OT - Nicklaus defends Tressel in MSM
Article in the Sporting News.
OSU alum Nicklaus states:
“I don’t know what really happened, but I’ll promise you that Tressel wasn’t the only one that knew what happened,” Nicklaus told the newspaper. “I bet you Gee or Gene and everybody else probably knew what was going on, and Tressel probably took the hit for it. Whether I’m right or I’m wrong, I don’t know."
“I can’t imagine that the university didn’t know what was going on,” Nicklaus said.
Friends, it just gets better every day. Now, even their most ardent supporters and alumni are throwing Gee and Smith under the bus. Spectacular.
April 18th, 2011 at 11:39 PM ^
So apparently Jack also has the power to fire the school president? I'd like to see the full chain of command for those jackasses to find out who is really running the show in Columbus.
April 18th, 2011 at 11:41 PM ^
I agree 100% with Nicklaus, and it makes this entire ordeal even more enjoyable.
just follow the money trail
Knows a bad lie when he sees one.
April 18th, 2011 at 11:48 PM ^
The entire school executive staff needs to be canned.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:06 AM ^
He promises, but yet doesn't know if he's right or wrong... Sounds fair
April 19th, 2011 at 10:17 AM ^
what do you expect?
April 19th, 2011 at 12:22 AM ^
There's 2 reasons why I've always liked Arnie more than Nicklaus:
1) Nicklaus is an OSU alum
2) Arnold Palmers are absolutely. awesome.
April 19th, 2011 at 11:03 AM ^
Not to mention, iced tea and lemonade? Brilliant!
Edit: I see _Wolverine_ beat me too it, but I'm going to let it stand, because this point can't be made enough.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
Yeah, I mentioned the whole ice tea and lemonade thing, too.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:24 AM ^
Well, if Nicklaus is right, that means OSU gets hit with lack of institutional control. And Tressel would still be individually sanctioned by the NCAA for lying to them. So yeah.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:24 AM ^
Arnold's got that awesome drink too
at Walgreens the other day and saw that they also make Arnold Palmer freeze pops now
April 19th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
It's like saying, I PROMISE you that OJ Simpson is guilty, but I don't really know for sure.
Nice OJ reference. Also Monster now makes Arnold Palmer energy drinks.
Goood, Gooood!!!!!!
April 19th, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^
I was thinking that watching this OSU implosion is more like this.
Since day one, it is inconceivable to me that Tressel didn't tell someone about the emails immediately upon receipt.
This has reaked of coverup - Tressel, knowing that with his record he wouldn't be fired, in all likelihood took the hit.
Sounds like he's not defending Tressel so much as saying that Gee & Smith are every bit as guilty as he is. I didn't read the article though -- just the snippet above.
That being said, I'm sure the NCAA will be defending Tressel when this is all said and done. I'm choosing to maintain blind pessimism until this is all over, which it won't be for a very long time.
capture Gee, only to pull his mask off to reveal John Cooper. The smart teenage girl with the glasses will explain that Cooper created this entire scheme to smear Tressel since he was jealous of all the accolades he has been getting as coach. Cooper will then state that he "would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids" and everyone will have a laugh. The NCAA will then close the case and head back home to focus on more important tasks such as monitoring coachs' Rivals.com subscriptions.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:02 AM ^
This seems to be the most plausible scenario to me, as well.
Haha that was funny. +A lot.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:02 PM ^
That's pretty funny, but I think the setting for that fits better at AA considering...you know...Hash Bash.
"I don’t know what really happened, but I’ll promise you that Tressel wasn’t the only one that knew what happened"
I don't know what happened, but I will promise.... sorry, that makes no sense Jack.
Actually what he said makes perfect sense. He said he doesn't know what happened, but he is sure someone other than Tressel did know what happened.
Of OSU in general. Seems the university prez was right when he said he hopes Tressel doesn't fire him.
But to give a blanket endorsement of Tressel when his track record indicates otherwise seems a bit misguided.
I wonder, though, how Jack is feeling these days knowing his 18 majors are probably going to remain the Standard in golf now that Tiger has lost his way.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:40 AM ^
You may be speaking a little too soon with regards to tiger.
I love watching the whole corrupt regime twist in the wind. Bastards.
Unlike Tiger Woods, who gives away nothing in interviews and whose press relations are about Zero degrees Kelvin, Jack Nicklaus has an interesting history of being both forthcoming, and also just a little careless in his statements in interviews.
Jack's history includes his statements on USGA equipment regulations, particularly golf balls, golf course design work, and some of the affairs at Augusta National where he and Arnold Plamer are the only two past Champions who are also club members.
I expect that this is of a kind with some of his past statements; a bit carelessly phrased, and overwhelmingly true.
Yes, Tiger Woods is a corporatized zombie if I've ever seen one. What a perfect match he was for certain companies, pre-scandal.
What's amazing (and probably predictable) is that his presentation hasn't changed at all.
but the great golf-blogger Geoff Shackelford posted this item, about Woods' trip to China this week, where he'll be doing corporate promotions and playing in a couple of Asian events with big appearance fees. The pre-approved questions are hilarious:
Sorry again for the threadjack. I thought you'd be interested, since you clearly know a thing or two about Tiger.
April 19th, 2011 at 11:06 AM ^
"I didn't spend the week clearing out mantle space for the Pulitzer"
Good stuff! I think the threadjacking was justified.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:06 PM ^
Are we going to allow this Zero degrees Kelvin nonsense slide? Where are the SI police?
0 degrees Kelvin = absolute zero. Celsius and Fahrenheit are the scales that can go below 0.
Kelvin is not measured in degrees as it is a measurement of the total energy within the particles of matter IIRC.
The kelvin (K) temperature scale is an extension of the degree Celsius scale down to absolute zero, a hypothetical temperature characterized by a complete absence of heat energy. Temperatures on this scale are called kelvins, NOT degrees kelvin, kelvin is not capitalized, and the symbol (capital K) stands alone with no degree symbol. [The official name was changed to "kelvin" and symbol "K" by the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1967.]
Kelvins are measured in the same scale as degrees C. Adding 273.15 to any temperature in C converts it to K. Technically you are correct that the units of temperature are called "Kelvins" and not "degrees" but the distinction is academic.
yadda yadda yadda....triple point of water...yadda yadda yadda. I was actually being a bit facetious because there are many that have a tendency to correct grammatical errors in the mgocommunity. If I really wanted to split hairs I would have done it in my original post by correcting it.
Point taken. It just seemed like something interesting to argue about, I wasn't trying to be a grammar nazi or anything like that. Also because Mgoblog allows me to think about things besides chemistry in my day-to-day life.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:02 AM ^
Hey we all have an opinion and we like to throw it out there. Maybe Jack doesn't know Jack, he basically admits this, but he is just sharing his opinion. At least he is saying something new and at least somewhat interesting on the matter. I find it refreshing.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
If you want to see a full throttle investigation of the whole machine, we can only hope he is right and there is some evidence to back it up. Tressel taking the fall internally will have no bearing on how the NCAA views him individually when he gets punished. If anything, he looks more dishonest.
Plus the larger the cloud, the more this eats away at their recruiting. Recruits who are aware of doom, but not knowing when it will it hit, will think twice about going there.
We should feel no guilt. It is likely that the Tressel Ohio State thing was built largely on recruiting, admitting, and keeping eligible players who shouldn't have been. The Prior mess, taken with the same behavior at Youngstown State, combined with the laundry list of secondary violations, raises a lot of questions. It will take time, but they will get answered.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:19 AM ^
I don't think enough gets said, about what a debilitating distraction something like this can be to a program. Dave Brandon, in just a few of his public statements, has alluded to what a drain our investigation was.
Usually, in the end, nobody claims that NCAA investigations are a huge drag on a program, because usually in the end, everybody is scrambling to plead cooperation and forgiveness to the NCAA. Nobody wants to be caught saying, "It was a pain the ass, and it set us back. We're a bit pissed off about it all, to tell you the truth."
Personally, I'm unimpressed with the nature of the charges against Tressel. Jim Tressel didn't get any tattoos. And Pryor's trading jerseys and gold charms for tattoos had zero effect on any competition. But that's just me, and I'm not the NCAA. And it is critical, we have to admit, that failing to report correctly to the NCAA, or worse yet lying to the NCAA, is a very serious matter, because the NCAA can never have enough enforcement staff if that duty is diluted.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:26 AM ^
We should feel no guilt. It is likely that the Tressel Ohio State thing was built largely on recruiting, admitting, and keeping eligible players who shouldn't have been. The Prior mess, taken with the same behavior at Youngstown State, combined with the laundry list of secondary violations, raises a lot of questions.Well stated, as usual, Nate.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:28 AM ^
I agree wholeheartedly that Tressel built his team with players who shouldn't have been eligible. I still don't believe they wiggled out of the Clarett situation with Clarett being turned into a bad joke while Tressel and TSIO simply wiped off their Teflon coatings and moved on. When an alum like Nicklaus breaks the scarlet wall of silence, it is a sign that their stategy of stonewalling and denial may be about to collapse.
There's also a chance that the money machine in both football and basketball doesn't involve the President, AD, or coaches, but is more powerful than they are. Either way, if the NCAA is not going to allow players to get paid, they need to stop letting TSIO compete on an uneven playing field.
I hope this turns into a lost decade for TSIO. If we're lucky, their basketball program and its rental of one-and-dones might end up being "collateral damage."
April 19th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
I think the hardest hit to them would be if they gave up the 2000's. There message boards still think all there going to get is 2010 and some recruiting restrictions. TSIO will not get to load up on recruits like USC is doing so it will hurt and time will tell on the Trojans' attempt to circumvent the recruiting resrictions.
Tressel & Co. are doing something right down there when they are getting high-quality kids like Reid Fragel from Grosse Pointe South. Good student, good family, all-around quality. From Michigan, of all places.
I dare say that equal numbers of Buckeyes and Wolverines want their respective programs to be run cleanly, above all.
I never gave much thought, and no respect whatsoever, to the Bucknuts who laughed at "Dirty RichRod." There are some (11Warriors is evidence) who actually got it, and whose laughter was directed at what a hack-job the Free Press had done. They got it. Guys like that get my respect every time, no matter what color their shirts are. (Or in some parts of Ohio, no matter what color grease-paint is used to paint their bald heads.)
Quite unfortunately, I have a number of tUofOS friends/colleagues and they could give a rat's ass about whether or not their program is dirty. They just want to win games, period. I suspect these people are completely representative of their fanbase.
An afternoon driving home listening to Cleveland sports radio "the flagship home" of Ohio State athletics will nail that down also.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:39 AM ^
I just hope something comes from this, trying to be as impartial as possible here and a blind man could see and connect all of these events together. Its just ludicrous to think that the admin and AD didnt play some role in this.