Eleven Warriors

Sunday Skull Session

David Sokol — Sun, 27 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Good morning Buckeye faithful and welcome to your Sunday Skull Session. I hope everyone has been enjoying their holiday weekend and has taken a moment to remember those who have sacrificed their lives for our great nation.

To me, Memorial Day Weekend always signifies the start of summer, BBQing, and usually the point in the baseball season where the Reds and the Indians are no longer competitive in their respective divisions. This year is different.

Both Ohio MLB teams have been playing extremely well, hopefully curbing the depression that usually comes from the long wait in-between the Buckeye basketball season and the immense August hype that comes with the football season.

If they can keep it up, the fall will arrive in no-time and true Ohioans may find themselves with the tough task of balancing a NL-Central or AL-Central divisional race and Ohio State football (blasphemy, right?). Wouldn't that be nice.

We won't get too ahead of ourselves, it's only May 27th.

HATERS GONNA HATE. ESPN's Mark Schlabach posted a top-10 "Most Hated Coaches of All-Time" which was based off winning, breaking the rules, and running up the score. So, as always, you can imagine that at least one Ohio State icon made this list. Oh wait, actually three icons made the list:

2. Woody Hayes: One of the most successful coaches in history, Hayes guided Ohio State to 13 Big Ten titles and three consensus national championships. But he is perhaps best remembered for his chronically boorish behavior, which included physical confrontations with sportswriters, photographers, opposing coaches and athletics directors, referees and even opposing players.

7. Urban Meyer: Meyer seemed like an outsider when he was hired as Florida’s coach in 2005 and it didn’t take him long to become hated by rival schools. Meyer tried to revolutionize the way the SEC played football with his spread offense, winning BCS national championships in 2006 and 2008. But then Meyer upset Florida fans when he retired twice in two years -- before waiting a year to become Ohio State’s new coach.

9. Jim Tressel: Michigan fans hated Tressel for beating the Wolverines so much -- he went 8-1 against OSU’s chief rival during his tenure. Opposing fans hated Tressel’s squeaky-clean image of a sweater vest and bifocals. They celebrated when Tressel resigned in 2011 after admitting he withheld information about NCAA rules violations from OSU officials and NCAA investigators.

I'm actually surprised they weren't listed at 1, 2, and 3.

A LIFE RUINED BY AN ACCUSATION. Brian Banks, a former California high school football star and big time prospect (Ohio State interest), was exonerated from a rape conviction from 10 years ago where he pleaded no-contest, based on advice from his lawyer. Banks was wrongfully accused by a childhood "friend" who said that Banks attacked her at the school when she was 15. She has since recanted her accusations and the trial was thrown out by the judge.

Banks, now 26, was a big-time football recruit who had interest from schools across the nation and was very interested in Ohio State and Michigan before committing to Southern California.

Banks served 5 years and 2 months in prison and had his dream of playing college football and in the NFL dashed. I only wish the best for him and his future.

Rodney Hood could be a nice addition

DON'T SHUT THE DOOR. It is very possible that Thad Matta is yet to close the door on the 2012 recruiting class. The summer session does start in just a few weeks but it seems that the class has the potential to shape up rather nicely before it's all said and done.

Texas big man Tony Trocha (6-10/210) could be reclassifying from 2013 to 2012 and could be set to enroll at the school he chooses come this summer. Trocha, a 4-star (Rivals '13) center, is awaiting his test scores to see if he could be eligible for the upcoming season. He has been hearing from schools across the country who have increased interest knowing he could be eligible this season. Kentucky, Oregon, UCLA, Providence, Ohio State, and several schools in Texas have all expressed interest.

The Buckeyes currently have three open spots with Amedeo Della Valle committed for the '12 class and Mississippi State transfer Rodney Hood is rumored to be down to Duke and Ohio State.

It seems like the Buckeye roster could be shaken up a bit before the start of the season.

I'M ON A BOAT. Ohio State could potentially play new Big East power Marquette on a Naval ship for a Veteran's Day tribute this coming fall. The schools are apparently in negotiations to make room for the game on their respective schedules.

Morale Entertainment, the same group who set up the MSU vs. UNC showdown this past season, is looking to set the game up on a Naval ship in Charleston, South Carolina.

Ohio State already has a very nice out-of-conference schedule with a trip to Duke and Kansas at the Schott. A novelty game against a very strong Marquette team could be a nice boost to the strength of schedule and would definitely garner a ton of national hype.

CLICKS OF THE WEEK. Notre Dame is still very confident the potential playoff system would accommodate the conference-less Irish. Michigan AD Dave Brandon of course has different thoughts than the rest of the conference. Kyrie Irving in Pepsi's hilarious viral Youtube dressed up as an old man named Uncle Drew. A look at what the conferences would look like if they were based on academics. Don't get too full of yourselves, Michigan fans. Why does Gene Smith make this much money again?

Saturday Skull Session

Jeff Beck — Sat, 26 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Hey y’all. Good morning and welcome to the first official sunrise of the holiday weekend. I honestly couldn’t be happier you decided to stop by. Take a seat and put your feet up…can I get you anything? What’s that? You just want to read about Buckeye news? Excuse me for trying to be a gentleman. Take your feet offa my table and listen up…cuz here it comes.

EVERYBODY'S WORKIN(OUT) FOR THE WEEKEND. According to The Ozone and Buckeyextra there appear to be more than a few guys gettin-after-it in offseason workouts. This from safety C.J. Barnett:

“I’ve never seen it (like this) before, but guys are in here working on their craft nonstop. In past years, guys would take a lot of time off and, I guess be (regular) college students. I think they’ve figured out that being a college student is great, but being a football player is better. Guys are taking it a lot more seriously.”

And from TE Jake Stoneburner:

“(It’s) a lot different (this year)…We’ve been (working out) since the second spring ball ended. Guys have been out here doing extra every day, even on weekends. It’s expected with coach Meyer. That’s what makes his teams a lot different than most.”

Man, if that isn’t refreshing to hear from two upper-classmen I don’t know what is. It’s hard not to credit Meyer for this change of pace. Following the spring game Meyer, in his signature keepin-it-real fashion, handed each player a no-frills summary of his strengths and weaknesses (what I wouldn’t give to see one of those) in an effort to push them to improve. It sounds like the message was received.

While Meyer must be given most of the credit for this workoutapalooza, it’s simply got to be great for players to be having fun again. On this day last year, Tressel was 4 days away from ~~being fired~~ resigning, the program was in the news for all the wrong reasons, and “unprecedented turmoil” was the phrase of the summer (wow I just remembered how terrible last year’s offseason was…hold me).

Said environment had to make it hard for players to focus on football. Despite this team's lack of a post-season, and despite Gene Smith doing this every week, it’s refreshing to hear the squad is in good spirits and gearing up to play spoiler.

ENOUGH ABOUT YOU LET'S TALK ABOUT ME. Staying in the offseason conditioning vein, Brandon Castel of the Ozone recently caught up with some of the players at the WHAC where they had some interesting things to say about…themselves.

According to the players, the three fastest guys on the team are Bradley Roby, Devin Smith and Doran Grant who all ran 40s in the 4.3 range. Braxton was also called out as one of the fastest players on the squad, but his 40 time wasn’t listed.

Stoneburner said he’s been spending most of his time at WR including sitting in on wideout meetings and running WR drills. It’s been written about at great length, but I can’t wait to see what Stoneburner does in this new offense. Jake has been under-utilized during his entire career at OSU despite being a huge mismatch for opposing defenses. Get him the ball and get out of his way…MAMA THERE GOES THAT MAN!

Staying on the offensive side of the ball, OL Jack Mewhort said Center Corey Linsley is benching OVER 500lbs. Oh, and he ran a sub 5 second 40. So if you need a guy to move your car faster than anyone has ever moved your car…sans keys, you know who to call.

On defense, it was reported John Simon ran a 4.6 40, gets to the weight room at 5:30 a.m. (for the first of TWO lifts each day) and is sitting comfortably at 265 lbs. Stats like these have got to make opposing offenses hold eachother just a little closer.

Also on defense, DL Jonathan Hankins said he is down to 320 lbs and is feeling "better than ever". Big number 52 is poised to have an unreal season as he has lost weight while still maintaining his power. If things go as planned Jonathan and his new pant size will be blowing up offensive lines on the regular.

Where'd you put my car Linsley?

SPEAKING OF BIG HANK. The junior has made it known that he wants a championship before he leaves OSU. For all of you playing at home, that's another way of Hankins saying he wants to stay for his senior season. While words are just words right now, it is good to hear Hankins wants to finish out his time at OSU in pursuit of a championship. This proclamation comes despite Hankins being listed anywhere from No. 11 to No. 3 on draft prognosticator’s big boards.

Here it is straight from the big man himself:

“My goal when I first got here was to win a national championship…If I happen to leave after my junior year, it’s because I’m predicted to go high. If I’m the first overall top pick, I’ll probably go…But if not, I’ll stay with my teammates and enjoy my life at Ohio State.”

You can't really argue with that. Well said Hank, well said.

WEEK 5 WILL BE A TEST. Tom Diehart of the BTN has been analyzing the upcoming Big Ten football season week by week. His latest write-up on Week 5 pegged Ohio State v. Michigan State as the game to watch.

All things considered, this week will be a big one for Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes. Week 5 is the opening Saturday for conference action and personally I couldn’t be happier it's opening with the Spartans. The game will be played at East Lansing, and the Scarlet and Gray should have revenge on their minds after the ~~sloppiest game I’ve seen from Ohio State in years~~ defensive battle that resulted in a 10-7 loss at the Shoe last season.

Despite not having a proven QB, MSU is coming into the 2012 season feeling confident they can ride their tough D to a second consecutive Big Ten Championship game. Watching the chess match unfold between Urban’s offensive mind and Dantonio’s defensive cranium should be a real treat. When it’s all said and done let’s hope the Buckeyes come out on top in their first trip away from the Shoe in 2012 (and #basketballschool starts trending on Twitter).

BIGGIE BIGGIE BIGGIE CAN'T YOU SEE, SOMETIMES YOUR LINKS JUST HYPNOTIZE ME. I hate this "Call Me Maybe" song on its own, but when it's mashed up like this... I'm kinda down with it. The 21 Absolute Greatest Problems in Life. So some kids were shooting a movie and Bill Murray was there, they asked him for an autograph but he gave them this instead...greatness personified. Some rare '91 MJ footage where he says some interesting things. Awesome people hanging out together.

11W Digest: May 19-25

Corey — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Your Friday 11W Digest catches you up on the content you might have missed or need to read again for your own good.

This Week in Skull Sessions

Saturday's Skull Session on Urban's candor about the passing game, UM alum love them some Hoke, Doug Lesmerisis looks deeper at the OSU secondary violations, another post-spring power ranking and rating the OL in the B1G. (Sarah)
Sunday's Skull Session on Scout's top 100 for 2013 in basketball, video of Gov. John Kasich raining threes with Aaron Craft and Clark Kellog, Urban is not a fan of the new potential playoff, Ohio State makes the top 10 of minutes played by college in the NBA playoffs. (David)
Monday's Skull Session on expansiongeddon rumors continue, Mentor QB, Mitch Trubisky chooses UNC, Urban challenging his players in the summer, men's tennis losing in the quarterfinals and 11W's summer plans, along with new enhancements to the site. (Jason)
Tuesday's Skull Session on Urban tops Lostlettermen.com's B1G coaches rankings, BTN's Tom Dienhart rates the B1G D-Linemen, predicting Braxton Miller's stats this fall and the expectation up north for 2012. (Danny)
Wednesday's Skull Session on Adam Rittenberg's list of B1G coaching villians, the Ozone's handy scheduling chart through 2018, a high noon kickoff for The Game and a Q&A with O-Line Coach Ed Warriner. (Jeff)
Thursday's Skull Session on Phil Steele's pre-season All-B1G teams, more pending violations for Ohio State, iPads for OSU athletes and Rodney Hood has narrowed it down to Thad or Coach K. (Chris)
Friday's Skull Session on the SEC/Big 12 Champions Bowl, SI's Andy Staples takes on the NCAA rulebook, JoePa's devotion and service to Penn State, along with Luke Winn's very early power rankings for 2012-2013. (Johnny)

Seven paydays until Gameday eve.

This Week in Editorials

Mount Buckmore, the 1980's, can't argue with Carter, Byers, Marek and 11W Favorite Chris Spielman. (Chris)
Goofus and Gallant and the NCAA, a hilarious look at the absurdidity of secondary violations. (Johnny)
Beyond the Winners Manual, an in-depth look at last week's Town Hall meeting with student emcee Jared Kamrass. (Ramzy)
The Eight Debate, a look at Thad's hits and misses in his eight years of recruiting. (David)
The Tale of Rodriguez and Hoke: Why RichRod failed and Hoke tasted success in his first year. (Jeff)
Urban and Competition Psychology, how UFM puts the achievment goal theory to good use. (Chad)
OSU's Gift to Corporate Media, Gene Smith, the gift that keeps on giving. (Kyle)

This Week in Recruiting

Catching up with Jeb Blazevich. (Alex)
Forecasting 2013: Tight Ends. Is Marcus Ball the next Aaron Hernandez? (Alex)

Best of the Rest

You Tube Gold: 18 minutes of classic Woody on his show. (Jason)
Big Ten releases 2015-2016 schedules, no Nebraska vs. Ohio State until 2017. (11W Staff)
Stat Session: Urban's running backs. (Chad)
Deep Threat, a profile on the great speedster, Joey Galloway. (Joe)
Gene Smith clarifies his statements to the Latern. (11W staff)
An Interview with Chris Brown of Smart Football. (Ross)
Flam 7, part one of an interview with Cornelius Green. (Sarah)
Buckshot: Buckeye hoops on a naval ship? Please let this happen.
Buckshot: George Dohrmann, you just got served.
Buckshot: B1G schools receive record $24.6M payout.

The people's champ for the week of May 19-25, 2012: John Simon, by SHADYBUCKEYE, your jokes and facts about Simon, in preparation for his Thor role this fall.

Flam 7: Part One

Sarah — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Woody advising Cornelius that milk can make ulcers worse

Ed: Special thanks to Cornelius Green, who took the time to sit down with me and talk about his football career and time at Ohio State, where he played from 1972-75. This is the first part of his story.

Forty years ago, Cornelius Green¹ was a freshman quarterback at Ohio State. Far from home, the Washington, D.C. native was having trouble sleeping, due in part to recurring stomach pains. One day, his coach, the legendary Woody Hayes, sent him to the doctor to find out what was wrong.

"You're number five," the doctor told the confused 18-year-old. Green tried to correct him, informing him that he wore the #7 jersey instead.

"No," the doctor clarified. "You're the fifth quarterback that Woody has given an ulcer."

He was at once just like other Buckeye QBs before him and also completely unique. In 1972, 82 years after it was first established, the Ohio State football program had its first African-American quarterback in the young man nicknamed "Corny."

Although he barely saw the field his freshman season, he received hate mail from the KKK and the occasional threatening phone call to his dorm room, which he shared with teammate Archie Griffin², the eventual two-time Heisman Trophy winner. It was a trying time, but Corny believed in the motto "what is to be is up to me." When the media asked him numerous times that year what it felt like being the first black quarterback at Ohio State, his reaction was, "it's like being a quarterback."

It was the same philosophy shared by his coach, who told his players, "if you're good enough, you'll play and if you're not, you won't."

At his first summer camp as a Buckeye, Green roomed with wingback Brian Baschnagel, a white freshman from the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Despite their initial weariness due to their vastly different upbringings, they got along swimmingly. Whatever racially based warnings Cornelius had to deal with from the outside did not extend to his team.

On August 28th, 1963, when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream Speech", a young Corny was in attendance. Out of curiosity, he followed a throng of D.C. visitors to the National Mall and witnessed history. Less than a decade later, it only seemed appropriate that he would make some of his own, on a team whose players didn't judge each other by the color of their skin.

Cornelius claims "that day changed my life", and after the momentous event, he went on participate in football, basketball, and baseball, eventually earning nine varsity letters at Dunbar High School.

As a high school player, Cornelius liked to stand out, in part so his mother could easily spot him from her seat in the stands. His father never got that chance. By the time Corny was in eighth grade, diabetes had taken his father's sight and both his legs. Even now, it makes him tear up knowing his father was unable to attend his games and watch his success on the field.

Nevertheless, Cornelius wanted to be noticed, and his penchant for wearing colorful shoes and tassels on his pants caused Washington Post writer Leonard Shapiro to describe him as a "flamboyant flim-flam man." Taking that characterization and running with it, the teenager taped "Flamboyant" on his helmet until one day his nickname simply became "Flam."

Cornelius was easy to pick out in a crowd

During his senior year in high school, the All-American threw for 28 touchdowns and ran for 12. His ability to pass the ball and his flashy persona seemed at odds with the buttoned-down nature of Woody Hayes, both as a person and as a coach with a "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense. But as the scholarship offers in football and basketball came pouring in, one of them was from Ohio State.

Also on the table was a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals worth $300,000. However, Corny was raised by a woman who only made it through the eighth grade and valued education above all else.

In the end, his decision came down between Ohio State and Michigan State. From ages 9 to 15, he had spent his summers in Flint, Michigan, where his mother's three brothers lived. It felt like fate to go to college in nearby East Lansing.

But then Cornelius took a trip to Columbus, Ohio. To this day, he still recalls how his recruiting visit unfolded:

"Woody talked about academics 90% of our conversation. I thought that he wasn't interested in me because he wasn't talking football. And I told my mom, I said, 'I don't know about Ohio State, Mom. Coach Hayes never talked football. All he was talking about was school.'"

"My mom said, 'Bingo. That's the guy that I would like for you to play for because all these schools, all they're talking about is how good you're going to be for them when you get there and none of them are really concentrating on what you want to be in life. And Ohio State really went out of their way to talk academics to you.'"

Others, including Jimmy Raye, a black quarterback who had played for Michigan State, warned Green that if he chose OSU, they'd make him change positions.

He trusted Woody, though, who unlike coaches at the other schools recruiting him, did not promise he'd start the minute he stepped foot on campus. Woody told Corny he'd play him if he earned it, and that, along with his desire to get his degree, meant that his choice was easy.

"Flam" was Ohio State-bound.

While he swears that he was never arrogant, Cornelius did have a certain amount of swagger about him in college. He owned a colorful wardrobe, he boasted an impressively-sized Afro, and he drove around campus in a car with a "Flam 7" personalized license plate³.

His first year, though, he wasn't receiving much attention on the football field. In the 1973 Rose Bowl, a blowout loss to USC, he did see a little action, albeit as a kick returner.

That would soon change.

Check back next Friday for Part Two.

¹ When he played for Ohio State, his last name was spelled "Greene", but shortly after his career ended, his family, 80% of which spelled it without the "e", decided that for consistency's sake, everyone would spell it "Green".
² The two remain close to this day and are the godfather of each other's children.
³ People thought he knew the governor of Ohio because personalized license plates were not available in the state, when actually, they were DC tags.

OSU's Gift to Corporate Media

Kyle Lamb — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Gene Smith opened mouth, inserted foot

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. When Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith hands you those lemons, you hop online and blog about the bitter taste on thy tongue.

This Wednesday, Smith gave reporters and bloggers the gift that keeps on giving in an interview with The Lantern: diarrhea of the mouth. Facing intimidating student reporter Pat Brennan, Smith managed to allow an innocuous comment turn into a tsunami of more unwanted publicity for OSU athletics.

Such is the Midas touch of Smith.

The latest tidal wave began last week when the Cleveland Plain Dealer found that Ohio State self-reported 46 violations in the past academic year. Smith was in the process of describing the nature of those violations, as well as 12 "pending" possible mishaps the NCAA is currently examining. The savvy Smith added a contextual goldmine by noting the violations, "may turn out to be secondary. (They) may not."

Before the virtual ink had dried on the interview, the sharks smelled blood in OSU's violation-infested waters. ESPN linked the fools gold on the front of its website. Before Brooks Melchior of Sports by Brooks fame could quickly concoct an additional twist on evil OSU athetics, Brennan had gone into full-on defense mode proactively releasing the audio of his conversation to prove he was not misquoting Smith.

No one ever needed audio confirmation of his ineptitude, but Brennan gave it to us anyhow.

The implication of Smith's comments was that Ohio State might be facing more major sanctions by the governing body. As it turns out, the audio confirmed Brennan wasn't in the business of being an aspiring shoddy hack, although his future with the Worldwide Leader in Sensationalizing Sports might be bright. Smith said what Brennan claimed, but in the defense of the lame duck P.R. blunder robot, he likely could have meant they might not even be violations at all.

It's his skillful craft at making a story bigger than it is in reality as to why OSU needs to cut bait.

The most ironic part of the Gene Smith story is that he was hired by OSU to guide the university through the complexity of ongoing NCAA sanctions in 2005. The former Arizona State AD had formerly served on the infractions committee, and allegedly his contacts within the NCAA hierarchy would keep OSU from being lined up in front of the NCAA firing squad.

Oops.

As it turns out, either his influence was embellished or he needs to cash-in the warranty on those faulty connections.

Head coach Jim Tressel ~~was fired~~ resigned last spring over the snowballing media impact of learning he had been privvy to possible violations committed by six players in a tit-for-tattoo scandal. In literal terms, the players received cash or discounted tattoos in exchange for autographs and persona memorabilia. A tipster, now known to be attorney Christopher Cicero, alerted Tressel of the players' items turning up in a raid of the apartment of then-alleged criminal, Edward Rife.

The players had been suspended for five games in the previous December, although much to the public's chagrin, they were allowed to play in the now-vacated Sugar Bowl victory against Arkansas. A month later, the grim reaper of NCAA violations -- Yahoo! Sports -- found that Tressel knew about the possible violations and did not report them. Tressel survived the initial onslaught of unwanted attention with President E. Gordon Gee going so far to add, "I hope he doesn't fire me."

Eventually, though, pressure mounted. SI's George Dohrmann published a stunning exposé on Tressel rigging ticket raffles and preaching the Gospel from his ringside seat in baby-snatching. The non-revelations from the Pulitzer-winning author, though, was enough for OSU to part ways with the man that Dohrmann concluded could not part the Red Sea.

Tressel was a victim, in part, of Smith's verbal machinations

Tressel was out. Eventually, Urban Meyer was in.

Unfortunately, one can't even really give Smith too much credit for the hiring of Meyer as he was mostly a figurehead (reportedly). Smith's contribution to the hiring of Meyer consisted of signing a dotted line, showing up at the press conference and memorizing a rehearsed timeframe for when contact was [allegedly] first made. It was a simple task that even Smith could not screw up. The deal had been put together by OSU trustees and couriers, most especially billionaire Leslie Wexner.

OSU returned monies generated from the Sugar Bowl appearance and imposed scholarship restrictions in hopes the NCAA would not punish them further. That appeared as if it was going to work, until they were slapped with an additional Failure to Monitor charge by the NCAA in November on account of $2,405 in impermissible benefits provided to athletes by ex-booster Robert DeGeronimo. Smith and Ohio State procrastinated with their response to the NCAA on the allegations, causing the entire timetable of the simultaneous case to push late into the football season.

It was at that time Smith needed to hedge his bets and self-impose a bowl ban for the 2011 season while there was still time. Instead, he relied on his keen intuition and impeccable sources within the NCAA expecting OSU would be in the clear. This was in spite of some experts believing a bowl ban was at best a coin flip, if not a mathematical probability.

Smiths' game of roulette backfired. Ohio State suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was given a bowl ban in December. Because it was so late in the process, the penalty would not be enforced until this upcoming season.

When Urban dons the Scarlet windbreaker for the first time this fall, he'll do so without any hope of a postseason appearance.

While blaming Smith is as fashionable as blaming ESPN, the Illuminati or Kim Kardashian, it's hard not to justify doing so. He has an ability to urinate into a brush fire with gasoline and turn it into a raging forest inferno. Major universities, not unlike major corporations, are supposed to have gifted spokespersons capable of downplaying and minimizing a public relations nightmare. Instead, Ohio State has people skilled at turning an ordinary daydream into a such a nightmare.

To this day, some levy allegations that Tressel fell on a sword to protect Ohio State; namely Smith and higher-ups in the athletic department knew of the allegations well before they were ever made public. Such allegations would be damning and it implies severe institutional culpability. Fortunately for Ohio State, no such insinuation has ever been substantiated. Nonetheless, either on purpose or by accident, Smith shares a large portion of blame in this mess.

Perhaps that he still has a job is an indictment that he knows where the bodies are buried. Maybe Gee just hopes Smith doesn't fire him either. Whatever the reason for his continued employment, OSU is losing a daily battle against public perception. As long as perception is reality, Smith is turning into a flesh-eating virus and is helping create what he was hired to avoid.

When seasoned spin doctors of the national media manipulate a story, one can understand if Smith is seen as a victim. After all, the press can be a vindictive, hungry pack of wild animals. But when student reporters begin to create mountains out of molehills, it's clear Smith is overmatched. Teenagers aren't supposed to take down the AD of the second-largest athletic budget in America.

Things will only get worse before they get better. As long as Ohio State is a nationally recognizable brand and moving target, they'll be in perpetual state of despair. In a world where social media is ready to prey on its next victim with any minor snafu, OSU needs an athletic director that can minimize the damage rather than add to it. This latest blunder is proof positive that the smallest misstep can turn into a mishap of gargantual proportions.

It's too late for Tressel. It's too late for Meyer at least for this season. And no matter what OSU does going forward, it cannot undo the last 18 months of relentless media scrutiny. That's not to say Ohio State is without recourse.

Looks like it's time to dose the lemonade with cyanide.

Friday Skull Session

Johnny — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:13:19 +0000

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to your morning Skull Session.

I don't know what it is with us and the last couple of weeks in May, but at some point Ohio State needs to figure out a way to make the beginning of summer somehow less ridiculous and headache-inducing. Granted, having to sift through a giant pile of secondary violations (most of which barely even qualify as that) is vastly preferable to dealing with the dismissal of a head coach, but either way this is the time of year where I really don't need any added stress.

Not that the rest of the college football world is helping out that much either. The drama surrounding the (kind of) death of the BCS is probably going to be much more painful than it really needs to be, but I guess the lesson to be learned here is that rich old people hold on to corrupt and outdated systems with tons of money tied into it like grim death. Good news for the golfing buddies of the Rose Bowl's "talent evaluators," bad news for pretty much everyone else.

Maybe the heat is just getting to me and I'm being too negative. On the other hand, maybe the links below will confirm everything that I just said, and you too shall feel the sting of sports stupidity. That's not to say that I want you to start your day off grumpy, but I do want you to start your day ready to loudly complain about dumb stuff. And don't worry, there's Mario Kart at the end. See? Everybody wins.

PLAYOFF, SCHMAYLOFF It was always kind of silly of us to think that a four team playoff would ever be anything but a plus one in terms of how it would actually be executed; unless games were to be played on campus, a four team playoff at BCS bowls with another game being played after is pretty much just a plus one with a different name. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Most of the reasoning behind this is the Big Ten and the Pac-12 steadfastly refusing to admit that the Rose Bowl is an antiquated idea that few still hold paramount to a national championship, but even better, it seems that the Big 12 and the SEC have decided to have their own little "champions bowl" between the winners of those two conferences.

So that's pretty much that! Those in charge have more or less figured out a way to not only preserve the BCS bowl system in the new four team playoff/plus one format, but also actually increase the number of bowls that tie into that system! It's actually kind of genius, provided you only care about preserving an illogical and inherently unfair way to determine winners and losers.

THE BOOK As I intimated earlier this week, the NCAA rulebook is a labyrinthine and complex tome with often ridiculous standards. This would be okay and maybe even kind of funny if it were the instructions for a boardgame or a waffle iron and not the commandments that college athletic programs are expected to adhere to. But since it is, it becomes silly in a bad way, and near incomprehensible for people who are supposed to abide by it or lose their jobs.

SI's Andy Staples breaks down some of the quirks of this latter day Robert's Rules of Order by taking a compliance test along with some current coaches. He actually ends up doing pretty well, and along the way points out some of the more extreme foibles listen therein:

Three of my questions involved the composition and delivery method of recruiting materials. I missed a question about whether schools can provide a media guide to a prospect on a flash drive instead of in printed form. I answered that schools are allowed, because this seemed like the sort of tree-saving activity encouraged on most campuses these days. I was wrong. Apparently, some schools got so upset that other schools produced fancier flash drives that they made a rule forbidding anyone from recruiting via USB port.

Hahahahmmmm this is actually very stupid.

Okay, now imagine a stack of those 100 feet high

WHO SAYS PUBLIC SERVICE DOESN'T PAY OFF? Maybe this isn't that much of a shock, considering that the dude worked at the same institution for over 60 years and got paid a considerable sum of money to do so, but it was revealed that Joe Paterno's pension was 13.1 million dollars, probably to be paid through a giant novelty Publisher's Clearinghouse check. The article notes that given Paterno's stature in the CFB ranks, his annual salary of just over a million dollars was quite low (and yes, granted, he hadn't exactly been earning that money in the four or five years prior to his final season), but ol JoePa was apparently playing the long con for his family.

I will say this; it's impossible to say that his legacy isn't tainted in a major way by the Jerry Sandusky scandal. But some of the numbers listed in this article show just how devoted that man was to his university, and the sheer breadth of his service to Penn State is kind of staggering.

2012-13 BASKETBALL WHY NOT A very, very, VERY early look at your frontrunners for next season's college basketball, not especially relevant (Indiana is on top, OSU is high up by virtue of the defense and Thomas), but it is notable for the concluding installment of the Aaron Craft Turnometer, which was a season long analysis of just how valuable the Crafty One was on the defensive end. I eagerly await its return next fall, along with the Deshaun Thomas Refusaltopassoutofadoubleteamspectrogram.

AND YOU GET A LINK! AND YOU GET A LINK! Wu Tang+Budos Band = Wudos Band... Spurs and the NHL are boring, awesome... Those blue shells are killer... Behold, a sporting organization even more corrupt than college football... This dog feels no joy. Only hate... Yaaaayyy first place!

Urban and Competition Psychology

Chad Peltier — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000

RDS dominating in the circle drill

One of the biggest differences between the Tressel and Meyer regimes has been Meyer's increased intensity and competition - his desire to separate winners and losers in a way that Tressel never did.

Practice observers have noted the changing atmosphere, increased competiton and Urban's intensity, which apparently looks something like "he’s some sort of a cross between an evil-genius and God-like figure in Columbus; the man is so intense he may or may not breathe fire."

This has led to several new programs and traditions, including at least four "winner-loser" days of practice in which winners received gatorade while losers enjoy gassers, his three-tiered caste system and champion's club based upon classroom, weight, diet, and on-field performance, and the circle drill on display before the spring game.

The approach seems to be popular with the players, with Stoneburner, Guiton, Goebel and Hankins voicing their support for the increased competition.

Under Meyer, everything is incentive based:

Everything we try to do around here is incentive-based. You want to live off campus, I have no problem with that. But you have to earn that right. A big thing is wearing visors or changing your number to No. 1. I don't really care what you wear but don't come see me unless you are taking care of your business in all the other areas that we evaluate."

And leaders are supposed to emerge from "corporate, cut-throat" and "Darwinian" competition:

"I really want to see guys lead by not losing. You want to be a great leader? Go win. That's where we're really pushing Braxton. All the players, when you go against someone -- don't lose. There's a million excuses. Our whole focus is, go win. Winners have a tendency to stand in front of the team. Losers don't. So we're really pushing that winner-loser mentality right now."

Urban clearly believes that he is best able to motivate his players through intense competition that results in the public separation of winners and losers. Maybe due to his psychology degree, Urban's new traditions have their roots in one strain of education psychology known as achievement goal theory.

Achievement goal theory differentiates between learning goals and performance goals. While learning goals concern one's personal understanding and appreciation for what is being learned, performance goals involve increasing one's status by outperforming peers. Achievement goal theorists hypothesize that performance goals "trigger superficial, rote-level processing that exerts a stultifying influence on achievement" while learning goals favor deep processing of information and increased scholastic achievement.

Meyer at least informally recognizes this differentiation based upon the incentive structures of programs like the winner-loser days and the circle drill. The goal of these drills is not simply learning technique and football, but to increase players' competitiveness. For Meyer, competitiveness itself is a goal rather than simply a means to other goals.

While many psychologists deride performance goals within classroom settings, they clearly have a place on the instrinsically competitive football field, where everything is a relative competition at the internal level (fighting for first string, offense vs. defense winner-loser days) and external level (winning the game). Goebel demonstrated the need for competiton when he said, "You can only push yourself so far, and then you need someone else there by you with equal talent pushing you. It just makes you both that much better. It's awesome."

Some people thrive in stressful environments

Many studies have demonstrated that "public recognition for doing better than others (reinforcing of performance goals)...supports such prosocial behaviors as submission to teacher authority and a willingness to try hard." These two goals - coach acountability and competition - are the crux of Meyer's approach to coaching.

All of his new traditions are designed to publically recognize winners. It's clear why Meyer opened the spring game with a circle drill in front of all 80,000 fans - besides getting the players hyped for the game, it created easily identifiable winners and losers in front of a large audience. It's easy to miss individual battles being won and lost during scrimmages and games amidst the chaos of a play, but the circle drill focuses everyone's attention in on the outcome of just a single battle.

Furthermore, he is extremely candid about his opinions of his best players - enough to publically reward Boren and Simon (annointing Simon as a captain already) in front of the media. Simon of course responded by saying it only mattered to him if his fellow players also elected him as a captain demonstrating how Simon made captainship a learning goal rather than just a performance goal.

One of the fears with such a focus on competition is that the rewards - first string, being in the champion's club - become more about just avoiding failure. Some education scholars believe that this approach causes students who receive poor grades to feel worthless, without any alternative sources of personal satisfaction.

This is not to say that Urban never employs learning goals, but football itself naturally attracts a specific subgroup of "overstriver" individuals who are competitively and defensively motivated to avoid failure. For these overstrivers, "the direction of the impact of tension on the quality of test preparation is reversed. Instead of impairing their studies, as it does for failure avoiders, the presence of emotional tension actually mobilizes the enormous capacity of overstrivers for study, which typically takes the form of slavish overpreparation."

That is, overstrivers thrive in the intense, competitive and high-stress environments that Meyer cultivates. Meyer recognizes that the individuals he works with are different and he's adjusted his incentive structures accordingly.

All coaches implicitly incorporate these ideas to various degrees, but Meyer is clearly driven by performance goals that foster a competitive environment for overstriver players.

Forecasting 2013: Tight Ends

Alex — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Urban is looking for the next Aaron Hernandez in 2013

In the next part of our summer series, Forecasting 2013, we take a look at the grand scheme of things at the tight end position for Ohio State's recruiting class of 2013.

While the staff under Jim Tressel and Luke Fickell under utilized the tight end in their offenses when it came to being play makers, Urban Meyer's philosophy is a bit different. If you need to learn more, you can ask a certain former player of the new Buckeye coach and see what he thinks.

With the changes to the offense and within the role of the tight end at Ohio State also comes a new strategy in recruiting the position. The cupboard certainly isn't bare with Jake Stoneburner, Jeff Heuerman, Nick Vannett, and Blake Thomas in 2012, but as the position is used as more of a weapon in the offense comes the demand of more players on the depth chart.

Today, we take a look at the tight end position for the recruiting class of 2013 to see what high school prep stars may blossom into the "next Aaron Hernandez" under the tutelage of Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman. Join us after the jump to see "who's in", "who's out", and "who's left" when it comes to the Buckeyes' big board for rising senior tight end prospects.

Who's In?

As mentioned above the Buckeyes have a solid group of tight ends on the roster for this coming fall, but needed to add at least one player in the 2013 class, as Jake Stoneburner is set to graduate after the season.

Baugh committed to OSU despite having not visited

Marcus Baugh of Riverside (CA) John W. North was a player who was targeted early by Urban Meyer and quickly jumped at the opportunity to be the first tight end to commit to the Buckeyes, giving his verbal to the coaching staff on April 10, just a month after receiving his offer from OSU.

At 6-4/225 Baugh has good size for a high school junior, but is expected to get a little bigger by the time he gets to Columbus. He caught the eye of the staff through his ability to catch the football, but he also very proficient in the blocking game as well, something that would have been more valuable in the old system, but won't be a lost art in the Meyer Era.

When it comes to offers, Baugh picked the Buckeyes over scholarships from schools such as Miami (FL), Nebraska, UCLA, Washington, Florida, Cal, Ole Miss, and others. He was well on his way to having that list blow up even more, but his commitment slowed things down in that area.

He is rated as a four star prospect across the board and all services have him in the top ten at his position. He was named as the number three tight end by 247 and ESPN/Scout's Inc., the number five tight end by Rivals, and the seventh ranked tight end by Scout. Regardless of which service's rankings you prefer, it's safe to say Ohio State is getting a very good player.

Baugh is a great get for the Buckeyes and if the class ended with just one tight end, the Ohio State coaching staff would be very happy. That being said, it seems the goal is to add another dynamic play maker to the group in addition to Baugh, but as of now that mission has not been accomplished.

Who's Out?

The Buckeyes started their 2013 tight end recruitment by looking at a large group of players, but only ended up offering four of their targets.

Mike Heuerman decided to go to South Bend

One of those targets was Baugh, but two of those are already off the board in the form of Naples (FL) Barron Collier's Mike Heuerman and Camp Hill (PA) Cedar Cliff's Adam Breneman.

Heuerman was considered a lock to be a Buckeye, as his older brother Jeff is already on the roster and he long expressed his love for Ohio State. It seemed to be a matter of when not if when it came to the younger Heuerman joining his brother in the Scarlet and Gray early on in his recruitment, but as things dragged out that changed.

While Ohio State was making a strong push, other programs such as Notre Dame, Miami (FL), and LSU were also building relationships with the top ten tight end. Heuerman always kept Ohio State on the top of his list, but Notre Dame did a great job connecting with the star prospect and the program continued to rise up the board.

The Fighting Irish's hard work finally paid off, as Heuerman committed to Brian Kelly on Thursday April 26. This was to the surprise of many Buckeye fans, mainly because of the fact that as early as the weekend before, Heuerman was telling people he was planning on pledging to the Buckeyes while on campus for the OSU Spring Game.

Whether it was because of the rumored desire not to compete with his brother Jeff, or just because he truly felt South Bend was the place for him, Heuerman did ultimately decide to play for the Green and Gold, leaving the Buckeyes searching for their second tight end.

Breneman on the other hand, ended things a bit earlier, committing to Penn State over Ohio State on March 9. The nation's top tight end grew up in Penn State country, rooting for the Nittany Lions since childhood.

While he claimed his fandom wouldn't be a factor, he couldn't deny a lifetime of passion for the school contributed to his decision. Ohio State did everything they could in this battle, but came up just short and is now left moving on to the next set of prospects.

Who's Left?

With Baugh in, and both Breneman and Heuerman out, that leaves only Durham (NC) Hillside's Josh McNeil as the only remaining tight end with an Ohio State scholarship offer.

Will McNeil Roll Tide or be a Buckeye?

The 6-5/240 McNeil is rated as the fourth best tight end by Scout, eighth best tight end by 247, and the thirteenth ranked tight end by Rivals. He is a four star prospect across the board, but the thing that makes him so intriguing is that he just picked up football a couple of years ago after being a basketball star for most of his life, something that is leaving people calling him "the next Antonio Gates".

If McNeil could be half as good as Gates is that would be just fine. The raw prospect is blowing up in the meantime though, with over 25 offers at this point from some of the best programs in the nation. He currently names a top three of Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia, in that order, and will be visiting all three schools on June 4, June 16, and June 7 respectively.

Things were looking good when it came to OSU and McNeil early on, with the Hillside star even stating a couple of months ago that he was 90% sure of where he wanted to go to school. Being that he was 2012 Buckeye signee Jamal Marcus's good friend and teammate, couple with the fact that the Bucks were recruiting him very hard, many felt he would end up in Columbus.

That changed a bit as Baugh surprisingly gave his verbal pledge to Urban Meyer despite never visiting the school. While nothing has been confirmed yet, it was highly coincidental that McNeil decided to postpone both his trip to Columbus and his announcement date at the same time Baugh committed and the Bucks seemed to throw all their eggs in the Mike Heuerman basket.

The move by the staff apparently hasn't damaged things too bad, as McNeil will be on campus next month and still has the Buckeyes in his top two. With Marcus in his ear and the charm of Urban Meyer, there is certainly a good chance the North Carolina native selects the Scarlet and Gray when he announces his decision live on television at Nike's The Opening in Beaverton, Oregon on July 5.

If McNeil chooses to Roll Tide or play for the Bulldogs, the coaches will look at a new group of players who will all try to earn an offer at Ohio State's summer camps. While it's not clear exactly who could be next in line to receive an offer if the staff chooses to add another tight end, the one name that has emerged is that of Charlie Reid.

Reid, 6-4/225, is just starting to rise on the recruiting scene as more college coaches get down to All Saints Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Texas. He already has offers from Arizona, Ole Miss, TCU, UCLA, Mississippi State, and Utah, among others, while schools such as OSU, Oklahoma, Baylor, Arkansas, and Texas A&M are all starting to show some more serious interest.

Ranked as the number 21 tight end by 247, the number 23 tight end by Rivals, and 32nd at his position by Scout, Reid will only continue to improve in the ratings. He had a successful junior season in which he caught 41 passes for 637 yards and 5 scores, numbers that he should improve upon during his senior campaign.

I'm not sure if Reid will ever end up with a scholarship offer from Ohio State, but Tom Herman is certainly a fan of his as things stand now, and depending on what happens with McNeil, he is definitely a player to watch this summer.

An Interview with Chris Brown of Smart Football

Ross — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

A must read.

Chris Brown is one of the foremost sources on football strategy outside the coaching ranks today. Regular readers of this site know that his Smart Football is a must-read and nary a week goes by that I do not link to one of his insightful posts.

We are all lucky, then, that Chris has released a new book, The Essential Smart Football, which is currently No. 1 on Amazon's best selling football books. As Chris writes:

it is a collection of pieces, roughly two-thirds of which consist of older works that have been expanded and professionally edited, and another one-third of which are new. If you’ve read every single thing I’ve ever written you will recognize the portion of the book that is not all new, though as I said I have expanded and edited each piece. But this book is my considered judgment of what I think constitutes the best and most essential of my thoughts on football — The Essential Smart Football.

Chris was kind enough to sit down and discuss the book and football strategy with me. He provided me with so much good material that I will split this into two pieces. This first post discusses overall football trends, while the second will focus on Ohio State, Urban Meyer, and the future.

RRF: What is your background and how did you decide to start a football strategy blog?

CB: Like all of us, really, I've loved football all my life. I played growing up and through high school, and while in college was interested enough in the game to stick with it. At that time I did some assistant coaching with nearby schools, and later did the real thing. I decided not to pursue that career, however, and today I am a (fairly!) happily practicing lawyer in New York City. But I wanted to stay connected to the game, and I was fortunate to have then and continue to have many, many wonderful contacts in the coaching business. The website, some form of which goes back probably eight years or so, was really an attempt to write the kinds of articles about football that I wanted to read. As it grew it -- and this goes for the new book too -- became my attempt to both write the sorts of things I wanted to read but also to hopefully contribute just a little bit in my own way to a game that has given me a great deal.

RRF: What was the impetus for you to release you new book, "The Essential Smart Football?"

CB: Sort of a confluence of factors. One was that the longer I've written and the more outlets I've written for, I've been fortunate to have a lot of new readers come to my work, and many of them ask where they should start, both with my work and with thinking more deeply about the game in general. At the same time, I'd like to imagine that my thinking on football has become more refined over time, so I wanted to revisit some of my older works and had thought a book project might provide an outlet for revising and expanding some of those older pieces, such as my discussion of Urban Meyer's offense. I also had a substantial amount of unpublished material -- which make up the all new chapters on Al Borges' offense at Michigan, the history of the 3-3-5 defense, and others -- that I thought would mesh well with the other edited material. And I thought, naively maybe, that others might enjoy seeing all of that presented in a simple, clean, concise package. And I'm happy to report so far, so good: The Essential Smart Football has spent most of the last week as the #1 bestselling football book and a top #5 overall sports book on Amazon (though being released in May probably reduced my competition).

RRF: Briefly, what does the book contain?

CB: In addition to what I mentioned above, the book is collection of pieces, organized by theme -- Characters, History, Theory and Concepts -- split roughly half and half between college and pro football, though there's more overlap between the concepts I discuss there than one would think. I discuss what I think are the best, most important, and most innovation concepts and strategies in football right now, through the stories of various players and coaches important to the game's development. Although the subjects are diverse, by the end the reader will have covered most of of the ideas driving what we see on the field every Saturday.

RRF: Lets turn to college football today. Who do you think are some of the most interesting and/or innovative coaches today?

CB: I will of course note that "interesting" and "innovative" are not always the same thing as "successful," and it's the latter that fans do and should care about most. Being a coach is about a lot more than schemes -- it's about developing men, first of all, and talent, fundamentals and techniques decide more games than do strategies. And innovative coaches don't even always directly benefit from their innovations. In a lead in to a chapter I quote Goethe: "Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game."

But, as a cursory glance at the top of the standings will reveal, strategy clearly matters, and it matters nowadays more than ever. In that vein I think the coaches doing really interesting stuff are guys like Chip Kelly of Oregon and Dana Holgorsen, formerly of Oklahoma State and now of West Virginia, on the offensive side of the ball, and on defense I think Nick Saban of Alabama and Garry Patterson of TCU are the most fascinating to study. This doesn't mean they have a monopoly on good ideas or schemes -- except maybe in the case of Saban and his talent laden teams -- as Wisconsin has possessed another one of my favorite offenses the last few years, though with offensive coordinator Paul Chryst to Pittsburgh and offensive line coach Bob Bostad to the Tampa Bay Bucs, they will be interesting to watch. (That said, Wisconsin's new offensive coordinator, Matt Canada, from Northern Illinois, is a very good one.)

RRF: To you, what are the cutting edge innovations you are seeing on the offensive and/or defensive side of the ball?

CB: Again, I'll preface this by saying that what is most cutting edge isn't necessarily what is best. That Vince Lombardi guy did pretty well with a simple offense, I just wrote an extremely lengthy piece on how Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts decimated the NFL for a decade using the exact same plays over the entire period, and Leach-protege Holgorsen said the reason Leach's offenses were always so good was because "he don't change shit."

But as a scheme junkie, I do love what's cutting edge, and to me the best stuff on offense is the increased use of "packaged concepts," particularly within a no-huddle offense. This is all some pretty new and pretty killer stuff: runs and downfield pass plays combined all in the same play, where the quarterback can either throw downfield (not just a bubble screen) or hand it off to a running back, all while the offensive line run blocks. Or the use of downfield passes combined with screens underneath, both to receivers and running backs. And finally one Oklahoma State killed people with last year under offensive coordinator Todd Monken, where they combined a one-on-one downfield pass option to their stud receiver Justin Blackmon who was singled up to one side, a receiver screen to the other, or an inside run with the running back and offensive line. Each unit did their job independent of the other players on offense, and the quarterback simply decided whether to throw the slant or fade to Blackmon, throw the screen to the other receivers, or hand it off.

The further benefit to these is when they are used in the no-huddle: The offense can run to the line, line up, call a single, simple concept, and the quarterback chooses where to go with the ball, making the defense wrong, every time. This is in contrast to requiring the quarterback to make lots of complicated checks or audibles at the line of scrimmage or to do that whole everybody-line-up-no-wait-look-to-the-sideline-for-the-new-signal thing. It's run it and go, and the quarterback is the field general.

On defense the big trend is to take existing defenses, like the 3-4 or 4-3, but to begin using more "hybrid" defenders in the base defense, guys who were maybe considered "tweeners" a few years ago without a true position. These are the linebacker/safety hybrids and the defensive end/linebacker hybrids, who, when facing all these no-huddle or multiple-formation attacks, must be able to both take on a fullback or tight-end at the line, rush the passer, or drop into pass coverage. If you're going to have any hope of defending a dynamic offense like the one Urban Meyer runs -- which is spread but can use power, and can use power but still throw the ball around -- then you need to meet that dynamism with more dynamism.

Next week, Brown and I will speak more specifically about Meyer and OSU.

Gene Smith Clarifies Statements to Lantern

11W Staff — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:23:41 +0000

Link:

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/genrel/052412aaa.html

After making some comments in a Lantern article from late last night that that took fans aback a bit, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith clarifies those statements this morning:

“Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio State Athletics is not facing any major NCAA violations,” Smith said. “There are several secondary violations being processed by our compliance office. These are similar to those released last week. Again, these are secondary in nature and consistent with our culture of self-reporting even the most minor and inadvertent violations.

“Again, to be clear, the Ohio State football program, its coaches and staff are not facing any violations.”“Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio State Athletics is not facing any major NCAA violations,” Smith said. “There are several secondary violations being processed by our compliance office. These are similar to those released last week. Again, these are secondary in nature and consistent with our culture of self-reporting even the most minor and inadvertent violations.

“Again, to be clear, the Ohio State football program, its coaches and staff are not facing any violations.”

Let's just hope this time Gene is right and that the football program is not facing any violations.