College Football Recruiting: Sal Anzalone Right to Retract Ohio State Comments

On Friday, college football was rocked by the news of Alex Anzalone's sudden decommitment from the Ohio State Buckeyes, a move that was well understood when reports hit that Charles Eric Waugh, a registered sex offender, had taken his picture with Anzalone at the spring game.

Shortly thereafter, Anzalone's father, Sal, poured gasoline on the situation by saying "something's just not right at Ohio State," cryptically adding that there's "a disconnect between what Alex thought was there (at Ohio State) and what is actually there."

Some Ohio State fans have struggled to understand the elder Anzalone's comments, as it's not as if the school could have done much to prevent the limited contact that did occur; all interaction was out in public. Further, a school can't seriously be expected to perform background checks on everyone that attends large events like these or contacts its players and recruits on Twitter, as Waugh did.

Sure enough, with enough time to reconsider his statements, Sal told the Reading Eagle that Ohio State was still in the mix for Alex and that the school hadn't done anything wrong:

"I want people to understand, I have no beef with Ohio State, at all," Sal Anzalone said. "My issue is not with Ohio State: It's a great institution, they have a phenomenal president, Urban Meyer is nothing but a class act to me.

"There's nothing wrong with Ohio State; it's a great institution. When I said there was something wrong with Ohio State, I was talking about the visit - there was something wrong with the visit, not with Ohio State."

"We can't implicate Ohio State for what happened (during that visit)," Sal Anzalone said. "That's wrong. That had nothing to do with the university itself. I don't hold them accountable; they're not responsible for what fans do; it's not their fault."

Obviously, this is a step in the right direction, as there's no single aspect of Ohio State's response to the situation that can be faulted. Furthermore, here's a list of institutions where the Anzalones could send their son that have total control over who goes in and out of events:

1. North Korea
2. That's it; that's the whole list

As for there being "something wrong with the visit," it's probably okay for Sal Anzalone to say "a registered sex offender buddied up with my son for a picture." That's okay to say, and it's pretty well-known.

And it's also okay for the Anzalones to say that Alex wouldn't go back to Ohio State because of the incident even while acknowledging neither OSU nor any other school could have prevented it; negative association with certain places can linger even in the absence of fault. They don't have to be fair.

So we're really back where we ought to be with this story: Alex Anzalone is rethinking his recruitment, Ohio State is staying on top of the situation and handling it well both publicly and privately, and Sal Anzalone is acknowledging the fact that there wasn't much more left to be done. What happens from here is anybody's guess—it's recruiting, after all—but at least nobody's off the deep end anymore.