As college footballers love to say on Twitter: "LET'S GET THE MONEY, MAN."
WHY YSU CAN ROLL THE DICE ON TRESSEL. Here's Sports Illustrated's Martin Rickman:
Youngstown State is operating under an $11 million budget deficit and has seen its enrollment drop more than 15 percent over the past four years, according to Inside Higher Ed. Its most recent president, Randy Dunn, announced he was leaving for Southern Illinois just seven months after accepting the job last July. And the school needs to hire a new provost.
While Tressel promised to work hard in his remarks after officially signing his contract on Monday night, the university — and the area at large — needs more than that. They need him to win, as he so often did for both Youngstown State and Ohio State on the gridiron.
“Youngstown is full of people that have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,” said Mike Peterson, a former Penguins linebacker who graduated in 1988 and now works as the director of global investigations for a major corporation in Ohio. “It’s folks that have had to face adversity and who are underdogs. They have consistently found a way not just to survive, but to win. That is Tressel’s mentality. That’s his DNA.
Hell, it appears YSU couldn't afford not roll the dice on Tressel. (Is that a double negative? Trick question, I don't care.)
Hopefully Tressel learned a thing or two from E. Gordon Gee about separating rich people from their money, but I'm cheering for Youngstown State and the city of Youngstown regardless.
URBAN MEYER HATES JUNE. I take it Urban Meyer doesn't have as much time in June to grill by a body of water and toss some cold ones back with his buds. From Chris Vannini at CoachingSearch.com, here's Meyer on Dan Dakich's radio show:
“Most of our assistant coaches are out on the road recruiting,” Meyer said. “I do some speaking things. Our players are back on campus now, so I spend meeting with those guys. I did player evaluations for a whole week, met with every player on the team. I’m doing a lot of recruiting on the phone and over the iPad. It’s a good month.”
So, Meyer likes May. But two of his favorite months in the football calendar are sandwiched around the worst.
“This and July (are the best),” Meyer said. “June’s awful. June is all camps and people non-stop coming on campus for recruiting. I mean, it’s not awful, but it’s every day, including Saturday and Sunday, you’re working, because kids come and visit your campus.”
I think the way we solve this is by putting a pool in the Horseshoe for the summer. That way Urban can swim, eat burgers and get drunk while the campers camp and his underlings coach. That's what I'd do if I had his kind of power, and it'd be glorious.
CITRO GOES BEHIND ENEMY LINES. I can't front: I don't mess with MGoBlog. They blocked me on Twitter because internet words are tough to read, and one of their dudes called me "perpetually aggrieved" when I questioned Brady Hoke's offensive line recruiting. I guess it's because I don't lead the charmed life of a Michigan Man or carry a Starbucks' loyalty card. Whatever.
Our Michael Citro, however, is much more esteemed in these realms than I. After a cordial interrogation of MGoBlog's Ace Anbender, Citro headed behind enemy lines to return the favor. Here's but a snippet from a quality interview:
You asked about the mindset of Michigan fans now versus 10-12 years ago, and I'd like to turn that around with a bit of a twist. How do Ohio State fans currently perceive the rivalry, and do they truly believe it'll remain this lopsided over the long haul, or is the memory of John Cooper—and, say, last year's game—enough haunting context to keep y'all aware of the fickle nature of college football?
I think we fall into two camps here. There are those of us who suffered in the rivalry under Cooper who are content to count the wins one at a time on a micro scale—and keep score from Jim Tressel’s first year and forward on a macro scale. We enlightened citizens thank our various deities annually because we know that ka is a wheel and the cycle can change without warning (ask Lloyd Carr).
But, there is also a more arrogant and entitled (not to mention, generally younger) segment of Buckeye Nation that believes Ohio State is the one who knocks. They think Michigan is in the midst of becoming Nebraska-esque—a good team with a rich tradition and history that has lost some of its national relevance and is doomed to mire in decent-to-good seasons without ever truly being great again. This kind of hubris is foreign to a guy like me, who sweats out games against Indiana and Purdue until they’re well out of reach. Seriously, did Tresselball not teach us how not to take things for granted?
I remember the Cooper era in the same way I remember the sound of dial-up. It was a quaint time in my life that will never return.
And yeah, you're damn straight Ohio State is the one who knocks. It's going to take a lot more than a telegraphed Devin Gardner two-point conversion attempt to knock me off that high horse.
BERT BIELEMA DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS WALKING INTO. Here's another article from Chris Vannini of CoachingSearch.com that made me laugh and laugh and laugh:
“I took the job with a certain expectation,” Bielema said. “I really thought, coming in, because of the guy that I was replacing, I thought we would have a plethora of quarterbacks, wide receivers and offensive skill and expected the defense to have certain things in place. That really wasn’t the case. It’s not a knock on our guys. For what we need to do offensively and defensively, there was not as much as I thought was going to be there."
[...]
“We’ll hinge a lot on health,” he said. “We’ll hinge a lot on scheduling. We’ll hinge a lot on how our guys handle adversity. I know this: At year five in Wisconsin, that’s when I won my first championship. We did it three years in a row. I hope it’s faster than that, but I can assure you that, in year five, we’re going to have a really good football team, but I don’t plan on not having a great season in year two, as well.”
For the record, Bert replaced noted offensive guru John L. Smith as Arkansas' coach. Although, judging by the apparent lack of research into Arkansas' roster, it's entirely possible he thinks he replaced Bobby Petrino directly.
This is a great lesson in the grass not always being greener on the other side of the valley, and for the sake of the class' entertainment, the teacher couldn't be a worse person. Sometimes the universe works in mysterious, poetic ways.
It also tickles me Bert thinks he'll be at Arkansas for a fifth year. (Based on 2013 winning percentage, the Hogs have the toughest schedule in the country this year.) I'm looking forward to having Bert back in the B1G in two years as Kirk Ferentz's least favorite intern.
NCAA ENFORCEMENT IS DEAD. Has been a bit quiet on the NCAA violations front, hasn't it? From Jon Solomon of CBS Sports:
Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky keeps waiting to see how NCAA enforcement changes will impact his role as chairman of the Division I infractions committee. And waiting and waiting and waiting.
Last August, the NCAA trumpeted a new violation structure and additional committee members to review cases more quickly and efficiently. So far, the NCAA has no Division I major violations cases on its public database since Fordham's baseball team was penalized last November. The nearly six-month stretch marks Division I's longest without a completed major case since an eight-month period in 1997 and '98.
"It may be six months before there's another one,” Banowsky said. “I don't know what to make of that. It's interesting because we expanded the number of people on the committee because the expectation was the load was increasing. So we brought all these new people in -- (new committee members) Bobby Cremins, Lloyd Carr and others -- and we haven't had any meaningful cases. We're well trained, though.”
It appears I was wrong, you guys. This whole time I thought the NCAA was bad, but it turns out... the NCAA is quite good. Look at how they fixed college athletics! There are no more violations!
This is an organization filled with people that should definitely be making billions off the blood, sweat and tears of 18-22 year-old young men and have no trouble sleeping at night.
Long live the NCAA, a shining beacon to every bureaucracy in the world.
THOSE WMDs. Football ticket lottery registration is now open... The 225 vanity plates rejected by the Ohio BMV since June 2013... Hockey has arrived in Columbus... B1G ADs poking around Minnesota's policy of selling beer in their stadium... The Undefeated Champions of Defeat City... Where do I sign up for the Pink Panthers?... Columbus' Santa Maria may have been found... Look out SEC: Muschamp thinks he'll have his best offense yet... "The Fight's Over, Joe," a 1996 look at Joe Frazier's continued grudge against Muhammad Ali 20 years after their fight...
