Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming. The moment “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” started accusing everyone from coach Jim Tressel to the Towel Boys of hooking him up with free cars, someone was bound to take the fall. Even before the ESPN article in November, Ohio State athletics already had suffered through a rough year. The various black eyes ranged from former tight end Louis Irazarry (who actually punched a student in Smith Hall after a fight with his girlfriend) and his partner in crime, Ira Guilford, to former basketball coach Jim O’Brien’s charitable donations to a player who never even enrolled at Ohio State.
Now, I’m not accusing atheletic director Andy Geiger of being solely responsible for all of these unfortunate situations. Far from it, in fact. O’Brien had a sparkling reputation until his sudden firing.
Geiger also made sure that all of the characters above quickly had ‘former’ added to their names. I also think that he and Tressel had no knowledge about any of “You-Know-Who’s” allegations. But, when an athletic department is facing its third or fourth NCAA probe in a year, someone is going to take the fall. If you’re President Karen A. Holbrook and your choices are a) an enormously popular football coach who is 3-1 against Michigan and has a National Championship trophy on display or b) an athletic director who was close to retiring anyway, what would you do?
So Holbrook took the smart road in telling Geiger to announce his early retirement, which is just a way to make him the fall guy for the school’s current problems. He even gets paid through the end of his contract as an ‘advisor.’ Essentially, his age allowed Holbrook to convince him to take one for the team. He steps down and at the same time gives the school some slack when the NCAA shows up to investigate. His retirement allows the athletic department to essentially start over with a clean slate and should put any further basketball sanctions to rest.
It also puts all of the scrutiny in any NCAA investigation squarely on the shoulders of Tressel. Tressel is the only of the three major figures in the athletic department (O’Brien, Geiger and himself) who hasn’t had a career change thrust upon him in the past year. He also has to deal with two major issues with the football program.
First, he has to deal with his players accepting gifts from boosters. Throw the next guy who gets caught off the team. Send a message that you’re not going to put up with it. I guarantee that after someone loses a scholarship, no player is gonna go near the boosters. Second, he has to fix his image when it comes to recruiting. The aforementioned Guilford and Irazarry were both examples of recruiting less than quality people. There have been 14 player arrests since he became coach in 2001, which doesn’t include someone who once wore 13, Troy Smith’s booster trouble, or Lydell Ross’ suspension stemming from an incident at a strip club. The discipline problem needs fixed now.
So tread carefully Tressel; you’re the only one in the spotlight now.
Matt Baxendell is a junior in civil engineering. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
