M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[iam416]

Pittman, incidentally, would be the other recruit OSU would have had that I'm really sorry to see leave. He's going to be really good, IMO. McMullen and Stroebel, to a lesser extent -- with those guys, I sort of feel like Ohio always has a couple DE of their quality -- so it's easy enough to replace. Kalis and Pittman, though, are really good. JMO.

[Optimus Prime]

The resignation of the disgraced "Senator" for over a decade of "malfeasance" is a huge blow to OSU and may actually force the entire organization to clean up their act as for the entire college football world will be watching.

Second, I expect Gee & Smith to meet the axeman at a later date once the NCAA sentences the Buckeyes on August 12th, canning these guys earlier would have only served to potentially stiffen NCAA punishment....if nothing further is uncovered and I am certain there is plenty more for those that care to dig deep, OSU will rebound from this relatively unscathed only to meet a resurgent Michigan & Nebraska...long-term the loss of Tressel will be enormous IMO. Although OSU dodged "lack of institutional control" it's pretty clear to me that was the case.


Tressel and his "Three-Card Monte" are no more.

[iam416]

Tressel's resignation over his failure to treat the Cicero e-mails properly is, indeed, a huge blow. Ohio State lost a legendary coach. No doubt.

Gee isn't going anywhere, well, not for this. Smith, I dunno.

Nebraska will be a challenge. M, eh, we'll see.

All in all, I think Urban Meyer's Buckeyes will do just fine in 2012.

[Jeff Buchanan]

"Explain to me, Buchanan, what Gene Smith SHOULD have done. As far as I can tell, the only way Ohio State could have caught the Cicero e-mails is to have Compliance reading every e-mail sent to Coach Tressel. I don't reckon that Ohio State's failure to monitor every e-mail sent to Coach Tressel amounts to a "failure to monitor." Nor should it."

........ well, he could have given him written evaluations like it seems the standard practice is within most organizations where there is any kind of accountability. That he did not leads a rational person to conclude he really wasn't paying attention to the misdeeds of his immediate subordinate. Or worse, he knew and didn't care as long as tressel was beating Michigan and garnering osu football honors. That is no nebulous allegation. Factual? No basis for that yet but reasonable men can certainly make that observation and I am not alone in making it.

Look, the perception that smith leaves is that he is an ignorant mouth breather - fair or unfair as that characterization might be. That is the impression he leaves. I know you would agree the PR aspects of this whole sordid affair have been been abysmally handled by the two faces (now) of osu football - smith and gee.

So, while it is true that it appears (emphasis mine) that nothing sinister was going on at osu, the sport press seems to think there was despite the latest NCAA press release which sounded like, anyway, it was letting osu off the hook.

Frankly, I don't much care what happens to osu going forward. As you have already acknowledged, tressel is gone and alot of collateral damage has been done in recruiting. I'd like to see a 2 year post season ban as punishment for tressel's lies which allowed osu to play multiple ineligible players and gain competitive advantage by so doing during the 2010 season, and then, lying again, to play in a BCS bowl and beat Arkansas who should be rightfully pissed off about that. Some scholarships reductions should be tacked on as well ..... USC level? Probably not and you make a point there. But, I'm not holding my breath for the NCAA to take action.

[lineygoblue]

The resignation of the disgraced "Senator" for over a decade of "malfeasance" is a huge blow to OSU and may actually force the entire organization to clean up their act

I don't think so. If anything, he's a martyr or sorts in ohio right now, and is looked at as a "tressel against the world" character. As Talent has said before, as far as ohio is concerned, any supposed 'transgressions' of tressel will not even be thought of in 2-3 years, and one day SOON he will "dot the i" and receive thunderous applause in the shoe. This guy is not considered a villain in ohio. He's exactly what Dumbtonio said, a "tragic hero".

And when the NCAA issues its watered-down slap on the wrist against OLieO, the entire organization will feel exonerated, and will do things just like they've always done. Absolutely nothing will change.

Gee and Smith will both survive. For the 10,000th time, they have FRIENDS within the NCAA investigative committee. Their FRIENDS will protect them from anything that might cause them to lose their jobs. They aren't going anywhere. If anything, they will be viewed like tressel, as "tragic heroes".

Shoot, even Terrelle Pryor will one day return to the shoe, and be honored, and cheered endlessly. Don't know if he will ever "dot the i", but he will return, and be considered a 'hero'.

All in all, I think Urban Meyer's Buckeyes will do just fine in 2012.

And then, he will retire after OLieO's bowl game due to "health issues". If he even makes it that far. The guy has heart rhythm issues that are aggravated by stress. I know of what I'm talking about. I have the same thing. Its tough to control the PVC's and Afibs he's having, even with medication. The only way to fight them is with a reduction of stress. He CANNOT reduce the stress in his life by being OlieO's head coach.

So, he may ignore his doctor's advice and take OLieO's job, .. but it will eventually catch up with him.

[iam416]

........ well, he could have given him written evaluations like it seems the standard practice is within most organizations where there is any kind of accountability. That he did not leads a rational person to conclude he really wasn't paying attention to the misdeeds of his immediate subordinate. Or worse, he knew and didn't care as long as tressel was beating Michigan and garnering osu football honors. That is no nebulous allegation. Factual? No basis for that yet but reasonable men can certainly make that observation and I am not alone in making it.

The lack of written evaluations=failure to monitor. My god, the number of assumptions it takes to get there....Woof.

But, you've answered my quesiton, albet indirectly -- Gene Smith could have done NOTHING (aside from monitoring all of Tressel's emails) to catch the misconduct that is the basis of the NCAA investigation. They could have done weekly written evaluations on him, bugged his office, installed cameras in his house, but unless they were monitoring all of his e-mail, THE ALLEGATIONS AT ISSUE would not have been uncovered.

So, unless you think that's what CFB (and CBB) programs should do -- read every e-mail to and from all coaches -- then it's not a failure to monitor. Period.

As for how you perceive Gene Smith, that is what it is. I don't think most share your impression that he's an "ignorant mouth breather." I would agree that Smith botched the PR simply b/c I firmly believe that most would say that OSU did NOT self-report the Tressel e-mails. It's so rarely mentioned.

And finally, no one has (or can) explain how Tressel's conduct gave Ohio State a competitive advantage in the Sugar Bowl -- other than the fact that he got to coach the game. It is another accusation, amongst many, that is genuinely detached from the facts. It actually stuns me a bit to see how far some of these arguments go.

[iam416]

Liney:

If Urban Meyer takes the Ohio State job -- and there are some "insiders" who feel this is a lock (I'm more dubious) -- I don't think anyone views it as a long-term thing. That said, almost all should view it as an immediate cure-all.

Doing my best Buchanan supposition imitation -- heh -- if I were supposing, I'd suppose that Ohio State has a decent idea of where UM stands; I'd suppose that Ohio State has had a decent idea of where UM stands for some time; I'd suppose that Coach Fickell is fully appraised of the situation; I'd suppose that if Coach Meyer is hired, Coach Fickell will stay on as the DC. That's just supposing. But man, what a nutshot that'd be to OSU-haters worldwide. Heh.

[lineygoblue]

I'd suppose that if Coach Meyer is hired, Coach Fickell will stay on as the DC.

I'm not sure that is very realistic. Fickell is going to get a taste of what its like to be the head man, and I'm not sure he will take kindly to being essentially FIRED, just so OLieO can bring in a "name". Especially if he has OLieO playing either IN the CCG, or down to the last week for a berth in the CCG. That would mean that OLieO is on the north side of 8-9 wins, and even Gee and Smith would have a hard time explaining why Fickell should be fired in favor of Meyer.

Shoot, even with 8 wins, as long as one is over Michigan, it will be nearly impossible to fire Fickell.

But then again, its ohio ... nothing seems to make sense there most of the time ...

[iam416]

It would seem very likely to me that Coach Fickell knows exactly where he stands.

At a minimum, I'm sure he's been told that OSU will re-evaluatee the HC position in December (a fact made obvious by his 1-year contract).

My personal opinion is that Ohio State will hire a huge name if they can but otherwise stick with Coach Fickell. And, IMO, Fickell knows this.

Some, as noted, say the huge name is in the bag. I doubt that.

[Tom W]

...But then again, its ohio ... nothing seems to make sense there most of the time ...

Usually not liney, but last week's picture of Casey Anthony in OSU garb seems to make PERFECT sense.

[lineygoblue]

LOL ... yer my buddy, Tom ...:twisted:

[Rocky Bleier]

I wouldn't fear Urban Meyer without all that Florida talent.

[Jamie H]

Urban Meyer won at Utah. I doubt he had much Florida talent there.

[Rocky Bleier]

Who did he play at Utah?

[Jamie H]

The same teams Utah always played. Except they were 17-17 the 3 years before he was there and 22-2 after he arrived.

He beat several BCS teams, including Oregon (the year we lost to them), Cal, A&M, Arizona, North Carolina, Pittsburgh (blow out), and he also beat BYU twice.