Anzalone decommits from Ohio?
If he decommits from OSU because of a sex scandal and then commits to Penn State, this will be too weird for words. Like Bizarro 2011.
Obviously, this doesn't even belong in the same frame as Sandusky.
There's no depth to my contempt for OSU, but - as of now - I'm not seeing that this is anything they did wrong. The compliance dept. did its due diligence and (zomg, phrasing!) fingered Waugh as a sex offender for everyone to STAY AWAY FROM. This isn't something they swept under a rug hoping that it'd go away, and to OSU's credit part of the reason it put up the big red arrow over Waugh's head was for their kids' protection.
It's also possible you don't know the whole story.
if these two thinsg really are related, I decline to take any pleasure in it. Too disturbing for genuine Shadenfreude.
Alex 11W @alex11w
Anzalone tells me there's a reason behind decommitment but he doesn't want to say and he doesn't think he'll reconsider OSU at this point
It seems strang to me that he wouldn't say what the reason was, and that he isn't even considering Ohio now. It either means something went severely wrong between him and the program, or that the Waugh thing did reall get to him.
Gedeon will be firm to Michigan, but I think Ohio takes a stab at McCray.
If McCray wanted to go to OSU, he would have waited for his shot. It's not like he waited until OSU was full at LB before he came to us. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Meyer is regretting some of his decisions, but I don't see McCray flipping.
At this point we certainly don't know the whole story. While we're obviously not sad that this hurts Ohio, the most important thing is that there's no lasting damage to the lives of the high school kids involved here.
I can't believe my plan to become a registered sex offender in Kentucky and act like an OSU fan actually worked.
/too far
OT - I shudder to think what one has to do to make the sex offender list in Kentucky.
Gut feeling says it has to do with the Waugh story in some way. Just too strange of timing otherwise. With Waugh being with Anzalone over the spring game weekend, some of us are wondering if he bought them a meal or something and the staff asked him to decommit to avoid any violations. Mark Pantoni tweeted something earlier about even meals are violations...
"I have a strong feeling Meyer's reaction to stuff like this will be the sort of thing Harry Truman would order to end a war. This dude won't be allowed within miles of Ohio State Football-and rightfully so. Some people just think they can insert themselves into something that doesn't want or need their participation. " - 11W user
I guess this means that Edward Rife (the tattoo parlor guy) and the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association are going to be very upset with Urban Meyer now, and indeed, they will feel quite betrayed. Their participation has been critical to this program for many years, after all...
So Urban's going to enter into a three year stalemate, fire his offensive coordinator, and leave it to his successor to arrange a settlement that will maintain the problem for sixty years?
Will take.
/Korea'd
That could happen anywhere. It's a shame.
Just a terrible situation.
Pure speculation but the whole thing seems strange. Did this creep try something with one of the recruits? Recruit reports to OHIO, OHIO frantically researches guy, texts warning, recruits start dropping.
"I'd give urban a B- right now. He's reopened the boarders and now this. Tressel's operation was much better. We are getting away from what we've been and that's winning the big ten, going to the rose bowl, and most especially beating Michigan. None of these seem to be a priority with meyer, let's face it Michigan is back because we lost our guy. "
This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I would love nothing more than for Meyer to go down in flames at OSU, and even some OSU fans think it is a possibility.
I read that one, and my first thought about "reopen the boarders" is that obviously Meyer has something against people who seek meals or lodging, but given the potential that this could have arisen because of a known pedophile actively seeking out recruits on Twitter and trying to get photo opportunities (actual full story to come, I am sure), it makes me wonder if he really should have eviscerated some of the "boarders" (verbally, of course), given some of the things that had gone on in the previous administration, just to set the tone for the duration of the sanctions.
You couldn't really totally prevent things like this though, and this is pretty sad in that it really could be, as someone said, any program - unfortunately, such people are not confined to a particular fanbase.
Here is what Neal had to say to BleacherReport about why he decommited:
It's too personal, I can't tell you because then it'll end up everywhere. If everyone knew the real reason, then some of the fans wouldn't be coming at me like that. Because my reason is legit, and you would clearly understand. It has nothing to do with football, trust me!
In light of all this, could be connected
(I know he wasnt in the picture)
about the Neal's decommitment. Something is going down at OSU, and I don't think it's creepy pedo guy.
- Do not tweet at recruits.
- DO NOT be a creepy sex offender.
- REALLY REALLY DO NOT TWEET AT RECRUITS WHILE BEING A CREEPY SEX OFFENDER.
There's a thousand and one guys (hetero-, die-hard football nuts) out there who would love to have the opportunity to be in this position. Getting the scoop on recruits, hanging with the team etc...
WHO gets these chances?? Eiither someone with a lot of influence, or willing to spend a lot of money... not just cash in envelopes type stuff, but traveling/attending team functions etc.
Why aren't you and I there getting our photos? This guy had to be in or around for more than just 3 or 4 photos and twitter posts.
Why would recruits just "pick" him to do this with? There has to be some influence, like meals, a special tent to hang in, friend-of-someone type thing going on.
Pure speculation, but either thee has been:
1) Program was aware of him and preventing him from contacting team, so he turned to recruits who are mad they weren't warned, or
2) Impermissible benfits occured to draw these kids to him, and now OSU fears bringing these kids on while still in the shadow (and on probation) of Tresselgate
It will be very interesting to see what happens. I have to believe there'll be more to come.
...(and I think your #2 is a very likely explanation of what's going on here)...remember again that he's a registered offender. Can you imagine the media shitstorm that would fall on Ohio if the next person rumored to be giving impermissible benefits to OSU student athletes (and prospects) to get access to them happens to also be a registered sex offender?
Sarniac was just a warmup; Rife and his federal drug raid was a sterner test. But I'm not sure the diversionary tactics can work on this one--even if there doesn't turn out to be much meat on the story this time, this is the kind of thing people will not let go of.
F**k Ohio
"First and foremost, it sucks that some fuckhead on twitter is a pedophile and got involved in these kid's lives. I hope everyone is OK, and this fuckhead is dealt with accordingly."
"That being said, the opposing B1G football programs are scared b/c Urban Meyer and Ohio State joined forces. They know what's coming, and are trying everything to impede the ensuing football dominance. Like Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer is going to be responsible for other B1G coaches getting fired."
The first paragraph was a post by an understandably angry ohio fan. The second was a response to him by some utterly irrational, yet admirably defiant poster named "juventas".
The second guy may sound defiant but in reality is just voicing his own fears. While he claims that other programs will have their coaches fired because of his wishful fantasy about Ohio’ future dominance, the only real fact is this:
Ohio already had its coach fired.*
In fact, for at least the past half century, Ohio has had every one of its prior head coaches fired. .
While he may hope for a different outcome with Urban, Urban has proven himself to be a quitter, even when his team was not under major NCAA sanctions. He now faces completely unrealistic expectations, based on the record of the prior coach, who could succeed in Ohio only by cheating.
*in reality if not in record.
Yes, I was being a tad facetious when I wrote "admirably defiant". What I envisioned in my head was that semi-popular poster I used to see in the 80's with the ugly little mouse thrusting his middle finger up towards a huge, badass bald eagle that was swooping down on him with its talons extended. The bottom of the poster read "defiance", or "last great act of defiance", or something to that effect.
tied to the creeper recruit stalker. Ranging from rumor he worked at BWW (perhaps origin of his twitter handle) in Grandview and was handing out free food/drinks... to a mention of OSU Compliance tweet today reminding OSU fans that ANYTHING (food, drinks, shirts etc) could be deemed a violation and not to give stuff to student-atheletes... to suggesting that the "drinks" were not the kind that minors should be given (alcohol)...
...he became disenchanted with the Buckeyes coaching staff..."You don't want your son to go to a place...(like this)..You expect the (football) staff to have some sort of control on how things are handled with recruits.... This is ridiculous.
"I was concerned with what recruits do, and with them being allowed to visit these kind of places...That's the issue. You entrust people (at the school) to do the right thing."
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=384313
I wonder where "these kind of places" the recruits were allowed to visit. Man, this could be very bad for Ohio considering their probationary status
I wondered about that too
he was referring to the trip to Waugh's BW3.
So will we open back up to recruiting Anzalone now that E.J. chose FSU and we turned down O'Daniel(stupid in my opinion) just wondering what ACE and you other guys think.