By Dick "The Coach" Betts
Just about everybody I know has asked me in person or by text or e-mail or semaphore flags or smoke signals for the last couple of months what I think of the "Tressell thing." I repeatedly said I would wait until more came out because I knew more was to follow.
But when Tressell was asked to resign I have to tell you I was shocked. I was shocked for a lot of reasons but the biggest reason was the The Ohio State University was so willing to turn it's back on, and walk away from, the best college football coach in America. The President of the University and the Athletic Director had time and again given their full support and backing to Jim Tressell and then Sports Illustrated comes out with a witch hunt article of half truths and old news and Gordon Gee and Gene Smith and the rest of the Trustees caved like a surrounded Math Professor at a pantie raid, "I give, I give, just don't blemish my good name."
Jim Tressell has been the best football coach in the fifty years I have followed Ohio State football. John Cooper could recruit but he just never got the whole Ohio State/Michigan thing. Nobody loved Ohio State more than Earle Bruce but there was a reason they called him Old 9 and 3 Earle. And for most of my young adult life I thought Woody Hayes was God himself. But Tressell was better than all of them. He wasn't just a great football coach, he was a great man. He raised money for just about every charity in Columbus and was a lifelong supporter of all things military. Talk to any coach that ever coached with him, for him, or even against him and you will not hear one unkind word about Jim Tressell. Every one of them say they would want their son's to play for Coach Tressell. What did he do on the field in his ten years at Ohio State? Well, he won seven Big Ten titles and took his teams to eight BCS Bowl games. He played in three National Championship games (that's 30%) and won the 2002 game in double overtime against a Miami team that came into the game with a 34 game win streak. And, oh yeah, he was nine and freakin' one against Meeeshitagin! Woody never did that. Earle never did that. And John Cooper for damn sure never did that. And just this month the football team had the highest APR (Academic Progress Rate) for academics of any of the top 25 teams in the country. They graded out at 985. Stanford came in at 977. Jim Tressell is the best college football coach in America and Gee and Smith shit canned him like a pair of old underwear with more skid marks than the Indy 500 race track. It's like Danny DeVito divorcing Julia Roberts. What the hell were they thinking? They'll never find another one as good as the one they had.
And for what? Because he didn't report that he got an e-mail from an old ex player that said some of his players might be trading things for tattoos? Are you kidding? Every coach in the SEC is having a belly laugh over that one. No agents involved? No recruits being paid? No grade issue? No grade changing? No drugs? He lost his job over THAT? Where you work is it normal for people that do everything at the highest level for ten years and then make one mistake to be fired? Just wondering.
This mess all started with five players that knew the rules but chose to ignore them. They thought the rules were for others. They were above them. They were starters. They were important. They didn't need to put up with that petty shit, they were somebody, by God. And what's a Championship ring more or less? They had three of them. And that is the thing that bothers me the most of all in this whole stinking mess with the players. How could you sell a pair of gold pants? As Charlton Heston once said, you'd have to rip them from my cold, dead hands. You know that they will spend the rest of their lives regretting the day they sold those rings and gold pants. Good.
I've been reading letters from his players and they are eye opening. He made them read books and do book reports and read the reports to the team. These books were not about football but about character building and how to be a better person. He not only knew all 120 players and walk-ons but he knew all of their parents and all of their brothers and sisters BY NAME. He cared about his players and their families. He had the players constantly work with Out Reach programs and visit hospitals to see sick children and veterans. He is the kind of man you want your son to know. He started every day with a team prayer and asked every player what they were going to do that day to get better as a person. He also happens to be the best college football coach in America.
And now, because a few idiots who thought they were above following the rules, and because an e-mail that stated that might be the case wasn't turned over to the compliance people and because the gutless administration once again got weak-kneed and turned their backs on the promises they made, we are without the best college football coach in America. ESPN and Sports Illustrated are happy because they brought down the head coach of Ohio State football and the rest of us true die hard fans are heart broken. It is what it is, so where do we go from here?
Well, if it were up to me I'd start with the Compliance Department. It is headed by a man named Doug Archie. He and his entire staff would be history. I mean, what were these people doing for the last few years while players were trading trinkets for tats and getting special deals on cars? Every car deal has to be approved by Compliance. So how can there be problems there? And if guys are getting deals on tattoos someone is talking about it. It is the job of the people in Compliance to find out about those things. If they are not, they are not doing their job. Granted, they have a thousand athletes to worry about in a multitude of sports but I don't think they are to worried about anyone getting special benefits like a free tattoo on the fencing team Captain for selling his autographed epee.
Next would be the Athletic Director, Gene Smith, who oversees Compliance and who, along with E. Gordon Gee, asked Coach Tressell to resign. And Gee should join him. They asked Coach Tressell to leave because that's what would be best for The University. Well guys, time to man up and do what's best for The University; leave. I admired them both for years, now they just nauseate me.
I have no idea who the next football coach will be at Ohio State. Luke Fickell bleeds scarlet and gray. He is 37 years old, as energetic as a jackrabbit in heat and is Ohio State's best recruiter. He has been considered their best assistant coach for years and would be the ideal guy if he could just win every game. Fickell will get his shot this year but unless he wins at least 11 games I don't think they will give it to him. Ohio State is one of the top five jobs in the country. They can get anyone they want. They can get Stoops, Pelini, Meyer, anyone. I just hope it's not Gee and Smith doing the picking.
Ohio State is bigger than all of this. It's just our turn. The squeaky clean sweater vest screwed up and the media had a feeding frenzy. It will all pass. In a few months Luke Fickell will be running out onto the field in The Horseshoe and the sun will be shinning and Akron will get pounded and the Buckeyes will be on the road to another November date with Ann Arbor and her Meeeshitagin Wolverettes.
One thing is for sure. No matter where Jim Tressell goes or what he does he will always have a fan in Bolivar, Ohio.
