Tressel may not have even been involved in the investigation directly, and it is possible he wasn't the one to have reported the incident to the athletic department. Troy Smith was only suspended for two games, one of which included the Alamo Bowl.
He returned to field after missing one game in the season and eventually won the Heisman Trophy. Not many people will recognize the name Ray Isaac, as he isn't exactly a household name. Ray Isaac was Tressel's star quarterback at Youngstown State. Fellow players at Youngstown knew of the cars and the money that Isaac was receiving, including star running back Shawn Patton.
Patton admitted that there was no way that Tressel couldn't have known about the cars that Isaac was driving around town or of the cash that Isaac was receiving. However, when your star player is driving around in different cars all the time, it is pretty hard to believe that he did not notice.
Everybody knows of the Maurice Clarett scandal , as it was one of the biggest news stories of the past decade. Both cash and cars fell into Clarett's hands during his freshman season at Ohio State. The first incident that got the NCAA's attention was when Clarett had a black Monte Carlo broken into, which was a loaner car from a local used car lot. Clarett eventually claimed that Tressel pointed him in the direction of the people who loaned him cars and money.
When first asked about Dellimuti, Tressel denied ever hearing the name. However, he later admitted to first meeting Dellimuti before Clarett's sophomore season.
When reports first emerged about Clarett regarding academic fraud, Tressel had no response and said he only read bits and pieces about the reports. He not only knew about the transgressions, but he did much more to try and keep them buried than he had let on in his first mea culpe. Now imagine if we redacted Jim Tressel's name, substituted "Coach X" in its stead, and asked everyone whether the coach in question should be able to keep his job. First of all, you'd point out that every other coach who had violated the same NCAA bylaws that Tressel did with his cover up had been fired.
And second of all, you'd probably wonder, "Well, if we know how Coach X handled this situation, what does it suggest about all the situations that we know nothing about? About which there is no evidence? About which he succeeded in keeping the dirty laundry away from the public eye? Is that not the situation that we're in with Jim Tressel? That is, even if we can somehow concoct a justification for Jim Tessel not getting fired for this incident, does it not damningly suggest that we should wonder whether there are other incidents that he has successfully covered up?
Personally, I think his actions in the present case warrant a dismissal, but even if one were to conclude that these particular violations are not, on their own, enough to fire him, what about the way that he tried to cover them up?
And much more damningly, the way that he then lied about them? Are we really to believe that this was it? That this was a lone incident? Even if it was, how can we know? How can we know when Tressel demonstrated his willingness to lie?
And then when confronted with new evidence, to lie again? Isn't that game over? Shouldn't it be? That's the question I'm struggling with, and that's what I was getting at in my original post when I argued that this is, ultimately, a referendum on Ohio State athletics.
Because while the NCAA's sanctions may be limited to that which has been clearly established in the present instance, the totality of the facts make it hard to believe that Jim Tressel is to be believed. Jim Tressel didn't just screw up. He screwed up, and then lied about it. Tressel's downfall came with public and media pressure mounting on Ohio State, its board of trustees, Gee and Smith. It's at that time that he decided to resign," Smith said in a video released Monday.
We did meet with part of the team this morning and those who were not there, they were contacted by their position coaches. Coach Tressel did what we all knew he would do. He did an eloquent job of explaining to the young men what transition really means and what they needed to focus on.
Before the meeting, Smith met with Fickell and asked him to be interim coach, which he accepted. Smith also met with full coaching staff and support staff. We will not discuss any of the matters around that case, or any further accusations that may emerge," Smith said.
I do want to thank Coach Tressel for his long service to our university. There was a lot of people he touched in a highly positive way. We're very thankful for his leadership during the years we had great success on the field and off the field, but more importantly in the classroom.
He denied knowledge of improper benefits to players until confronted by investigators with emails that showed he had known since April After several NCAA violations by him or his players over the years, Tressel's problems deepened after learning six Ohio State players -- including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor -- were found to have received cash or discounted tattoos.
All were permitted by the NCAA to play in the Buckeyes' victory over Arkansas in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, with their suspensions to begin with the first game of the season.
After the team returned from New Orleans, Ohio State officials began preparing an appeal of the players' sanctions. It was then that investigators found that Tressel had learned in April about the players' involvement with the federally-investigated parlor owner, Edward Rife.
A local attorney and former Ohio State walk-on player, Christopher Cicero, had sent Tressel emails detailing the improper benefits. Tressel and Cicero traded a dozen emails on the subject. Tressel had signed an NCAA compliance form in September saying he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by athletes.
His contract, in addition to NCAA rules, specified that he had to tell his superiors or compliance department about any potential NCAA rules violations. Yet he did not tell anyone, except to forward emails to Ted Sarniak, reportedly a "mentor" for Pryor back in his hometown of Jeannette, Pa.
Later Monday, Sports Illustrated reported that at least 28 players -- 22 more than the university has acknowledged -- were involved in exchanging memorabilia for services as far back as , Tressel's second season at Ohio State.
SI reported that nine current players -- defensive back C. A tattoo artist told SI the memorabilia-for-tattoos exchange has gone on since Beyond that, we will have no further comment.
The year-old Tressel had a record of at Ohio State. He led the Buckeyes to eight Bowl Championship Series games in his 10 years. Combined with a record in 15 years at Youngstown State, where he won four Division I-AA national championships, Tressel's career mark was With speculation swirling that Urban Meyer would be an apt replacement, the former Florida coach, who works as a college football analyst for ESPN, said he wasn't interested.
I wish Jim and his family the very best now and in the future. He will be missed in college football. The author of two books about faith and integrity, Tressel remains a scapegoat to many and a hypocrite to others. Even though he has many backers, a rising chorus of detractors had stepped forward during the ongoing NCAA investigation. There were also questions about his players and their friends and family members receiving special deals on used cars from two Columbus dealers.
But at one time his image was that of an honest, religious man who never said or did anything without thinking it through first. His nickname was "The Senator" for never having a hair out of place, praising opponents and seldom giving a clear answer to even the simplest of questions. He was the coach at Youngstown State when it received scholarship and recruiting restrictions for violations involving star quarterback Ray Isaac.
Cooper was let go ostensibly because the program lost direction, with several off-the-field problems. But perhaps more damaging was his record against rival Michigan and mark in bowl games. Introduced at an Ohio State basketball game in , Tressel vowed that fans would "be proud of our young people, in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in days in Ann Arbor, Mich. Tressel's first team went just , losing the Outback Bowl, but upset 11th-ranked Michigan But in his second year, with a team led by freshman tailback Maurice Clarett, the Buckeyes won everything.
They went , winning seven games by seven or fewer points.
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