A week ago, I would have told you that the five suspended Ohio State football players had a good chance of receiving a reduced suspension from the NCAA. Those chances evaporated on March 8 when it was revealed that Coach Tressel received emails in April 2010 notifying him of the possible violations.
The NCAA announced yesterday that they will uphold the five game suspensions handed down to Mike Adams, Daniel Herron, DeVier Posey, Terrelle Pryor and Solomon Thomas. Shortly after the decision was announced, Coach Tressel announced that he had requested his two-game suspension be increased to a five game suspension saying,
“Throughout this entire situation my players and I have committed ourselves to facing our mistakes and growing from them; we can only successfully do that together.”
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith said that he has accepted Coach Tressel’s request and has notified the NCAA of the increased self imposed sanctions.
Although the critics will be quick to theorize as to why Coach Tressel requested a self-imposed increase in the sanctions, this is consistent with what we have seen from him over the years. Yes, it’s possible that the University had an insight into the thinking of the NCAA and that a two-game suspension was not enough. Yes, it’s possible that by upping the suspension, Ohio State felt they could take some of the heat off of the program.
But for those of us who have studied Coach Tressel during his tenure at Ohio State, it is much harder to imagine him allowing his players to take the fall for an incident in which he was directly involved.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
So I have a few thoughts on this… I think that Coach Tressel may in fact have notified council and was advised to let things play out and in order to not lose scholarships by the NCAA he’s taking the heat for it all. I’m really shocked and hurt that someone I deeply respect and admire would do something like this at all. I feel deceived by the man whom I spent ten weeks with (in his class this fall) and truly hope this is a lesson learned for all. I’m just really bothered that when big stories come out at USC or Miami people just expect it. But with Ohio State and Coach Tressel, we expect more. We don’t want to become one of those ‘tainted’ schools, but a lot is going to need to change to clean our slate. I will continue to support Tressel regardless of his bad choices, but I truly hope this is the last thing we hear about our great university for a long, long time.
With that all being said, GO BUCKS!
“I feel deceived by the man whom I spent ten weeks with (in his class this fall).”
Really? Let’s be real. There was a monumental failure on so many people’s part in this and Tressel is the one falling on the sword for the whole program. You really need to stop listening to The Fan. Those two idiot pundits are filling your head with horseshit.
Other than that, he didn’t owe you or I shit for ten weeks other than supplying us with the tools needed to succeed IN CLASS. You’re seriously misconstruing your emotion of having the privilege of being in that class with entitlement of being his BFF. I seriously advise you to take a step back from that.
I think you’re exactly right Jeanette. Part of the reason that this is such a big deal is because it is Ohio State and higher standards are expected. There are so many out there who have wanted to bring down OSU for so long that even the smallest infraction will get blown into something much larger than it is (not saying this particular case is small).
The good news is that President Gee assured us that this is it. There are no more skeletons to reveal. Everything is on the table. Let’s hope he’s right.
in answer to the censored comment… those that can afford one do…
Just went through the spam filter and not seeing your comment. If it’s worth repeating, please post again.
If the comment has two or more links in it, my spam filters often pick it up but I’m not seeing it.
Don’t worry, unless it’s just blatantly vulgar, I’m not going to censor it. Even then, I usually let the comments be a reflection of those leaving them.
Jeanette and Jim your probably right, but I hate the thought of the AD and President putting a big stain on Coach Tressel’s reputation. I think Coach did the right thing in personally suspending himself for three more game. I agree lets hope this puts the whole mess to rest. You all know the story about walking in another mans shoes. All the critics should remember that.
Really now, you would say that about Petrino then too, right carl?
What do the critics say about him? or do they need to walk in his shoes as well?
No, we certainly wouldn’t want Jim Tressell to recieve a stain from the A.D. or President would we? Lord knows he would never create such a thing for himself. He wears white gloves.
Attention whore.
Gonzo, Petrino already has enough stains on his record. He’s a runner his third team in the last 6-7 years. Trssel has had two head coaching jobs. I f the Buckeye job did not come open he would still be at Youngstown State. One more thin how many national championships has Petrino won?
Silch, Nada, Zero.
Stick that in your craw, and by the way Petrino could never walk in Tressels shoes or carry his jock strap.
Tressell wears a jock strap? (lols!) You’re killing me, man!
I hate to say it but ….. this is far from being over. I don’t think the coaches “self imposed” 5 game suspension will be good enough for the NCAA. I think you guys need to start preparing yourselves to accept a One Year Suspension. What coach did ……. was 10 times the infraction that the student athletes did.
As reported Friday night on ESPN ….. this is far from over. Tressel forwarded the e-mail to a mentor” of Pryors??? What happened to the confidentiality arguement???
Jim….. I have to disagree with your ‘everyone is out to get tOSU’ theory. Any team that is regularly in the top 25 would be getting heat for these violations.
Ultimately, we will find out that the administration had prior knowledge of these violations and they turned a blind eye.
boo for taking down the first comments… we didnt take down yours…
Please make sure you’re looking at the right post. In the five years I’ve run this blog, I don’t think I’ve ever taken down a comment that wasn’t blatant spam.
If I were a bettin man, I’d say Tressell is on his way out, much like Bruce Pearl was on his way out at Tennessee.
The A.D. will have to eat his words of “We’re behind our coach 100%.”
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of comments we see on this board if that really happens.
The problem with that is that Ohio State fans don’t want Tressel to go. Although Buckeye fans do their fair share of complaining, when it comes down to it I think we’d all see him sit out whatever penalty than to see him gone. Even worse when the rumors of Urban Meyer start traveling the circuit.
I’m not too sure the Urban Meyer rumor has any merit at all. I realize he’s bought a home in Ohio, but that is just merely one of the long line of reasons for the media to speculate and conjure up a story.
Urban Meyer is a great head coach, but his family is more important to him than football right now.
I think we will see him coach again though.
Urban Meyer is a great head coach, but his family is more important to him than football right now.I think we will see him coach again though.