Anzalone "Clarification"

Submitted by Wave83 on

For whatever it is worth, here is a local (Reading, Pennsylvania) news article from this morning quoting Anzalone's father "clarifying" his and his son's view of Ohio after the recent kerfuffle about the spring game and the pictures with the registered sex offender.

 

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=384506

 

I'm not sure whether this is really a clarification, or a changing of the mind, or something else.

david from wyoming

May 6th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^

What are the odds that Anzalone re-commits to OSU at some point in time? I would guess the odds are pretty good.

kaykaybroke

May 6th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^

I don't think so. While Anzalone originally said the buckeyes were out of the picture (and tweeted this hashtagging #PSU #Florida and some other schools).

I think the reconsideration of the buckeyes is to stop all the flaiming that's coming at him on twitter... and trust me it's a lot.

I'd truly be pretty surprised if he re-committed to the buckeyes. Most of the fans are already saying they hope Meyer doesn't honor the scholarship if Anzalone wants to recommit. Too many hard feelings on both sides imo.

david from wyoming

May 6th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^

Hypothetically, if Anzalone wants to re-commit do you really think Urban would turn him away due to the vocal and crazy part of the OSU fan base? Also, do you not think the vocal and crazy part of the fan base wouldn't pivot so hard they get whiplash on all this?

Urban is going to keep recruiting him. Any coach would. There was a reason why Anzalone committed in the first place. Once things cool down, that reason will still be there for Anzalone. Remember, it is only May.

RationalBuckeye

May 6th, 2012 at 1:14 PM ^

Similar to the Dunn scenario, I wouldn't be surprised if Urban saw this as a reason to let the kid go. I don't know how much exposure this has gotten over here, but apparently AA was in Gainesville before/during his decommitment. As we know, this is a big no-no for Mr. Meyer. You either commit, or you take visits, you can't do both. 

I don't mean to sound like the bucknuts "we cooled on him" chorus, but Urban might see him as a guy who isn't cohesive to the program after this ordeal. Then again, he is a top talent, so we'll see how it unfolds.

news2me

May 6th, 2012 at 3:22 PM ^

I do not wish to be rude to a welcome guest from "enemy territory". But...aren't you saying Anzalone may have visited Gainesville before he commited to Ohio; which therefore caused Urban to reject an embarrassed recruit? You are not clear about the timing of the events, and this is all important to the relevance. A recruit visiting another school before they commit is not frowned upon at Michigan, I can safely say.

It is a travesty to suggest, as you do, the Anzalones are spewing forth bitter grapes or hatred for gays after being rejected by their favorite school; but, as your post suggests, all will be forgiven should the Anzalones get with the program:  and I draw this conclusion has to be considered a possibility from what you allow due to your lack of clarity.

RationalBuckeye

May 6th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^

Uhhh, i just took a nap and woke up to find that I apparently suggested that the Anzalones hate gays? Can someone please explain this?

As for the rest of my post, I can see that the rest of the posters on the site do have the reading comprehension skills to understand my simply worded post, and have clarified it well, so thank you all. 

news2me

May 7th, 2012 at 1:42 AM ^

As much as I can accept your apologies, please allow me to respond by saying, my deeper concern now for the purposes of this blog is about the "much exposure" of what is "apparently" disinformation about the Anzalones.

The problem is a disturbed and self-serving mentality out there is deserving of absolute censure, which will forever be devoted to an uncomprehending but influential body bent on slander and heedless of the propagation of corruption. All apologies are due the Anzalones.

RationalBuckeye

May 7th, 2012 at 8:14 AM ^

Yet amidst your run-on sentence, you apparently miss the point by implying that I said anything negative against the Anzalones. I'll be the first to support his decision, a guy is allowed to choose whatever school he likes. So I won't be apologizing for being supportive, that doesn't make sense.

I was simply stating that perhaps AA tacitly took the "decommitment" choice out of his own hands, considering Meyer has a strict rule against visiting other programs while committed to OSU.

 

 

Lionsfan

May 6th, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^

Like Tom said, that he was in Gainesville meant he was on a visit there. So rather than cutting the kid loose since he visited another school, he's just going to let the kid walk now and not really fight for him to stay

RakeFight

May 6th, 2012 at 12:03 PM ^

Also think of it from Anzalone's perspective as a 17 yr old boy... his connection to ohio will forever be known as the kid in the picture with his arm around the pedophile.  I imagine he will want to distance himself as far as he can from that "creepy feeling," no matter how rational or not.  Add that to the plethora of personal attacks against him and his father ramping up out of ohio, and I would be quite surprised if he recommited to ohio.  In fact, it would be quite a coup by Meyer to get him to recommit.

Section 1

May 6th, 2012 at 2:05 PM ^

the MGoBoard's superheated reaction to the initial story was unseemly.  On a scale of "Mike Valenti to Brian Cook," where Mike Valenti represents the lowest-intelligence over-reactive moutbreathing fan, and where Brian Cook represents the most urbane, articulate, discerning and intellectually honest commentary, the MGoBoard reaction to L'Affaire Anzalone rated about a 97.1.

mackbru

May 6th, 2012 at 2:35 PM ^

It's a fine distinction in this case, considering he was convicted of downloading dirty pictures of children under the age of 16. We don't know exactly what ages they were. Technically, pedophilia involves kids 13 and under. But that's just a general rule. So he's a sex offender whose crimes involved children...

j5aown

May 6th, 2012 at 11:50 AM ^

I'd say pretty slim. I'm reading this piece as a way to take some of the heat off that they are no doubt feeling. By telling the OHIO faithful that they are still in play, they're hoping the fanbase will cool down a bit.

Elmer

May 6th, 2012 at 1:38 PM ^

Exactly.  That just sounded like a guy that wants no part of this story and the publicity, so he's throwing a bone to Urban and Ohio.  I seriously doubt he's telling exactly how he feels about Ohio, he just wants to get out of the crosshairs of all the crazies.

news2me

May 6th, 2012 at 11:57 AM ^

If Anzalone's potential future teamates at Ohio engaged in behaviors objectionable to the Anzalone family, I would suggest this seriously weighs against any recommit. To some extent, it depends on how bad the behavior is by them perceived to be in the larger picture.

I think there were almost certainly many other witnesses to the events; yet, I hear nothing but crickets. It smells bad; very bad.

kaykaybroke

May 6th, 2012 at 11:47 AM ^

Ohio was offering Anzalone a spot in some Honors program there, which his other schools of interest weren't giving. I don't think it's right giving someone a place in a school's honor program just so they commit to you, but I don't know anything about Anzalone's academic record. For all we know he would have qualified for the program, but considering no one else offerred it to him, color me skeptical.

david from wyoming

May 6th, 2012 at 11:51 AM ^

If Anzalone happens to want to study climate records from high elevation ice cores then OSU is the best school in the world for that. OSU has lots of very good majors, some that are even great. If a student at any school wants to take an easy route, they can. If a student at any school wants to challenge themselves and grow as a student and person, they can.

 

The meme that OSU some awful school needs to die in a fire.

Zone Left

May 6th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^

You're totally correct. In my opinion, you can't really go wrong attending any Big 10 school, and to a lesser extent, any school in the major football conferences. Big state schools offer fantastic resources and opportunities for students who are willing to work for them. 

OSU is actually a really good school that has come a very long way towards increasing its reputation. Its reputation as an academic tire fire comes from an old statutory requirement to admit any high school graduate from Ohio. The policy killed its graduation rate and its average test scores/GPA.

david from wyoming

May 6th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^

The University of Wyoming has the same policy here, since the school is the only state funded 4 year college in Wyoming. It really does drag down the median scores of a lot of metrics. A lot of the conditionally accepted students, once they acclimate to college, thrive just as much as the high scoring students.

This is mostly off topic, but judging a university based on the average scores of incoming students is a bit daft since higher eduction isn't about a measured starting point of the students, nor the ending point when they graduate, but the difference between the two.

/soapbox

Zone Left

May 6th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^

I'd agree with a lot of that, but OSU's mission was to educate the people of Ohio. Everyone had a shot, but many of them failed out or quit when it became apparent that college wasn't for them. After the first couple of semesters, the cohort of students became an awful lot like the students at any other big state school--which isn't all that bad.

I'd argue that giving everyone a shot isn't necessarily a bad policy at a state school. High school educations are so widely disperate in quality that it may make sense to let students try college if they want to try it. The point of public education isn't necessarily to be number one in arbitrary rankings, but to improve society through educating the school's constituency. It's not like any of the schools have to pass everyone.

RationalBuckeye

May 6th, 2012 at 3:55 PM ^

Note also that we simply can't have the same selectivity when we can accomodate around 15 thousand more undergrads than UM/many other large public schools. OSU is a massive school, and so more people get in, it's inherent. I don't like the stigma that it's not a good school, it's ranked among the top 20 or so public universities in many programs, and really isnt that far behind UM in overall ranking.

mackbru

May 6th, 2012 at 2:21 PM ^

It has some good programs, yes. You can get a fine education there. But a very good school overall? Look at all the major rankings of major universities. OSU consistently ranks in the middling group, nowhere near M, NW, and Wisky. Not a bad school at all. Just nothing special. Like MSU.

bacon1431

May 6th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^

I'm guessing the real reason why Anzalone decommitted was because his dad is a Florida grad and he probably heard some pretty bad things about Meyer from Florida people. The picture incident just gave them a reason to decommit.