Schadenfreude: 1 year Anniversary Tressel Resignation
This is true schadenfreude: one year ago, Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, Jim Tressel resigned as head coach of the Buckeyes. I know the shame kills a number of Ohio fans, whether or not they would ever admit it. Several thoughts:
- Truth is, (EDIT: "I think") Ohio is better off with Urban Meyer coaching instead of Jim Tressel.
- I am sure there was more that never came out, but a bowl ban, vacated season, and (minimal) scholarship reductions were better than nothing.
- The year of upheaval was a great help to Hoke and Michigan to reestablish connections in Ohio, and restore competitive balance.
- I took great delight in the fact that things kept dribbling out of Columbus for a long time. When rogue booster Bobby D. supposedly "hired" student athletes, with Ohio supposedly on a short leash, that was the coup de grace resulting in an inevitable bowl ban.
- It also was delicious to see AD Gene Smith steadfastly suggest, hint, hint, wink, wink, that nothing much would come down in the way of punishment from the NCAA. Ohio played in and lost a bowl game last year, effectively forcing the bowl ban to this year when their sentence was handed down. If they would have just swallowed their medicine and seen the writing on the wall, Ohio might have the opportunity at a meaningful bowl this year. Foolish Buckeyes.
What are your thoughts and reflections, one year after?
the 29th?
But it was on Memorial Day Monday, one year ago, that Tressel resigned.
Wasn't Memorial Day Monday yesterday?
I think I know what's going on here... 2012 is a leap year Stephen didn't know. So he has been a full day behind the rest of the world since February 29th.
I hope he didn't miss it. Hopefully his family doesn't do a big thing on Memorial Day otherwise he's in big trouble.
I'd guess it's on backorder and will be delivered in November.
How can you say that first statement with any certainty at all? Ohio State had a ridiculously successful run under Jim Tressel. And I don't think you can really say "I'm confident Ohio State will be much cleaner under Urban Meyer" with any certainty either.
This. Urban Meyer is a good coach, and he will do well for them. But Tressel's dominance over the Big Ten is something that I think we will see go unmatched for many, many years. It will be very tough for Meyer to live up to that sort of record. The Big Ten is much more competitive now than in much of the aughts, and will be for the forseeable future.
I prefer to celebrate his firing, because that is basically what it was.
That give Gordon Gee too much credit, after he stated he was too scared to fire a football coach as successful as Tressel.
What's the anniversary of Tressel telling all those morons who showed up on his front lawn that OSU would easily defeat the Wolverines in 2011? Has it already passed?
Per this link:
http://bustedcoverage.com/2011/06/05/jim-tressels-front-yard-pep-rally
The article is dated June 5th, 2011 and according to the author, the rally was "yesterday", so presumably June 4th is the "anniversary" of that event.
If Urban Meyer comes close to matching Jim Tressel's on-field success I'll be very surprised. Not that it can't or won't happen, but it is definitely not as matter-of-fact as you make it seem. All of the stability the program had with the Vest is completely gone - even with Meyer's hire - that is what delights me the most.
You are right: who knows whether Tressel or Meyer will be better. It will take several years to find out. However, I know enough Ohio fans who believe Tressel would almost always lose bowl games. Tressel had a very consistent run of success, but who knows how much of that was due to cheating. His bowl record was 5-5, and might well have been worse without bending the rules for favored players. I think that Meyer will be forced to run a cleaner program, just because of the increased scrutiny.
Meyer has two BCS titles, and he didn't have to injure the other team's QB or RB, and it didn't take a bogus penalty flag with no time left on the clock to make it happen. If Ohio is getting the Urban Meyer who won those championships, we are in trouble. If they are getting the Urban Meyer who quit on his team twice in one year, then it will be OK.
I am hoping for the latter.
He's a few years removed from those national champtionships, has quit twice since, leaves doors open for Michigan recruiting in the midwest (which Tressel did not do), has proven very mediocre without Tim Tebow, is no longer located in the recruit hotbed that is Florida, is restricted at least to a small degree by having to run a clean program under a microscope, will be trying to install a new system which hasn't worked in the B1G to this point, etc.
That's why.
Guy, he's had less than a year to recruit the Midwest. Give him a minute before you write the eulogy. And, God forbid, he has to wait "a few years" in between national championships.
Chief/Boss/Partner: Meyer has an entirely different approach to recruiting than did Tressel. He's more similar to RR in that he will cast a wider net looking for his type of player to fit his system. He may get some big names from Florida and the speed states and you'll get excited. But what this does, as MSU has illustrated, is allow geographical rivals to take guys that had previously gone to your school. Mike McCray is a perfect example of a guy that Tressel would have had locked down from day one. B1G country football players that are the backbone of every successful B1G team.
Good luck, it's only my opinion but I'm far less fearful of Meyer than the vest.
Meyer will be successful, but not as successful as the lunatics in Columbus expect. I don't expect him to be there when this class graduates.
I've thought quite a bit about this over the years and the differences between us and them aren't just a matter of our "arrogance" and all (good and bad) that it entails. When the Fab 5 (and post-Fab 5) debacle came fully to light I was ashamed and that shame still lingers.
We will never have ohio's shame - they don't feel it. They weren't ashamed of Big Kat's illiteracy or coursework. They weren't ashamed of Mo Clarrett's hot tubbing with agents. They don't care about T. Pryor's automobile loaner program. They don't care about Tressell's lying to maintain his winning ways.
I hadn't looked over at 11 warriors for several months, but I read a couple of paragraphs of Ramzy's rememberance of finding out about Tressel's fall. He seems to linger over "why?" With all the money, success, books on honor, etc. Why did Tress lie over "petty cash"?
Why? Because he thought a potential national title was at risk if the truth came to light. Why? Because he had no idea just how much would be exposed once the window cleaning began. Why did he lie? Because he is and was a liar. But that isn't what they see. They see a great coach being undermined by minor and dumb mistakes. They see a tragic hero.
They want to win, especially against us, and they don't care how they get there. We will never have their shame. They have none to offer.
Tressal cheated and Urban Meyer will continue to do the same. Full of arrogance. Nothing will change in Ohio, except losing to Michigan every year.
I concur that Meyer will never achieve Tressel's success, and that will be his undoing as the Buckeye faithful tear him down for failing to do so. I also think Tressel "got" the Michigan rivalry in a way Meyer may not, and his ability to lock down Ohio recruiting and cut Micihgan out of it was a huge part of his success. Meyer seems to approach recruiting differently. Meyer also has to deal with an energetic Michigan staff that "gets" the rivalry, an improved MSU, a Wisconsin that has done well long enough to be deemed a yearly contender, Nebraska and a Penn State which will probably benefit from a change at the top. It will be much harder for anyone to dominate this league going forward.
I'm not sure Meyer quite gets the rivalry in the same way Tressel did (or Hoke does) either. His statements and actions towards Michigan often seem more like artificial gimmicks than anything else. They seem forced and newly contrived (even if he uses an old standby or two) rather than anything of any importance to him.
The best thing about Jim Tressel is Jim Tressel. The next best thing about Jim Tressel is Gene Smith. No program has deserved those two(along with Gee) more. Outside of Ohio that program is looked at with a stink eye and will for years.
I think the undoing of Meyer has already started to fall into place. It's going to be in his O-line. If he wants to run an up tempo Oregon-esque offense, he's going to need a smaller quicker offensive line, the problem with that is the same problem Oregon had against Auburn the D-line was consistently pushing them back and causing pressure on the QB.
After looking at everything that happened to ohio (or everything that did not happen), they basically traded a very good coach for a very good coach (I see Tressel for Urban a wash), had a sub-par season and some minimal sactions, the only lasting impact is the fact that it gave Hoke and Co. an opportunity to re-open the border, which I think they will be able to keep open. Other than that, no real impact - only will be an impact if they get caught again on a major violation and get repeat offender treatment.
Oh, and I can't forget all of the fun and popcorn eating we enjoyed last summer.
I think people underestimating Hoke is the best thing to ever happen to Michigan. There were some good reads at the time of his hiring and after, most of which I ignored because I didn't like the hire at the time.
So, of the 53 games Brady Hoke coached with superior or equivalent talent, he won 33 (62.26 percent). He has only coached 14 games (17.72 percent of 79 games coached) with superior talent and 39 games (48.75 percent of total games coached) with equivalent talent. To put this in perspective, of the 84 games Lloyd Carr and Rich Rodriguez coached at Michigan from 2004 to 2010, 79.76 percent were with superior talent and 20.24 percent were with equivalent talent. Neither Carr or Rodriguez coached a single, solitary game at Michigan with inferior talent. Of the 17 games Carr and Rodriguez coached with equivalent talent, they only won 4 (23.53 percent). This, in addition to a serious deficiency against arch rival Ohio State, is the most likely reason they are both out of the job. If you apply Hoke's talent numbers to Michigan, Michigan would have been 63-21 (75.00 percent) since 2004, as opposed to 49-35 (58.33 percent). That's a remarkable improvement any way you examine it. This approach is obviously not an exact science, but it is a fun thought experiment (especially if you root for Michigan). Only time will tell if Hoke turns out to be a good, bad, or indifferent hire, but the more we have dug into the numbers, the more we have started to like this hire.
While our schedule wasn't a real back breaker, we did win 11 of the games we played. We ended up 44th in SoS, and only 2 Big 10 teams broke into the top 20 SoS (Wisconsin & Michigan State). The majority of the top 20 SoS this year was the SEC and Big 12 - the Pac 10, ACC, and Big 10 took a back seat.
http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/strength-of-schedule-by-team
I take joy in people underestimating Hoke now. People that think that last year was a fluke are just trying to comfort themselves against their fear.
I'm just glad our house is well in order, a bright present and future with Hoke/Mattison/Borges.
the Big Ten because he cheated from day 1. Anyone who doesn't think so hasn't really been paying attention.
To me the Tressel era is the blackest scar on the Big Ten's history.
for you folks to understand. But every one of his star players ran into trouble with the NCAA during their time at OSU. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
Woke up to see my first sunrise as a married man, and a text message from one of my best friends:
Tressel resigned. Happy wedding.
It was...beautiful.
You woke up, got the text message, your WIFE was beautiful and tressel resigning was awesome. ;)
Schadenfreude.
Am I the only one having a hard time believing a guy like Meyer stays in Codumbus the full 7 years for $40 million?
It happens. We try to eliminate stuff like this. We hate to look petty; after all, how can we compete with phrases like "scUM," "Ann Arbor Community College," "cHoke," etc.
Nope, if Meyer is there until year 5, I'll be amazed. What I'm waiting for is the excuses that roll out of Ohio, when Hoke and crew walk out of the shoe with a win against the great Urban Meyer as their coach.