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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2011 > May > 30 > Entry
Tressel’s resignation was only real choice
After months of trying to put band-aids on a severe and ever-widening wound to its reputation, Ohio State finally got the sad, but necessary surgery it had to have to make itself right again.
Jim Tressel, the once venerated Buckeyes football coach, is gone.
The Columbus Dispatch broke the news after obtaining a memo university president E. Gordon Gee sent to OSU trustees Monday morning.
“I write to let you know that later this morning we will be announcing the resignation of Jim Tressel as head coach of the University’s football program,” Gee wrote. “As you all know, I appointed a special committee to analyze and provide advice to me regarding issues attendant to our football program. In consultation with the senior leadership of the University and the senior leadership of the Board, I have been actively reviewing the matter and have accepted Coach Tressel’s resignation.
“My public statement will include our common understanding that throughout all we do, we are One University with one set of standards and one overarching mission. The University’s enduring public purposes and its tradition of excellence continue to guide our actions,” Gee wrote.
While Gee’s statement said Tressel resigned, it’s known that behind the scenes there has been growing pressure by several big-money boosters and influential OSU academics who wanted the school to remove the coach, not just for the NCAA violations that have happened under his watch, but for the way he hid those transgressions on numerous occasions from the university and the NCAA.
In the process Ohio State’s image has been getting more and more stained each week as additional revelations of wrongdoing and alleged wrongdoing keep coming out.
With growing scrutiny of its program nationwide and a pending NCAA investigation that could deliver an even more crippling blow, OSU power brokers might have determined enough is enough.
Or maybe Tressel came to that realization on his own.
Either way, this seemed like the only tenable move as the trouble kept mounting.
In this everybody’s-got-a-forum, tell-all age of Twitter and Facebook, one former Buckeye athlete after another told of questionable practices they witnessed or were a part of while at OSU.
Last week it was former Buck Ray Small who said he and other players sold memorabilia and got discounts on cars while playing football.
He said some players “don’t even think about NCAA rules”
He said he sold several Big Ten championships rings and said players received discounts from car dealerships
Six players—including starting quarterback Terrele Pryor, standout running back Boom Herron and top receiver DeVier Posey — have been suspended for those infractions, but Small alleged that there were more players involved. “They have a lot (of dirt) on everybody,” he claimed, “Because everybody was doing it.”
Recently the Columbus Dispatch found that at least 50 OSU athletes or their relatives had gotten cars from one Columbus car salesman, who may have discounted deals, a practice that could be in violation NCAA rules.
Last week former OSU basketball player Mark Titus wrote on his blog that he’d always wondered how Buckeye football players kept driving cars that most students never could afford, let alone scholarship athletes. “I’ll be shocked if the NCAA doesn’t find anything when they look into this car scandal,” he wrote.
Other former football players have also claimed they were part of or at least privy to the questionable actions that have gotten the current players sidelined for the first part of the season.
Tressel knew some of this was going on but he held it from his superiors and the NCAA, while secretly sharing the information with the Pennsylvania businessman who serves as Pryor’s so-called mentor.
Not only did he fail to fess up the matter for more than 10 months - until he was finally confronted by the facts his OSU bosses discovered while investigating another matter - but Tressel signed a statement to the NCAA that he knew of no violations in his program.
When you add in a couple of especially troubling situations from the past - the multiple violations that swirled around Youngstown State quarterback Ray Isaac and the incidents at Ohio State involving Maurice Clarett and Troy Smith - Tressel was starting to resemble the emperor with no clothes.
That’s too bad because while he was at OSU Tressel had done much good on the field and off of it. He won a national title, seven Big Ten championships and was 9-1 versus Michigan. He helped a lot of kids along the way and he and his wife were big donors to the university, especially its library.
Although it wasn’t that long ago that Tressel said he wouldn’t consider resigning - and he had hired a big-time attorney to represent him - the coach may have seen more trouble on the horizon, Maybe there are more revelations that are about to come out or maybe he got wind that the NCAA enforcers were going to drop the hammer.
Then again maybe the whole resignation matter wasn’t his choice at all.
Maybe folks at OSU - just as they once did with the beloved Woody Hayes - decided no one coach is bigger than a much-acclaimed school.
With Tressel leaving, assistant coach Luke Fickell - who was slated to guider the team as Tressel served an OSU self-imposed, five-game suspension to start the season - will guide the Bucks throughout the 2011 campaign.
And so athletics director Gene Smith summed it up Monday in a statement he released:
“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.”
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Comments
By david
June 1, 2011 8:57 AM | Link to this
My wife said to me recently that she might get offered a job in Columbus. I said there is no way I would move there. I hate that town.
By ohiodale
June 1, 2011 8:19 AM | Link to this
If people want to make a difference than stop watching NCAA football. Come on folks. The bottom line is every school is doing this. There should be an independant investigation in the NCAA. I would bet every school pays their players especially during the recruitment period. If you are a good HS player you have many offers from many schools and they are all offering something. As far as Tressel. He worked for OSU not the players and he was 100% wrong.
By Adam Joseph Strauss
June 1, 2011 2:50 AM | Link to this
GO IRISH
By george
May 31, 2011 10:15 PM | Link to this
Tressel Died for Our Sins We are all guilty of elevating football to the level that it is today. Any malfeasance done by a coach is condoned by most of the fans and administrators, if it means producing a winner. If a coach confesses his sins too quickly, we would consider him a coward. Stonewall as long as you can, then abandon ship before the whole ship sinks. Smith and Gee should both be falling on their swords.
By Give it a rest
May 31, 2011 7:54 PM | Link to this
Ok, An otherwise good indivdual made a big mistake and now he is paying for it. OSU football will suffer a setback, and in time will recover. It is not the biggest or most important story of the year. The media headhunters are salivating right now because kicking fallen idols while they are down is what they do best. Give it a rest!
By Samantha
May 31, 2011 7:32 PM | Link to this
Liar Liar Vest on Fire. Looks like RichRod has a new fishing buddy…
By joy
May 31, 2011 5:24 PM | Link to this
mr tressel, please forgive all the people who are dogging you right now..people seem to have very short memories of all the hard work and success that you have brought to osu.i really want to thank you for all the years and enjoyment you have brought to my husband and i.and i’m sure theres a good reason for what happened with the players and you trying to protect them you’re a good man and don’t you forget it….joy
By No Chance
May 31, 2011 4:47 PM | Link to this
Let the players live it up. For most of them, this is their only shot at fame. None of them have much of a chance of making it big at the next level, if there is an NFL anymore after all of the stupidity of the players and owners there with this lockout mess.
By amazed
May 31, 2011 3:11 PM | Link to this
preacher,franklin ohio, spell check works wonders. All parties are wrong, the coach, the players, the governing body, but why is it everyone wants to call names of the players only? Is it because they are african-americans.I know let’s blame Obama for this too.. Geesh people get a clue
By Hugh Jass
May 31, 2011 2:43 PM | Link to this
Oh-io, please tell us next time if they’re making a mistake, you obviously know everything. When you get home from your burger king shift, enlighten us all.
By nyc
May 31, 2011 2:41 PM | Link to this
I cannot lie anymore, I like watching the linemen bend over.
By Pryor in New Car Yesterday?
May 31, 2011 1:25 PM | Link to this
Why did Terrel Pryor show up to the team meeting yesterday driving a brand new Nissan 350Z with tinted windows and expensive wheels? Good Lord you almost can’t make this stuff up. Does anyone in Columbus have a clue what is going on?!?!? Do a web search for “Terrel Pryor 350z” to find the story…
By 4 Bucs, Not 4 Tressel
May 31, 2011 1:16 PM | Link to this
OSU apologists are making me ill. “He did it to protect the kids.” “The players did it to him.” “Everybody does it.” “The NCAA system is broken.” Enough already! It turns out Tressel has 2 faces. The only one we see in public is the one who wears the sweater vest and quotes bible verses. The other is a self-serving liar who was willing to do anything to win. My advice to Tressel? Go read one of your own books about truthfulness, virtue and hard work.
By Tony
May 31, 2011 12:56 PM | Link to this
Q. What is the difference between OSU and every other D-1 Big 6 conference school? A. They got caught.
By preacher franklin ohio
May 31, 2011 12:48 PM | Link to this
we must forgive to be forgieven by father of our sins pray for jim tressel and love god is love god bless everbody pray for this to god love in chirst preacher.
By preacher,franklin ohio
May 31, 2011 12:35 PM | Link to this
i pray for salvation and healing for ohio state to everbody involed geter done for jesus not devil god bless you all love i n chirst preacher. preaise jesus always.
By tom
May 31, 2011 12:31 PM | Link to this
yes all you said is true but tressel is not the bad guy here.his players put him in this position.but this kind of stuff goes on everywhere.as robert smith said on espn monday.getting caught is the question.
By db
May 31, 2011 12:10 PM | Link to this
tressel deserved the boot.trying to protect punk dullards like pryor is not very smart.remember the genius pryor quote(“everybody kills people, its no big deal”). i’ll never forget that , what an idiot, should never got a scholarship, from anywhere.
By Marlene
May 31, 2011 12:04 PM | Link to this
If Tressel has to go the players should go too. They started this mess and they should share the blame.
By amazed
May 31, 2011 11:24 AM | Link to this
It’s amazing now how players are being called “thugs” but when they were winning for you haters you loved them. By the way the scandal goes back to “02”
By Jeff
May 31, 2011 10:57 AM | Link to this
Irony: By the time the NCAA finishes the investigation and OSU is forced to vacate wins, Rich Rod could become the only Michigan coach in history to be undefeated vs OSU. Rich Rod cheated by making the kids practice extra. Obviously, he wasn’t a very good cheater.
By Do We Know the Truth
May 31, 2011 10:46 AM | Link to this
Tressel resigns as Ohio State coach. Everyone thinks he did not notify his superiors including the President of the University. Does anyone other than Tressel and Gee know this to be a fact? Could he be resigning because he is tired of being the “fall guy” for the University and not wanting to continue the lies in August? Hopefully the truth will eventually come out.
By AT ALL COSTS
May 31, 2011 10:42 AM | Link to this
Tressel sold his values for Terrell Pryor and that is sad.All the programs want to give the punks the full ride scholarships and not the quality athletes that put team before self.You might loose a few more games but you will still have the integrity and respect at the end.Reward the right kids that do the right things and have the right upbringing instead of trying to win at all costs. At the end Tressell lost.
By walt
May 31, 2011 10:12 AM | Link to this
If you win, fans ignore that you have no integrity or ethics. OSU graduates 52% of its football players — that ranks 10th in the Big 10. What does THAT tell you?
By jimmie
May 31, 2011 9:46 AM | Link to this
All these tosu zealots - blind allegiance to the almighty football power. @NCAA Not Concerned About Athletes - Your ignorance is massive. The NCAA gets no revenue from bowl games. @truthteller - Had Tressel fessed up and not lied, he would still be the coach. @do we know the truth - Yes, we know. The e-mails confirmed it.
By nyc
May 31, 2011 9:17 AM | Link to this
I will miss watching his butt on the sidelines
By Under the Bus
May 31, 2011 8:53 AM | Link to this
Tressel a hero? Give me a break!!! He wanted us to believe he was “Mr. Clean”…but in the end he was no better than any of the other slimy SEC coaches. Don’t clutch a bible and preach, then turn around and break all the principals that supposedly guide you in life. If even half of the Sports Illustrated article is accurate, we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Tressel is a disgrace and he brought it all upon himself. The question now is, when does the other shoe drop? Will Elwood Ghee and Gene Smith be caught with their hands in the cookie jar before this thing is over?
By Do We Know The Truth
May 31, 2011 8:48 AM | Link to this
Tressel resigns as Ohio State coach. Everyone thinks he did not notify his superiors including the President of the University. Does anyone other than Tressel and Gee know this to be a fact? Could he be resigning because he is tired of being the “fall guy” for the University and not wanting to continue the lies in August? Hopefully the truth will eventually come out.
By Take a lesson from Nixon
May 31, 2011 8:26 AM | Link to this
When your guys do wrong, and you know about it then you, the coach, bring it out in the open. Even if it costs the national championship. You will be stronger and more respected in the long run.
By gom
May 31, 2011 7:54 AM | Link to this
Arch, with this article and today’s even more inflammatory one, I think you better find where Herbstreit moved to. That’s because Buckeye “fans” will be all over your rear end looking for a pound of flesh. Your articles are, however, accurate and to the point. But, look at many of the comments posted, and you will see that a lot of people don’t share your views and simply don’t care as long as coach told them how pious he was as he won a ton of games.
By Chief
May 31, 2011 7:46 AM | Link to this
The Columbus area is guilty of loving this program to death. People trying to “belong” to this program by buying player awards and providing them vehicles on the cheap. Good luck to Jim Tressel - A great coach and a great man.
By College sports
May 31, 2011 7:12 AM | Link to this
It is sad that a quality person has to sell his soul to land a thug like Terrell Pryor.I am involved in AAU basketball with my son and to see punk athletes get catered to makes me sick. Give quality kids that are great representatives , and solid athletes the full ride scholarships. We are rewarding the wrong kids.
By caroline
May 31, 2011 3:02 AM | Link to this
I guess now Gordon Gee doesn’t have to worry about the coach dismissing him.
By Maxwell Powers
May 31, 2011 2:07 AM | Link to this
It’s understandable that Tressel would try to avoid NCAA scrutiny. An NCAA investigation is like tearing into a rotting wall: you don’t know what you’re going to find, but you can be sure it will be worse than you think! But, the truth is, coming clean is always the better way. It’s not the indiscretion that gets you in trouble, it’s the cover-up!
By NCAA Not Concerned About Athletes
May 31, 2011 1:13 AM | Link to this
NCAA is speaking out of 2 sides of their mouth. Coming down on Tressel and the players for tatoos, cars, etc. But yet saying they can play and he can coach in their bowl game. Why because of the money the NCAA received for one of it most popular bowl game revenue. A player should be allowed to do anything he wants with any award he receives. NCAA does not own these college kids but yet wants to act like our Federal Government is trying to do by setting laws and standards for the people when it comes to personal things. NCAA is a joke. Don’t do this but you can do that as long as it benefits the NCAA and not the coach, players or school.
By Amazed
May 31, 2011 12:47 AM | Link to this
If I am not the problem there is no solution. Tressel did this to himself, not the players, not the NCAA, not the boosters not OSU, etc. They all have their own guilt but we all choose our own path. When people, like many who have posted here, stop trying to cover the truth and make others and themselves take responsibility for their actions then this kind of stuff will decrease greatly. Two posters are correct. Smith should go as well.
By Al Busse Jr.
May 30, 2011 11:18 PM | Link to this
The last hero in America was Pat Tillman. Coach Tressel is also a hero. I was hoping that Gene Smith would do the right thing. I guess he had to watch his butt. The NCAA is the big loser in all of this. Ray Small someday will be looked at as Curt Flood. These players deserve a piece of the pie. Brian Gregory could not even give Charles Little a pair of jeans because of rules. We know there were thugs like drug courier Jammal Berry. But knowing Coach Tress, he recruited him to change his life. A trully sad day of the 3rd best active Coach in the country.
By David Esrati
May 30, 2011 10:34 PM | Link to this
America: where we hold college football coaches to a higher standard of integrity than our politicians.
By jimmie
May 30, 2011 9:08 PM | Link to this
Where’s “OSU Joe” when you need him for a comment? His silence is deafening. Of course, this embarrassment is about what one would expect from a football school.
By editor
May 30, 2011 9:02 PM | Link to this
It wasn’t Archie Griffin who was in charge of enforcement, it was Doug Archie. They’re two different people.
By ewing
May 30, 2011 9:00 PM | Link to this
I hope those kids that got those tatoos, that started this whole mess are happy! They have ruined a man’s career and the reputation of OSU Football
By truthteller
May 30, 2011 8:25 PM | Link to this
The NCAA is a bunch of hypocrits. Ask any player that played sports anywhere. Enforcement is a joke. The players are adults in the real world but some kind of children in sports. Make them responsible not the coach.
By Jack
May 30, 2011 8:12 PM | Link to this
It was time for him to go. Plain and simple. It was his watch. Though it would be ignorant to think similar stuff does not happen at EVERY school. But if you get caught, you have to take the consequences.
By Sycophant Sucknuts
May 30, 2011 7:58 PM | Link to this
As usual, the entitlement culture of Ohio is put on display for all to see. OSU fans blame everyone but themselves. It was just win at any cost, OSU was football, nothing else. OSU is a joke as higher ed institution, not even ranked in the Top 50. Now your football team is spiraling down with Sister of the Poor Gee and his bow tie riding it. Now you know why your jobs go to China AND Georgia. Have fun on the unemployment line.
By proximo
May 30, 2011 7:54 PM | Link to this
Dude…it’s Ray Small…not Smalls…a guy who was always in trouble while on the team..
By Tomas
May 30, 2011 7:46 PM | Link to this
This is all a huge ridiculous joke. People forget that these idiot players brought it about by skirting the rules, even though they are ridiculous. It is obvious from reading all the drivel posted here and elsewhere, and in seeing all the fat people in their Michigan shirts in Ohio, that this is a state of disloyal people. Most cannot even find Michigan on a map.
By Rob
May 30, 2011 7:35 PM | Link to this
He deserves everything he got because he lied about it. I think the rules in regards to the rings, autographs, etc is stupid, but they are still the rules as of now. If he had come clean when they first asked him about it, it probably would have earned him and OSU a slap on the wrist. But he LIED about it and that is what cost him his job and OSU a lot more than that.
By David
May 30, 2011 6:54 PM | Link to this
Resignation was the way out before Tressel’s appearance at the NCAA. After that he would have to have been fired. Gene Smith should be asked to resign as well.
By voteoutstupid
May 30, 2011 5:28 PM | Link to this
Liars always lose the battle eventually…. just like what will happen in 2012.
By old buck
May 30, 2011 4:44 PM | Link to this
Well cry baby Kirky Herbstreit will be happy now that he lives in Tennessee he can sit around and sing rocky top with all his new hillbilly friends.This is whats wrong with sports when a millionaire from espn gets into a spat with an athlete from the ghetto and makes it his mission to destroy the coach you have the results.I hope the little weasel never comes back to OHIO!
By Ron
May 30, 2011 4:39 PM | Link to this
Actually Mr. Archdeacon there is another real choice. How about exposing this whole fraud? This article talking about big-time boosters putting their foot down. Come on man, I was born at night but it wasn’t last night. These big-time boosters don’t get into that position by not knowing what’s going on. They all cheered when the team was piling up the accolades and Gordon smiled real big when the revenue stream rolled in and everybody gets what they want. At the other end of this you’ve got student athletes trying to go to college and keep up with the conditioning required to be a, by all accounts, a professional athletes. I’ve got three children who graduated from OSU. I’m not a rich man but we helped out the best we could, the kids also worked part time jobs for pocket money. Now how are some of these kids without monetary support from home or the time to take a part time job supposed by live exactly? There’s Jim Tressel with his big monetary contract, knowing all the while his fortune is being made on the backs of these young kids who are getting hammered over tattoos and good car deals. I know what I’d do. I look out for my people. This whole system is a fraud, everybody’s getting a slice of the pie and when a kid gets a free tattoo or a car deal the higher-ups find their scapegoats and move on. I applaud Jim Tressel for putting his career on the line for his players. To the folks scapegoating him, the ones who now turn their back, I wonder if the flames were reaching them. Perhaps that’s the reason to extinguish the episode. These players are nothing more than modern day serfs, it’s near slavery really, to make such profit off of another man’s talent then beat him down when he steps out of line.
By Smith
May 30, 2011 4:23 PM | Link to this
Shut up Archdeacon, and get a haircut. What do you and all the Tressel haters in this thread know about football except that you stand with the NCAA in taking advantage of college kids so the NCAA can make millions?
By no kiddin
May 30, 2011 3:57 PM | Link to this
Covering up for the thug rats and their tats. I’m not sure which are the more stupid. If it had been me, the thug rats would have been hisdtory.
By Ron
May 30, 2011 3:52 PM | Link to this
Tressel is in the wrong line of work. Collegiate Football is much to important to our nation to be headed by liars. He commits a cover-up to protect the misdeeds of his players. As opposed to being a sitting president of the US lying to a Federal Grand jury to protect his own sorry hide from personal transgressions, or the current Secretary of the Treasury filing false income tax returns to pad his own bottom line or the…etc. Yep, Tressel is a natural born politician, or maybe a priest. Some line of work so remote to Joe-Six-Pack that lying and cover-up and corruption goes on completely unnoticed or if noticed ignored.
By einie
May 30, 2011 3:42 PM | Link to this
I think Archie Griffin should take some of the blame for this mess since he was in charge of NCAA rule enforcement at OSU.
By Arollingstonecarriesnomoss.
May 30, 2011 3:39 PM | Link to this
Gene Smith will be the next to go. These transgressions and more happened under his watch. Clean house!
By hostess
May 30, 2011 3:30 PM | Link to this
Don’t worry the buckeyes have the usual soft schedule against AA opponents to start the season. They shouldn’t lose until the Michigan game.
By Gabe
May 30, 2011 3:17 PM | Link to this
He doesn’t deserve to be fired. This and much worse goes on at all the big universities. He will be hired by some other program within a year or two. They will somehow shield him from direct knowledge of these things in such away that he will be able to deny them.
By jennie
May 30, 2011 2:55 PM | Link to this
Coach tressel did do something very wrong,but i wouldn’t go to the point of hating the guy,find forgiveness for him,sure don’t let him be coach,but who is to say that the next coach won’t mess up,or the one after that or from another team,i will always continue to root for osu,may they truly find a coach that make the bucks a winning team again.
By blue
May 30, 2011 2:45 PM | Link to this
Bye Bye tresshole
By OH-IO
May 30, 2011 2:02 PM | Link to this
I will tell you who cant be trusted - these thugs they recruit. I said from the get go that Pryor was going to be nothing but problems, and he has brought the program to its knees. What a poor excuse for a leader and role model.
By FIshmo
May 30, 2011 1:57 PM | Link to this
Might be a good move because now maybe the offense will be more wide open.
By Chioce
May 30, 2011 1:53 PM | Link to this
So…there were chioces other than a “real” one?
By Wut?!
May 30, 2011 1:50 PM | Link to this
Wait!!! Who’s gonna recruit the hood rats OSU needs to be football players in the future???
By oldtimer
May 30, 2011 1:35 PM | Link to this
Don’t count out Darell Hazel as a possible successor. He was Tressel’s associate head coach before leaving last December to become head coach at Kent State. He is an excellent recruiter and might be a perfect fit if OSU were looking for an African-American as head coach.
By Pootersdad
May 30, 2011 1:27 PM | Link to this
Tressel has resigned, so that’s that. But, if you look at any major university, you’re probably going to find these type of violations. The difference is that Tressel got caught…
By nyc
May 30, 2011 12:58 PM | Link to this
he didnt resign…he got fired…and rightfully so…when you become an habitual liar…you cannot be trusted!!!