May 30th, 2011.
This is a day that each and every member of Buckeye Nation will remember. It was the day that the proverbial shit hit the fan and Jim Tressel was forced to resign from his position as Head Coach of Ohio State.
My question to everyone is this: How should we feel?
Now, I'm serious when I ask this, because every person I've talked has given me one of two answers:
"I will miss him because of the success" or "My ties are to Ohio State."
Well, let's build upon this and figure out some type of consensus, even though that is virtually impossible. First, the positives.
Jim Tressel was the opposite of John Cooper. While Cooper routinely recruited massive amounts of pro talent in the names of Eddie George, Orlando Pace, David Boston, Antoine Winfield, and so on, he never embraced the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. On top of this, he could never seem to win bowl games. Sure, we got the 1997 Rose Bowl, but being 3-8 in bowl games and 2-10-1 against Michigan sealed his fate in 2000, ultimately leading to his firing shortly after the Outback Bowl in 2001. Tressel, on the other hand, has given us a 9-1 record against Michigan, a 6-4 record in bowl games, including five wins in BCS bowl games, not to mention a MNC (Mythical National Championship, because the BCS sucks.) to throw into the mix.
Now, here we sit, trying to absorb the incredible storm that has befallen the program. Tressel has resigned and will get his punishment on his own, which MAY cushion the blow to Ohio State itself, but probably not much. I would expect, at some point, Gene Smith to step down as we draw closer to doomsday, and perhaps even E. Gordon Gee, who certainly enabled this by not enforcing a stiffer penalty out of the gate.
Tattoo-gate aside, the stories that have been coming out are full of speculation and heresay. The Sports Illustrated article written by Dohrmann was not nearly the damning piece of evidence that we were all expecting. It either told us things that we already knew, or speculated as to what else is possible. Still, the information hurt enough for Tressel to have to leave his vacation and sign a letter of resignation. The heat got to be too much, turning a very boring offseason into the prelude to one of the most interesting seasons that Ohio State will ever have.
We will all think of the most recent problems that include Pryor, Posey, Herron, etc. However, I think a lot of people (the same people who don't want Urban Meyer) seem to forget that we have had quite a few arrests in the last ten years regarding football players. While we don't consider arrests to be things that can cause major problems with the NCAA, there have been (officially) 33 arrests while on Tressel's watch at Ohio State, some of which are repeat offenders (Louis Irizarry the most prominent one coming to mind) that are all handled accordingly, so while the team dealt with them as necessary, it still is a black mark on the program. Perhaps we all didn't care because they were handled in a fairly quick manner and swept away, even though there were some pretty harsh charges. Irizarry was sentenced to three years in prison due to violation of probation after being charged and convicted of robbery and assault of a student with Ira Guilford, another person that didn't quite "get it" when he was at Ohio State.
Earlier, I said I was getting two primary responses. I appreciate what Tressel did for the program from a success standpoint, but my ties are to Ohio State. I fear for the immediate future and how hard the NCAA will hammer us, which made me ask the question posed earlier: Just how should we feel? Tressel gave us success, absolutely...but the program is going to get smacked. It isn't going to be an easy storm to weather, and whoever is brought in to fix it, whether it's Luke Fickell or a big name like Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Jon Gruden, Bo Pelini, etc., well, I hope it's someone who will right the ship when it comes to corruption. I feel as though I've been told a long, systematic lie about our program.
How do I feel?
I feel betrayed.
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