he called the NCAA every time he got an email or call about a player. He wouldn't have a anyone to suit up on Saturdays.
Guys get arrested for things that the rest of the world never even finds out about because the arresting officer happens to be a friend of the program or a former player and just brings the kid to the coaches house. It happens all of the time. The coaches have promised these parents that they are going to look out for these kids so they handle a lot of things internally.

If your 5 year old kid went to the store with you and you find out once you've gotten home that he stole something. Would you call the police and have him arrested or would you handle it internally? I'm quite sure you'd handle it internally. When you're driving 20mph over the speed limit today on the expressway are you going to pick up the phone and call 911 on yourself and tell them that you're reckless driving and ask them to come pick you up? Probably not!

If not, why do you think Tressel should've called the NCAA on his players or the program? Everything that was happening under his watch was happening when he got there. I wrote an article entitled "Pump Ya Brakes"  in March as well, that explains how this could easily have been any program in the country under investigation because they all cook with the same ingredients, 18 to 22 year olds and rich boosters that want to win at all costs. You can’t escape it. So before you pile on Ohio State understand that this is a common occurrence in college athletics and don't be so naive to believe that it's only happening at Ohio State.