College Football Capsules: Griffin says Ohio State will bounce back
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin wants to reassure Ohio State fans that things will get better.
"Yep. It has been tough. But Ohio State is more than football," Griffin said this week after Jim Tressel was forced to resign as head coach in the midst of a widespread NCAA inquiry. "It’s a great university, a lot of great things happening at the university. We will bounce back, no question about it."
Griffin, 56, is president and CEO of Ohio State’s alumni association. Now 36 years removed from becoming the only player to win college football’s most coveted individual award for a second time, he said there is now a drive to rebuild.
"Ohio State has a wonderful tradition, a great program," he said. "It’s been proven out over the years. And we’ll continue to have that type of program. We’ll continue to try and put the best players on the field as well as the coaches. So that’s certainly going to be what the powers that be will look to do."
Tressel was forced to step aside Monday after admitting he knew some of his players had taken improper benefits that would have made them ineligible under NCAA bylaws. He found out in April 2010 about possible violations by his players but did not tell anyone at Ohio State for more than nine months, contrary to his contract and NCAA rules.
Five players — including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor — have been suspended for the first five games this fall for taking cash and discounted tattoos from a local tattoo-parlor owner for signed jerseys and gloves, Big Ten championship rings and other memorabilia.
The NCAA and Ohio State continue to investigate all areas of the athletic department, including allegations regarding athletes and their cars and football players receiving improper benefits at the tattoo-parlor.
The athletic department and football team could receive further penalties when Ohio State goes before the NCAA committee on infractions in Indianapolis on Aug. 12.
Another Heisman winner — this one from archrival Michigan — said it’s premature to guess at the Buckeyes’ future.
"What’s going to happen to the program? Well, we don’t know if No. 2 (Pryor) is going to line up," former Michigan star and 1991 Heisman winner Desmond Howard told the Detroit Free Press. "It seems like there’s a lot more that’s happening down there, so I don’t want to right in the middle of things say this is what’s going to happen and then next week we have a new revelation."
The university’s donors, some of whom had a close relationship with Tressel and his wife, Ellen, are concerned that giving to the larger mission of the university could diminish in the wake of the NCAA scandal.
"Our thoughts were to increase our giving anyway, that’s not going to change, not in any way, shape or form," said Judy Tuckerman, who with her husband, Steven, is a financial supporter of Ohio State in addition to being friends with the Tressels. "We put our total confidence and trust in Dr. Gee and we think he is an amazing, brilliant, wonderful president. We’re thankful to have him here, this is one piece of a very large university that does great things in research all over the university.
"I am vehement that people don’t take this as looking at the entire university. I’d fight for a long time for that never to happen."
Tuckerman told The Associated Press that some donors are angry, most are sad and many remain solidly behind the university, which is in the midst of a $2.5 billion fundraising campaign — the school’s largest ever.
"I have not heard one person say, ‘I’m not giving any more to the university.’ I’ve not heard one person say, ‘We’re diminishing our gift to the university,"’ she said. "I think it will make the university stronger."
Linebackers coach Luke Fickell will serve as Ohio State’s interim head coach this fall. He was selected to fill in for Tressel during a five-game suspension for his violations and that was amended to the entire season after Tressel’s resignation.
"I want to see Luke Fickell do a terrific job with this football program," said Griffin, who rushed for 5,589 yards from 1972-75. "Luke has got a heck of a job in front of him and it’s also a heck of an opportunity. I’m really in his corner and hoping that he can lead these young men to an outstanding football season."
Howard, a college football analyst for ESPN who is a Cleveland native, said finding a replacement for Tressel may be difficult.
"Even after they have this interim coach, Luke Fickell, coach this season they start a search for a new coach," he said. "Whoever that new coach is going to be, he’s coming into a situation where they may lose scholarships, they may not be able to play in bowl games and they may not be on TV for a while. There’s some big penalties that can potentially hit the Buckeyes."
Howard discounted the thought that former Florida coach Urban Meyer, now also working with ESPN, might be interested. Meyer stepped down from the Gators job last December, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He has also had health issues.
"With his health problems and what he may have to face to try to build that program back up depending on the sanctions, it just wouldn’t make sense to me," Howard said. "It would be a health hazard, it seems like for a coach like him."
Tressel says Buckeyes will beat Michigan again
UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (AP) — Former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel told people at a rally on his front doorstep that he would always be a Buckeye and that the team will beat Michigan again this November.
After a crowd of some 200 people had sung a song disparaging the archrival Wolverines early Saturday evening, Tressel said, "Don't forget: Nov. 26th we're going to kick their ass!"
That brought the loudest cheer of the day from the group, which had walked a half mile in 90-degree heat from a rallying point at a nearby park to Tressel's expansive French Provincial home in this Columbus suburb near campus.
Tressel was forced to resign Monday for his role in covering up his knowledge of his players taking improper benefits from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner.
Those in the rally cheered, sang the alma mater and held up signs that said, "You're in Our Prayers," ''We Support You, Jim!" and "We Love You, Coach Tressel."
Tressel and his wife, Ellen, posed for dozens of pictures, shook hands and thanked those in attendance.
He had memorably guaranteed that the Buckeyes would beat archrival Michigan at an Ohio State basketball game shortly after he had taken the job in January 2001.
Saturday's rally was reminiscent of those held for two past Ohio State coaches. After Woody Hayes was fired for punching a Clemson player late in the 1978 Gator Bowl, hundreds of fans came to his residence to thank him.
The same thing happened after Hayes' successor, Earle Bruce, was fired late in the 1987 season. Again, a large group of fans and members of the university's band came to Bruce's house to serenade him with songs.
Five Ohio State players — including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor — have been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season for accepting improper benefits from a tattoo-shop owner. The NCAA continues to investigate Ohio State, which goes before the NCAA's committee on infractions on Aug. 12.
But the fans who walked from Thompson Park didn't dwell on the negatives.
One fan wore a red, white and blue T-shirt that said, "Jim Tressel For President."
"We're going to be Buckeyes for life," Tressel said, his arm around his wife. "What's that old saying? Buckeye born and bred, a Buckeye 'til I'm dead."
The crowd cheered when he finished.
He showed no emotion, thanking the fans as they departed after 20 minutes or so.
-- Rusty Miller
Commentary: Spurrier plan to pay players self serving
Maybe Steve Spurrier was looking at his bank balance when he got his grand idea. Or maybe he just got the first check of a new deal that will pay him at least $2.8 million this year alone.
Whatever, Spurrier must have been feeling a bit guilty over his embarrassment of riches. Is there any other reason to decide after all these years that it's time to toss out a few crumbs for the players who have made him and his fellow college coaches rich?
Go ahead and call Spurrier's idea to give players $300 a game — out of his own pocket — laughable. A lot of people already have, though surely none of them toil on the offensive line for Spurrier's South Carolina team.
But who are they to judge when it may make the Ol' Ball Coach sleep better at night?
The odds that Spurrier will ever have to actually reach into his own pocket to help his players make their car payments are slim, of course. Proposals to pay college players more than tuition and room and board have been summarily dismissed over the years by the very people who make their living off what has historically been free labor.
So Spurrier had little to worry about financially when he suggested that there should be a little something extra for players whose only reward now for filling up stadiums and generating television deals worth untold millions is the vague promise of a piece of sheepskin after they put in the necessary four years of service.
Though several of his fellow Southeastern Conference coaches signed onto the concept, it has no chance of passing muster with those who actually run college football.
These are the same people who go apoplectic when players sell their jerseys for gas money or a few discounted tattoos. The last thing they want anyone to discover is that the only thing amateur about college football is the men who actually play the game.
Just how Spurrier arrived at the $300 figure isn't quite clear, though give him some credit for offering to dip into his own salary to pay the $21,000 a game it would cost him. What is clear is that he can afford it, especially with the $550,000 raise he got this year for leading the Gamecocks to a nine-win season.
"I just wish there was a way to give our players a piece of the pie," he said. "It's so huge right now. As you know, 50 years ago there wasn't any kind of money and the players got full scholarships. Now, they're still getting full scholarships and the money is in the millions."
How much money there is in college football was made clear in the recent spate of television deals signed by conferences around the country. The new Pac-12 contract pays its member schools each $20 million a year, while the Big 12 has a $1.17 billion football deal with Fox that takes effect next year.
Unfortunately, there is no trickle down effect in play. While their coaches make millions, players don't get a dime.
Spurrier isn't the first to suggest that should change. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany brought up the issue at his league's recent spring meetings, and other conferences have indicated they would be receptive to the idea.
The more formal proposals, though, are simply for increased scholarship money to help pay for things not covered by room and board. And those would be difficult to implement, especially if athletes in sports that don't produce the revenue football does aren't included in the calculations.
Spurrier went a step further by attaching a number to his idea, and offering to pay for it out of his own pocket. The gesture may not be quite as noble as it seems since there is no chance it will ever become reality, but at least it gets people talking.
"In the actual workings, I think it's flawed," LSU coach Les Miles said. "But I'm for starting that dialogue. It opens the door."
Maybe it's time to open that door all the way. Stop pretending college football is anything but the big-time business it really is and start paying the employees whose hard work and sweat generate the revenue to begin with.
Give every player, say, $1,000 a month to do with as they please. Allow them to have some spending money without having to get it secretly under the table from boosters or would-be agents. Players would be happy, and their millionaire coaches wouldn't feel so guilty.
Best of all, they could drop the charade that money doesn't rule in college football.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org.
