Chris Speilman Speaks Out, Pryor’s New Ride and SI’s ‘Big Lie’

Spielman Speaks Out

Chris Spielman spoke out this week on 97.1 The Fan expressing his anger and frustration with the players, his feelings about Coach Tressel’s resignation and the potential for big NCAA sanctions (a big ht to Sports Radio Interviews for the tip). Throughout the interview, you could hear the pain in his voice, a pain that we are all feeling.

He may have summed up the Coach Tressel resignation best when he said that it is hard to see this happen, “When you have a pretty good track record over the years for probably 95% of your career doing things the right way and being a positive influence on kids and winning football games and championships but you make one poor decision and there are poor consequences.”

He went on to say that although it was a poor decision, Tressel did the right thing by stepping down and feels that he should have stepped down earlier saying that it was the honorable thing to do adding,”…You’re held to a high standard in a position of authority and you have responsibility like he has and you make a mistake and you cover it up for a year and you don’t tell the truth no matter your intent…it was still a huge mistake with severe consequences.”

Although it may not appear like it in some of my earlier posts on this blog, I agree with Spielman. The key word here is “intent.” Tressel did the honorable thing by stepping down. By stepping down from the only job Coach Tressel has ever aspired to do, he has personally paid the most severe consequences. However, as I’ve said all along, when the NCAA looks at this situation, they have to look at intent.

I say again, this is not USC folks. Although everyone seems to want to lump the two together, we are not talking about a pay for play situation. We are talking about fans who wanted to get close to Ohio Sate athletes and Ohio State athletes who took advantage of the situation.

We also don’t have a coach bailing out for the NFL in order to avoid the heat. We have a coach stepping down because it was the only thing left to do. Given the choice, he would have stuck around.

Spielman summed up what most Ohio State fans are thinking when he said, “Coaches can’t be held responsible for the idiot decisions kids make. I’m mad. I mean selfish decisions that young men make.”

And that’s what this comes down to – selfish decisions that young men, or better, “kid” have made. They may have learned their lesson but in the process, they took down a good coach.

Pryor’s New Ride
After seeing Terrell Pryor arrive in his 2007 Nisson 350z, I assumed one of three things was going on:
1) Pryor is a complete idiot showing up anywhere with a car obtained in violation of NCAA rules while undergoing a NCAA investigation.

2) The car is legit and he has nothing to worry about.

3) Pryor has already signed a deal with an NFL agent, probably sometime in early April/late March and is already gone.

And although I’m not ruling out No. 3, the Columbus Dispatch is reporting that option No. 2, the car is legit, may actually be true. According to the Dispatch, Pryor’s attorney released a bill of sale showing that Pryor’s mother recently bought the car. Apparently, after trade in of a Doge Charger, she paid $11,435.06 and is financing the car over 51 months.

Although I don’t know the trim level of Pryor’s new ride, Kelly Blue Book shows a top price of around $23,000 for a car of that age and miliage and the dealer listings on Kbb.com in the Columbus area show a high price of $25,998 for a car with only 8,900 miles.

I don’t know the year or condition of Pryor’s Doge but there isn’t anything here that shows he got a better deal than I could swing myself. Heck, I just traded in a Scion with 80,000 miles and did about that good.

Pryor’s lawyer also responded to the suspended license situation saying that Pryor did have insurance at the time of his citation.

So far, the car dealing stories aren’t panning out. Not saying they won’t but as of this point…

Spielman for Coach
I’ve felt for some time that Chris Spielman would make a great Ohio State coach. It would be hard to find anyone out there with the same passion for Ohio State along with the knowledge and love of the game as Chris Spielman.

In his interview with 97.1 the Fan, Spielman was asked about the possibility of becoming an assistant coach under interim Coach Luke Fickle. You could tell in his answer that this is something Spielman has considered. After pausing for a second or two, Spielman said, “I would do anything in the world for him (Luke Fickell) but my obligation is to what I do know, what I do for a living now. And with four kids, I’m basically starting a new life….The one thing I fear is that I would turn into that person I was as a player, which wasn’t all bad, don’t get me wrong. I become totally consumed and I don’t want to be that guy anymore.”

As much as I like the idea of Chris Spielman as coach, I’ve got to respect that opinion. With the loss of his wife Stephanie and four kids, he is starting a new life and he has to do what is best for the Spileman family first.

Ray Issac Calls Sports Illustrated Article “Big Lie”
Ray Issac, former Youngstown State quarterback under coach Jim Tressel who was suspended for NCAA violations, said that this week’s SI.com article was a “big lie.” Issac, who spoke with Atlanta radio station 790 the Zone (again ht to Sports Radio Interviews for the tip), continued, “The article is chewed up. If you look at the article that reports what I allegedly said, it is poorly written, it doesn’t give any facts or clarity.” Issac went on to explain that he had never received the student report from his NCAA investigation until three weeks ago. He said he then told David Epstein, who cowrote the SI article, that he did not feel he could do the article based on privacy laws. “He added, he (Epstein) shredded this paragraph. It’s deplorable.”

Issac went on to  say, “If Coach Tressel had gotten any word that I was doing anything improper, Nick Cochran (Issac’s back-up quarterback) would have been starting a long time before that.” Issac pointed out that he had already been warned by Coach Tressel that if his performance didn’t improve, Cochran would be replaced by Cochran.

It is important to note that although the SI.com story may lead you to believe differently, Coach Tressel was cleared in the NCAA’s investigation of Youngstown State. Issac told 790 the Zone, “I am totally responsible for what I did at Youngstown State University. Every year from m the time I was on campus, from ’88 to ’91, Tressel had compliance seminars — not to deal with bookies, not to deal with drugs, not to deal with not buying or selling anything. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I met Mickey Monus [the booster implicated in the Youngstown State violations]. It is implied that on the first meeting that I had with Mickey Monus that I received $150. That is the biggest lie ever told. … Jim Tressel never ever knew anything about our dealings. I kept it secret.”

Issac said that the only way anyone, including Coach Tressel,  found out about his dealings with Youngstown State booster Mickey Monus was because Monus was indicted for embezzlement and checks written to Issac came out in the investigation.

I have to agree with at least some of what Issac is saying about the SI.com article. Although it may be true that tatoo shop owner Ed Rife had turned his shop into a hang out for Ohio State football players and all that comes with it, there are parts  of the article that look nothing short of a hatchet job. Unnamed sources reporting 20-year old rumors (ie. summer-camp raffles) and contested anonymous sources are not the stuff of Pultzer Prize winning journalists.