OT: Luke Fickell denies any knowledge of rules violations
Luke Fickell had his first press conference (Link:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6657897 ) and denied any knoweldge of of player violations. Seriously? Given how blatant Pryor's violations were, is it possible anymore to beleive that the whole staff and compliance department had no knoweldge of what was going on? It is either incompetence or willful ignorance. The OSU head coaching job may be his dream job, but given the growing nature of the scandal, the level of instiutional self-denial about the seriousness of the problem there and the growing likelyhood that the NCAA will drop the hammer on them, it is hard to see Luke Fickell keeping the job beyond this season. As this thing progresses it is easy to see an outcome where their board of regents simply says enough is enough and completely cleans house.
Did you expect him to say he knew about it all along?
Another year of I didn't know and thats the first I heard of that
He did not say that he had no knowledge of it (as mentioned in yesterday's post by michgoblue). He just said that no one informed him of it -- he very well could've known about it.
I don't think he was trying to get tricky, he just phrased it poorly. If you watched the one on one interview on BTN before the press conference he specifically says he didn't know about it. I think his wording was just poorly chosen at the press conference.
Either way, its still not believable. The press conference has the feel of a guy who is in way over his head. Not from a football point of view, but he did not look anywhere near ready to be under the spotlight in a top ten program in good times, let alone during a major scandal. Someone else use the term "warm body." That is about it.
"not even in good times, let alone right now".
You read my mind.
oh sure, whether or not he actually knew is an entirely different issue. I'm jus saying, I don't think saying "I wasn't informed until" was trying to be tricky.
As pointed out here:
Fickell didn't say "I didnt know they were going on" Fickell said "No one TOLD me of them" He's not saying he didn't know
The only way Fickell couldn't have known what was going on:
But your visual articulation is simply a work of art, particularly with the emphasis on the "O"
From an institutional point of view, you would have thought though that they would have had a better set of talking points crafted to protect him if they really beleived that Fickell was going to be their long term coaching solution. At this goes on, it is getting harder and harder to see any outcome other than they clean house and start over. That Fickell was even allowed to get up and say "no one informed me of what was going on" that he was just focused on the job of football just sounds like so much BS at this point. It is not even clever or intelligent PR going forward. It has basically set him up to become one more domino to fall. Whether sooner or later, it now has the feeling of inevitablility.
As an institution, OSU has been doing a pitiful job with press conferences and PR in general.
So did Tressel...
This guy is just a warm body place holder, he's not buying green bananas.
Two very odd phrases, rolled into one very odd sentence. Well done, sir.
cool
According to the National Examiner, his salary was "bumped up" to $775,000 this year. Not exactly a vote of confidence: green bananas are OK, but renewing a lease for another year might not be a very good idea.
I find this all very hard to believe...
I understand he made the comment giving him an out if/when something comes back that can tie him to the violations. However, if he is really playing a game with his words he should feel the brunt of any fallout if/when he gets drug through the muck.
Most of the media outlets are paraphrasing his statement as the OP did ("he had no knowledge of any violations....."), and he has an opportunity to clarify if he doesn't agree with that interpretation of his comment.
...of course he won't clarify his statement and he will use it as a excuse when/if he is connected to the mess. Its just goes to show you that they may still be trying to decieve the media (invetegators too?). I don't think the media will give him a pass on this and if he is tied to it, he will probably be forced out also....just another bad decision by the AD at Ohio.
If Fickell was smart he would have turned them down. By stepping up and putting himself in the spotlight like this, he might have set his career back or derailed it entirely. It seems like there is no way that this is not going to end badly for Luke Fickell.
You are probably right, but I can't blame him for wanting to step up and get a shot at leading a major CFB program, even if it is on an interim basis. It could easily land him a MAC level offer, and if successful he would continue to ascend.
However, if he has his fingerprints on this, its only going to publically shame him and he could see a setback to his career. Insteasd of a permanent HC job, he could end up on a staff at a MAC level school.
If I had an offer that tripled my salary, I would definitly be willing to accept more risk or be willing to enter a messy situation for the compensation alone.
IMO it could go either way.
There is no conceivable way tht Fickell turns down the OSU job. He's from Columbus, played at OSU, DC'd at OSU. This is his only shot at the job. He can't walk away and hope to get the job three years later.
Did he know something, of course he did unless he orchestrated his surroundings to never know what was going on. either scenario is straight from the Tressel playbook, and should be firable offenses to an athletic department and university that places its reputation and ethics above simple W-L record. OSU has demonstrated that it values W-L more than anything else.
The sensible thing for OSU to do is leave Fickell in place until the NCAA is done administering the lashes. At that point, they could make a play for a big name coach who can assess the new competitive dynamics of the OSU job with certainty. But Fickell and the rest of the coaching staff can't be the long term answer as they are as complicit in the violations as Tressel.
he'd never get another chance, regardless of whether whoever they ended up hiring stuck around.
he may as well get the $$ now. if it becomes proven that he also had knowledge or just the fact he is associated with this swamp, he may never get a good coaching postion again anyway.
...and he was taught by the best con artist in the history of college football.
Fickell spoke at an introductory news conference, during which he promised Buckeyes fans a team that would be about "respect, toughness and being men of action."
Does the 'men of action' phrase mean that they will now promptly report all NCAA violations instead of ignoring them?
Fickell joining the parade of the "apparently blind" is one of the best things that can happen for us. There's no doubt in my mind that Ohio will be back in a BCS bowl game some time in the next decade. But if they take their punishment, and rebuild the right way, it will be 5-7 years. Already, you have the interim coach acting like he knew nothing, and the president and AD speaking about the situation in a manner that makes them look anything but corrupt, ignorant and wrong. This is going to be a classic case of the incriminated man (or in this case, institution) that lied through it's teeth and put on a great rhetotirical performance in order to get out of lockdown and out on parole as soon as possible. The best part, especially for Michigan, is those kind of criminals are the one's that are often back in their cells swiftly, for the same crimes.
Why is this good for Michigan? In your analogy we are the victim that is going to again be on the receiving end of their crimes. I don't want to go through 10 more years of this to prove we are morally superior!
No wonder all this crap went on for 10 years. None of the coaches had any clue what the kids were doing, apparently.
IF you believe they didn't know, which as everyone pointed out extremely well, Fickell didn't say.
Cowherd's getting hate mail from the yocals in Columbus after saying Fickell "knew something". Hate mail. This guy was Tressel's #2 and has coached with him for 10 years. He absolutely knew something, which will likely come out as the NCAA continues to pull skeletons out of Tressel's closet.
then he should be fired as well. These coaches need to know what is going on with their teeam, especially since it has been ongoing for the past 10 years.
It's a shame because Fickell is an excellent position coach. He was hired to be interim despite all of the other older Tressel accolytes on the staff. He can coach trust me and he can recruit. He is obviously not a very polished speaker but I think he was trying not to incriminate himself.
It would have been nice if instead of platitudes he informed us of actual football related things they were going to do but I guess "fielding an iron man team due to scholarship reductions and suspensions" is not something you want to publicly discuss.
Of course "Finkell" knew what was going on. Everyone involved here should be fired and Columbus should be cleansed of all this. From the AD on down, including the complicit office, to the waterboys.
Jim Tressel denies any knowledge of rules
No one knows anything, nothing happened, we are clean. I was born at night but not last night.
They are in total damage control mode. They ALL knew what was happening .... YES the coaches (certainly tressel's #2 guy !) and YES the A.D. Picking fickell was simply viewed as a continuation, since fickell was alreay going to be the sideline coach for the first 5 games this fall.
This is fairly easy ... when Smith gets the axe (and he will) there will be a new A.D. that can then be the super hero and rid C-bus from all the dirty, trashy, evil .... etc. people that were once associated with the previous coach (they may never again use tressel's name). At that time fickell gets thrown in the trash like everyone else and a new day dawns in Mordor !
Welcome back to NCAA football Urban !
Go Blue !
If the NCAA drops the hammer on OSU, they are not going to be able to get a top flight coach to come and deal with scholarship reductions and no bowl trips. It will kill recruiting. And its all about the athletes at the college level.
The basketball players knew what was going, so of course he knew.
I know there are some situational differences and the timeline is different, but does anybody remember what Ellerbe's response to similar questions was? I thought he coached Robert Traylor for at least a year before all hell broke loose.
His defense was:
"I have no idea what college basketball is about or is supposed to be. I am in way over my head. I got my job only because Goss was too chicken-$h!t to hire a coach from another team, even a SEMI-PRO team, just before the season started, and because Dutch was tied to the hip with Fish. I also had the one and only one quality Goss seemed to care about in a BB coach. Oh, and my dream job is to be in the construction industry, maybe if this doesn't pan out I can do that, in some place warm like Vegas.
So, uh... what was your question?"