Ohio's President is Involved With Football Recruiting
“You know, Ohio State pulled out all the stops,” Mr. Harris said. “They brought the president out for him. It was awesome! Then Urban Meyer’s record speaks for itself. He seems like a good guy… but when all was said and done we go back (to Michigan) and it just felt like home. Drake pulled me aside and was just like, ‘dad I just feel it. This is the place I need to be. I trust these guys… Hoke Hecklinski, all of them. It just seems like this is the place where my heart it and this is where I need to be.’”
I found this suprising. Have I been living in a hole? Do presidents of universities normally aid their athetic programs in recruiting efforts? I couldn't see Mary Sue doing this--I would hope she focuses her efforts on academics.
When presidents are involved in athletics, it's usually a bad thing. See: 2002 and the "Great day of shame" speech.
April 16th, 2013 at 11:08 AM ^
When presidents are involved in recruiting, it's usually dead ones like Grant, Jackson, et al. See Auburn, University of.
It shows the recruit a solidarity of the whole university behind his success. UM commits have mentioned thier getting to talk to the head of the __(insert blank)__ academic department during their visits.
However, I don't think MSC needs to start recruiting. That is, unless she wants to send a few specific recruits inspiring "you're a baller" sharpee-notes.
Gordon Gee is a tired old piece of crazy heavy-breathing shoeleather, and in this and most cases will turn kids off more than attract them. Noathousandtimesno. It's called self-respect, and Gee doesn't have it.
Just be patient; down the road we are clobbering these clowns consistently.
April 16th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
You do realize that Gordon Gee will sometimes just stroll around the campus area, sometimes even venturing into bars. Do you know what the kids think when they see this? That it's the coolest thing ever. They love it. You speak about most cases, yet you're speaking from an uninformed position. But it is the internet, so...
I dunno... I get the rivalry thing, and I like when Michigan beats OSU as much as anyone, if not more, since I live in Columbus and get to give or receive much more abuse after games. But this board prides itself for being above the namecalling thing, but as a whole, we resort to a lot of RCMB type jabs pretty quickly.
April 16th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
vicarious upvote
April 16th, 2013 at 10:30 AM ^
A buddy of mine is an OSU alum and got a picture with Mr. Redenbacher himself at a house party on campus once. Hard to imagine how this is a good idea, but hey, more power to him I suppose. Sometimes you just gotta go out and get crunk, you know?
April 16th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
I have a friend that went to Vanderbilt while Gee was the president there. He was hobbling around campus on crutches, and Gee stopped to talk to him for a few minutes about his injury. About 6 months later, he happened to run across Gee again (without crutches) and Gee asked him how the recovery had gone and other pointed questions. He was floored that Gee not only recognized him, but remembered the details of their brief conversation that had occurred almost half a year prior. As much of a slappy as he may be, dude has a way with people in one-on-one interactions (obviously this does not translate to press conferences).
April 16th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
It's probably also worth mentioning that Gee is a very recognizable figure (ironically in part because of his notorious appearance at the thank-God-I'm-not-fired press conference) while most recruits probably wouldn't know Mary Sue Coleman from Gary Coleman.
I doubt the average recruit knows who Gee is. That press conference was two years ago now.
April 16th, 2013 at 11:48 AM ^
Gordon Gee's best attribute, and the one that probably keeps him employed, is his BFF/Mentor relationship to Mark Emmert. As long as both men are in their respective positions, Ohio can pretty much do what they want and get off with minimal punishment.
to Mr. Gee for the ad hom comments. But still no. It's a logical leap to assume that the delight that OSU students evince on seeing Mr. Gee in bars translates to enjoying having him pursue propsective players as athlete. I'm old school, but that's not what I want my president doing.
Jim Tressel is popular at OSU, too.
April 16th, 2013 at 10:44 AM ^
Gee is extremely popular with OSU's students.
As for us "clobbering" OSU consistently, I don't see that happening. We'll probably be going back and forth ala the Bo/Woody days.
I would think they would keep Gordon Gee far, far away from the atheltic facility.
Apparently he met with Jabril Peppers as well. I agree that Michigan shouldn't embrace this approach.
Stanford rolls out Condoleeza Rice for their top recruits.
1st minority woman who was secretary of state, who is an avid football fan who has mentioned several times that her dream job is NFL commisioner is probably a much more engaging recruiter than bow-tied old white guy.
TFWIW
University presidents are in charge of the overall institutional budget. When it comes to Ohio recruiting, it's a good idea to keep the money men close by when you're trying to close the deal with a kid.
I guess I'm missing something, because I don't really see how this is a huge deal...
Michigan pulls out Magnitude for their biggest recruits!!
This is just par for the course. It wouldn't surprise me if the governor recruited for Ohio St.
This is just a little piece of hell.
About the only thing I agree with is the academic talk he went on toward the end of the video. Jim Tressel and character doesn't belong in the same sentence. Maybe he should stick with politics.
On an unrelated note, is it me or is Mary Sue Coleman getting younger? Either UMHS has a fantatastic plastic surgeon and MSC has an open tab or she has Benjamin Button syndrome. Everytime I see a picture of her, she looks 5 years younger. She better hope she doesn't run into me at Ricks in about 20 years.
April 16th, 2013 at 10:04 AM ^
a "Not Normal" button I can use to upvote your post?
(I'll settle for "Funny", I guess...)
The calculus of everyday life. Traffic patterns, cooking times, athletics, and yes, Merlin-chasers.
Althetics on a big stage do a ton for universities and their recruiting of your "average student", so there is a legit reason why a president would do this. I forget the number, but after Texas won the MNC their application pool went up something like 50%.
I frankly don't care much one way or the other, and think the "dean of ______" is just as effective, but I see no problem with this.
Michigan's did too after the 1997-8 season.
Generally, I wouldn't think that a University President would be involved. However, sometimes circumstances are such that it makes sense. Examples? Ok, Harris was at a bunch of Michigan basketball games. If MSC was there at the same time, and they were introduced at a suite, pregame, or halftime, over a coke and refreshments, well, that would seem kind of reasonable, given the circumstances. That is to say, it wouldn't be odd for MSC to be at the game, and for them to cross paths. OTOH . . . if it is during the work day, and the president has other stuff to do but still makes it down to south campus, that wouldn't be as natural. Obv., it wouldn't make sense to take a recruit to the President's office.
I guess the key principle to me is that the president shouldn't regularly be involved in recruiting, but this doesn't mean that you have to keep the president away from recruited athletes.
April 16th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
But if I were a recruit, that guy would turn me off from the school before attracting me to it. He's known for making some pretty ignorant, idiotic comments. Who knows what he's telling these recruits about other schools.
April 16th, 2013 at 11:17 AM ^
TIL that some people still think that modern university presidents are anything other than glorified sales people and fund raisers. Wealthy donors love sports as much as the rest of us.
April 16th, 2013 at 11:42 AM ^
Gordon Gee has done this before, as a few have mentioned...
Another example - here's an old Toledo Blade article (last August actually) which talks about Gee doing something rather similar with Joey Bosa - indeed, he reportedly told Bosa, "If you come here, you have to go to a frat party with me."In return, Bosa asked if he could be taught how to tie a bow tie, so the exchange of relevant learnings apprently occurs early in the process in Columbus. According to the article, Gee even exchanged e-mails with Bosa and referred to himself as part of the recruiting team.
April 16th, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
but I don't think the University president should or needs to act like "one of the guys" with the other students. Nor should he/she be involved with recruiting athletes. It sends several poor messages one of which is "I have lots of time on my hands and place a higher priority on the athletic side of things than academics."
April 16th, 2013 at 12:20 PM ^
says a lot of the value of the university.
April 16th, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^
I dislike the man due to a totally senseless personal grudge, but I have to give him credit for being eminently likable on the whole. When I visited Vanderbilt's campus for undergrad after being waitlisted, the tour guide kept talking up Chancellor Gee (that was his title) and how he was always around campus. I saw him in a cafeteria, walked up, introduced myself and explained the situation, and he took down notes, my name, and gave me his personal e-mail. I corresponded with him for a while about the issue, and he was absolutely pleasant.
Personal grudge: Was told I'd get in off the waitist, didn't happen. No bother; I went to Michigan instead and he went to OSU the same year. Pretty thrilled I didn't get in to Vandy, in hindsight.
Man may be a bit of a dope with PR at times, but he's definitely a warm, personal guy that goes out of his way to meet students.
I don't know if he's a good or bad university president overall, but I can't forget these two dumbass comments he made:
After the Game in 1992: "This tie is one of our greatest wins ever."
On Tressel: "I just hope he doesn't fire me."
I don't know what Gee says to recruits, but he often says stupid things in front of a microphone. If he wants to recruit kids, go for it. Personally, I think it is somewhat demeaning of the academic integrity of a university to have a president concern himself with who decides to play football at the school as opposed to, say, how to enhance the medical or law school, or improve the science facilities, or recruit more distinguished scholars.