michgoblue

June 7th, 2011 at 7:24 AM ^

Dear Jim,
<br>
<br>The offseason is long and boring and I was getting tired of reading so many posts about former players discussing our former coach, wondering how Denard will do in the new offense and debating the merits of a 4-3 vs a 3-4 or a 3-3-5. Thanks for giving us something so awesome to talk about all offseason.
<br>
<br>Sincerely,
<br>The Mgocommunity

OSUMC Wolverine

June 7th, 2011 at 7:35 AM ^

Dear Mgocommunity,

I am a cheating bastard.  I know now that what I have done is wrong.  I am admitting now to the world that I have deprived a great fanbase of their right to enjoy kicking the sh*t out of their greatest rival for a decade.  As reparation for my sins, I am providing everything needed to destroy the program, the players, the image of the institution, and the validity of the victories my ineligible players accomplished during my tenure.

Sincerely

Jim

michgoblue

June 7th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^

Dear Jim,

Don't ever change.  We love you just the way that you are.

By the way, that whole thing about telling the bunch of students who came to your house to support your wholesale lack of morals that OSU was going to kick Michigan's ass in November - way to stay classy.

-MGoCommunity

P.S.:  Have you seen the stories in the press about USC losing their BCS NC?  Since you now have some time on your hands, you might want to peruse some of those stories.  I am sure that you will find them interesting. 

MGlobules

June 7th, 2011 at 8:17 AM ^

on it. This one is going to prove a gold mine, Smith AND Tressel's venal and mercenary selves revealed in all their glory. Over/under on whether Smith goes down too if the content of these calls gets out? I'd take "ADship over" at almost any odds.

GunnersApe

June 7th, 2011 at 7:57 AM ^

He gets to go in front of the NCAA to take his medicine then he gets the axe. He was either in on it as we're seeing or he was too incompetent for the job in the first place, win/win for us. The story now is do they clean the whole staff or are they going to still going to allow Fickell to keep the job? How much of the Tressel era is vacated? Over/under on ban years and schollies.   

Njia

June 7th, 2011 at 8:26 AM ^

The Dispatch find pictures of Tressel in a "happy" state, shirtless, sent to tOSU cheerleaders, I'm going to be delirious.

JD_UofM_90

June 7th, 2011 at 8:48 AM ^

is a MS paint of the JT "leaked" picture he took of his junk, that he emailed to Pam Ward.  I would image his pee-pee would have a sweater vest, glasses and headset on.....that would be epic.

ldoublee

June 7th, 2011 at 8:48 AM ^

"David Marburger, a Cleveland lawyer who specializes in public-access law, said that an Ohio Supreme Court decision allows public institutions to separate personal communication from public record. But, he said, it's questionable for government officials to allow employees to determine which information will be kept from the public.

"In a situation where the government asks the employee which communications are personal, the government shouldn't just accept the employee's word," Marburger said."

 

but...but...Jim Tressel is always so forthcoming and honest.  I'm sure we can take him at his word, right? Right?

Indiana Blue

June 7th, 2011 at 8:58 AM ^

Per the Dispatch: "Ohio State blacked out about 13 percent of the 22,858 calls or text messages Tressel made during the one-year period." That is 62.6 calls/texts per day ... including Sundays (oh yeah ... I forgot about those psalms he was texting) ... my bad, never mind. Go Blue !

Tater

June 7th, 2011 at 9:12 AM ^

Through all of the Ed Martin Fiasco, it was never really proven that Martin had regular contact with Steve Fisher.  Though his connection to Perry Watson was well-documented, there was never a "smoking gun" connecting Martin to Fisher.  The texts from Tressel to Sarniak are the "smoking gun."  The texts are the equivalent to what it would have been if telephone records indicated that Fisher did, indeed, talk to Martin on a regular basis.  

Martin was classified as a "Michigan booster" by the NCAA, even though he also gave money to other players over the years.  Using the same standards, Sarniak has to be classified as an Ohio State booster.  The NCAA should investigate Sarniak's relationship with Ohio State, and should be treated as an Ohio State booster for the purposes of determining Ohio State's punishment.  

Ultimately, this is much worse than "lack of institutional control."   This is a case of the institution, the Ohio State University, willfully encouraging cheating.  That should be good for at least five years of probation.

EGD

June 7th, 2011 at 10:09 AM ^

TP is under investigation concerning the origin of approximately 6-8 mystery cars he has been seen driving over the past few years, many of which seem to have had dealer plates.

Sarniak is a car dealer.

Thus, it appears *likely* that Sarniak did give TP access to automobiles on terms not available to the general public.

 

EGD

June 7th, 2011 at 8:49 PM ^

Thanks for catching that, guys.  My mistake.  I was reading another article and realized I had gotten Sarniak mixed-up with Kniffen, and came back here to correct my error--not surprisingly, y'all had it covered.

Noahdb

June 7th, 2011 at 9:18 AM ^

Normally, I'd advise staying as far away from the comments section of a news article as humanly possible -- but DO make sure you read the comments. They are absolutely delightful.

"Heaven forbid a coach reach out to a player's mentor! Saint Tressel was just recommending that Pryor pray EXTRA hard this week! For shame, Dispatch! For shame!"

"Coach has been fired! Why are we still talking about this?" (answer -- because the investigation will apparently never ever....ever....evereververever end)

Feat of Clay

June 7th, 2011 at 9:33 AM ^

This kind of thing is expensive, all the staff time involved in redacting emails and texts, meeting to try to figure out how you're going to handle the next thing coming down the pike, etc.  It's a distraction, too.  

They may be making Tressel pay for his own legal representation, but make no mistake about what his crappy decisions are costing OSU in blood, sweat and tears.  

 

Wolverine 73

June 7th, 2011 at 9:38 AM ^

Not just Tressel, but all those jerks seem not to understand the concept of electronic records.  How many more liars (welcome to the group, Roy Hall) will be exposed as people pore over phone and text messages?  And there is no way in hell all those communications between a coach and athletic director are "personal" communications.

3FrenchToast

June 7th, 2011 at 10:56 PM ^

That last angle is one I find particularly intriguing. As the article suggests, it may be slightly sketchy to have someone who is either blatantly or potentially implicated in an ongoing investigation be able to effectively redact their own communications. I'm a huge fan of personal privacy, but a case like this begins to blur the line. For example, if Sarniak doesn't have any official connection to tOSU's program, are those communications "personal" and thus protected? They're certainly germane, however, so perhaps we aren't looking for a personal/professional divide, after all. But then you start getting into situations that make me increasingly uncomfortable...while the person under investigation shouldn't be trusted to be forthcoming, I'm not sure who should be given that power (tOSU officials, who have a vested (lolz) interest in keeping this quiet? The NCAA? The Dispatch?).

Magnum P.I.

June 7th, 2011 at 9:40 AM ^

Wow, OSU is being amazingly uncooperative and borderline obstructionist with this investigation. You have to think that the NCAA will only come down more harshly as a result. They should just come clean and stop digging themselves a deeper hole. I can only imagine that Gee and Smith are in full self-preservation mode and aren't thinking at all about the future of the school/program. 

justingoblue

June 7th, 2011 at 10:41 AM ^

Forget the NCAA, if they piss off the press by redacting too much, they'll end up in court. If I was the AP or the Dispatch and a few other papers, you'd have to wonder the odds of coming up with a huge story based off the Sarniak emails vs. the odds the Ohio courts would rule they were public records vs. the cost of the case.

Whether the Sarniak emails are worth it, who knows? But there probably will be something eventually worth it, especially since the press keeps getting stonewalled.