Jim Tressel to Terrelle Pryor: Passing the Blame at Ohio State

Unless you have the attention to detail of the Ohio State Compliance Department, you know that Jim Tressel has been fired stepped down as the head coach of the Ohio State Football program.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it still felt like one for some reason. As early as March 25th, I was certain that Tressel had coached his last game at Ohio State, yet it still seemed a little surreal to watch Jalen Rose (of all the people) discuss his resignation as a substitute host on Mike & Mike Memorial Day morning.

I think part of me just thought that someone was going to have to drag him out of Columbus by his vest, and it didn't seem like Ohio State President Gee and AD Gene Smith were going to be the ones to do it, so resigning just didn't seem like a real option until the NCAA had completed its investigation.

That's what Jim Tressel does though. He convinces people that he is a clean-cut, father figure who lives his life according to Bible verses and a strict ethical code. He is a master of the self-created image and part of that was that he was above cheating and ethical "gray" areas.

Even with all of the evidence and a well-documented paper trail of lies and deceit were uncovered, it still felt a bit like he would talk his way out of it all somehow. That image is what led him to success and to his downfall. In the end, it wasn't that he was actually above those things, it was that he truly seemed to believe that they didn't apply to him.

"Discipline is what you do when people aren't looking." -Jim Tressel

Well Jim, we know now a little bit about some of the things you do when other aren't looking. We know that "Playing Dumb" and "Looking the Other Way" were missing chapters from The Winner's Manual: For the Game of Life, so what excuses and anecdotes do you have for us now?

The only viable excuse now is the "protection of the players" argument. But what was he protecting them from? A suspension from playing football? You protect your players from getting into situations where they associate with felons, get excused from speeding tickets and play PS3 with drug dealers.

By letting this all go on under his watch, every Ohio State player tied up in this mess will now have to answer a gauntlet of extra questions at the NFL combine. Character concerns could now cost Ohio State's elite athletes millions of dollars because of the position they now find themselves in.

It's not about the players, it's about winning. I'm sure Tressel helped they players out where he could, but in "protecting" guys like Pryor he short-changed every other kid in the program that worked hard and dreamed of wearing the Scarlet and Gray since they were born. Now players are without a coach they committed to play for and they won't know their permanent coach for another year.  So two of their four years of football are completely up in the air. Half of their collegiate careers in limbo because he was "protecting" his players.

Ask Terrelle Pryor if he feels protected now as hundreds of tweets flood his page with obscenities and orders to leave town. Pryor will most likely never play college football again, which will likely cost him any chance of having a shot at QB in the NFL because he will lose a year of seasoning that he sorely needs. I don't see Jim Tressel out in front of Mrs. Pryor's door fending off television reporters.

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"In the morning he would read the Bible with another coach. Then, in the afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to buy those raffle tickets. That's Jim Tressel."

- Quote from a former Tressel colleague as seen in the George Dohrmann SI article

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Tressel has yet to take any real responsibility for the mess he has created and now the investigation has moved to the next biggest name on the list. Now Pryor is the one being ostracized from the "Buckeye Nation" he has so ridiculously put his faith in.

I'm not here to defend Pryor, but he is not the problem, just the best example of it. What better way to shift the focus of the investigation off of the Ohio State Administration than to put it on the media challenged Pryor.

Nobody knows better than Ohio State that you cannot allow the media access to Terrelle Pryor. Between his twitter account and the "everybody kills" interview, it's pretty clear you can't put a microphone in front of the the guy and expect it to go well.

It's Maurice Clarrett all over again. Pryor is the latest Buckeye superstar that has seen his career path turn from NFL star to future ESPN 30 for 30 topic. Both Clarett and Pryor deserve to be kicked out of college football, no question about it.

They broke the rules and then some, and the privilege of playing college football was taken away, but the idea that they are rogue elements of the program is gone. Two separate players, mixed up in the same activities, over seven years apart. The players linked together by only two things: Jim Tressel and the Ohio State University.

The fact of the matter is that whether Pryor drives two Dodge Chargers or 50 Nissan 350Zs, the Ohio State Compliance Department should probably be able to explain why, and it had better be more believable than his car was in the shop.

They should have already asked Pryor during their "so-called" investigation how he is able to get his hands on all of these vehicles while still claiming he had to sell memorabilia to help out his parents. The same parents that apparently just bought him his most recent ride and can afford a $300 a month car payment.

I'm also assuming that his parents are footing the bill for the lawyer that Pryor seemingly has on retainer. Who has a got to lawyer in place when the are 21? Even more to the point, why would you have a "go-to" lawyer when you are a 21-year-old college student when you are struggling just to get by?

Lots of questions surround not just Pryor, but several other players over the past decade at Ohio State. Many of them were able to be answered in six days by SI reporter George Dohrmann, which is far more than the 17 members of the Compliance Department can say about the 11 days (or 10 years depending on how you look at it) they spent investigating.

Three players stand out on the field during Tressel's tenure more than any other: Terrelle Pryor, Troy Smith and Maurice Clarett. All three have been found to commit NCAA violations and nobody at Ohio State has apparently ever had any clue about any of it.

Not the Athletic Director, not the Compliance Department and obviously not Jim Tressel. It's a machine of irresponsibility driven by greed and misplaced pride.

Even Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee said he never considered firing Tressel when asked at the initial press conference in December. As if the possibility of car discounts, memorabilia sales and lying to the NCAA was some sort of hilarious joke.

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"No, are you kidding me?" Gee said. "Let me be very clear. I'm just hoping the coach doesn't dismiss me."

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People always saying that there is some truth in every joke, and this is probably no exception to the rule. Your employees will only take the rules as seriously as you do and Gee clearly either doesn't care or just doesn't want to pay attention.

Even if Gee didn't know about the specifics of the "Tat 5" he did know that compliance had some issues with cars and memorabilia as early as November 2010. All Gee has really had to offer on the Compliance Department is that they have the "best compliance system in the country."

Kids will be kids. If you give them an opportunity for some cash and free cars, most of them will take it. It's up to someone else to explain to them why that isn't the right thing to do.

In this case, it's up to the academic institution that these student-athletes represent to mold them into quality citizens as well as quality football players. It's up to alumni and fans to care enough about their school and team to question how things are run.

At the very least, you don't hold a vigil for the coach that has disgraced the school, the program and failed the young men he is paid millions of dollars to be responsible for. That isn't school spirit, it's just a statement that you will blindly support any coach who wins football games.

And even if you are the type of person who wants wins at all costs, why support a guy and an administration that has handled the whole fiasco with the style and grace of a Mark Madsen dance move?

Who do you hold responsible for the problems at OSU? Is it all on the players? The coach? The athletic director? The president?