For the second year in a row, “The Buckeye 50 Yard Line” was represented at Ohio State’s Media Day, a staple of the opening week of fall camp. It’s an opportunity for the players’ families (and girlfriends!) to mingle with the team, collect autographs and take pictures, and then for our radio, TV and print brethren to also snap photos (does anyone besides me still “snap” photos?) and conduct interviews. The media and families both have something in common- this event is pretty much the last time they’ll have contact with the players until the season starts on September 2nd. Usually preseason camp is when the Bucks close ranks, but there will be one notable exception next week- On Monday, August 21st, the team will hold a nighttime public practice at the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, which is just north of the Schottenstein Center and Bill Davis Stadium. The practice will go from 8-10PM, and there will be an autograph session with the team beginning at 7PM. Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium will hold approximately 10,000 people so if any of you plan to attend get there early. Admission will be free to the practice but you will have to pay to park.
Our site photographer (and my “Buckeye Brother”) Gregg Watson joined me this year, but things didn’t seem promising as we met up at one of our favorite campus haunts- the legendary Tommy’s Pizza on Lane Avenue. It was raining pretty steadily, and since the event is held in Ohio Stadium we weren’t sure if it would go off. After hearing radio reports that it had been canceled, we headed over to the southeast corner of the ‘Shoe to see what was up. We got word from Debbie Johnson (mother of defensive end Jay Richardson) that the event was being moved to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, and they were hoping it would clear up so they could come back over to the Stadium to take the team photo. So off we went to Olentangy River Road and the WHAC. We were able to check in, get our credentials and shortly thereafter the players began to emerge, decked out in full uniform and sporting their new home jerseys. At this point I’m still not a big fan of the new look, but I guess we’ll all get used to it. Ted Ginn, Jr. pointed out later how tight-fitting the new jerseys are, and said there was almost no way someone could make a jersey tackle. If a few missed jersey tackles help to get Teddy in the endzone more often this season, then I’ll LOVE the new duds.
While we were waiting on the players to filter out, Gregg and I took the opportunity to join a group of reporters who were speaking with athletic director Gene Smith. Now I don’t want to say it was hot in the building, but Gene looked like Robert Hays in “Airplane” when he’s trying to land the plane with sweat pouring off him like he was a fountain out front of the Bellagio. I felt like telling him he probably wouldn’t be sweating like that during the second half of this year’s Michigan game when we’re sitting out in the late November dark. But I’m sure there was money to be made from ABC, who probably sweetened the pie so they could get a 3:30 start and boost their precious West Coast ratings. I suppose we’ll all freeze to death in the name of making sure people in Los Angeles- who won’t even support an NFL team- don’t have to roll out of the rack at 9AM to see “THE GAME”. Some ABC viewer in Portland with a Nielsen book gets a few extra hours to sleep in while a huge chunk of the 105,000+ back in Columbus gets three extra hours to get lubricated.
Smith was asked how he reacted to people who say Ohio State shouldn’t play Division 1-AA schools, on the heels of OSU’s announcement of games with Youngstown State in 2007 and 2008-
“The scheduling has changed significantly across the country with the (addition of a) 12th game. Somewhere along the line, 1-AA teams have to be on people’s schedules. We’re not gonna do ‘2 for 1’s’, (asking) a team to come and play in our place for 2 games and then we’ll go to a 35,000 seat stadium somewhere and play. If you look at the schedules across the country in 1-A, you’ll see a few schools in the BCS that are doing that. We’re just not going to do that. Our goal of having a 7 or 8-game home schedule requires us to look at 1-AA”.
Smith said that Youngstown State would receive right around $700,000 to play in Ohio Stadium along with an allotment of 4,000 tickets, but also felt it wouldn’t be too long before Ohio State would pay an opponent $1 million or more. In the next decade, the Bucks will play home-and-home series with USC, Miami of Florida, Cal, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma. It is certainly refreshing from the days of John Cooper who admitted if he’d had any say that the Bucks would’ve never played the memorable series with Notre Dame. Cooper wanted 3 or 4 non-conference patsies all coming to the ‘Shoe, and while that type of scheduling made sense from a national championship and financial standpoint, it makes more sense to take on a top-flight opponent. Even if you lose, pollsters will be more impressed with Texas or USC matchups than Rice.
OSU’s AD also commented on coach Jim Tressel’s new contract- “My primary focus was to drive his dollars up. I just felt like he deserved to be in the top part of the Big Ten and in the top five as best as I could get him nationally…That’s where we expect to compete and so he should be compensated consistent with that expectation”.
There may not have been any amount of compensation that would have sufficed for the coach when he finally broke away from the players’ families and was immediately surrounded by a gaggle of reporters. Tressel pretty much stayed riveted to that spot for the next 30 minutes, and as you might guess, the initial topic of conversation was everyone’s “favorite” former tailback. Tressel immediately cleared the air on published reports that Maurice Clarett had called the coach in the hours leading up to his arrest. “I never got a chance to talk with him. I kind of wish I had, but didn’t…I’ve had the chance probably once or twice in the last couple of months to visit with him on the phone. I didn’t get a chance to connect with him recently.” The coach would later piece together that he had seen a message Monday night on his desk from Clarett, and had returned the call on Tuesday morning but had gotten Maurice’s voice mail. After Tuesday’s practice, there was another message from Clarett but Tressel hadn’t had an opportunity to return that call. Of course, by Wednesday morning the Clarett saga had taken its sad turn.
Tressel commented on the pressure of playing football in the fishbowl that is The Ohio State University- “I’ve always said that this is a very difficult place to be a college football player. Expectations, visibility…so many people want to be around them.
We talk about that a lot during recruiting. We have a lot of things that are in place to try and help you through it and help you understand it, but no question about it, it’s difficult.”
While Gene Smith had issued a blanket “I can’t comment on that” when asked about the Marcel Frost situation, Tressel, in his own way, shed a tad more light when the question was posed to him if the year’s suspension of the tight end was an indication of a repeat violation-
“It indicates that we have a policy, (and) with various situations that occur, there are consequences, and obviously longer consequences, (for instance) sometimes, you might miss the first quarter. Sometimes, you might miss a game. However you’d like to read into it, when you have to miss the whole season obviously it’s further along.” The coach also stated that there were no plans at this time to move anyone to tight end to compensate for Frost’s absence. Marcel and Rory Nicol were listed as the two-deep in the media guide, so now Nicol becomes the starter, with Brandon Smith as his likely backup. It also may mean that the two incoming freshmen, Andy Miller and Jake Ballard, may not end up redshirting.
According to Tressel, the Buckeye coaching staff was granted a waiver by the NCAA to use another on-field coach if quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels had to miss any camp time. Daniels had been hospitalized in June for a heart problem, and while he was there doctors discovered cancerous tumors. After heart surgery, he began therapy for the cancer, and with the heat and sun exposure of practice, as well as the long workdays, Ohio State asked for, and received, permission to use, as Tressel put it, “one more voice” in case Joe wasn’t available. Nick Siciliano, currently the offensive quality control coach, would step in for any time that Daniels misses.
Gregg had a great conversation with defensive tackle Joel Penton, a fifth-year senior who’s listed as second-team on the depth chart behind Quinn Pitcock. Joel was the subject of a July 2nd headline article in the Columbus Dispatch sports page detailing his work as a Christian speaker at churches, youth groups and campus crusades. He is a very in-demand speaker and is quite active with Athletes In Action, and in fact when he first arrived at OSU he attended a Campus Crusade meeting which was being led by Bethany Groskopf, a Buckeye gymnast. You might say it was “love at first sight”, and Joel and Bethany were married last March. Fans have undoubtedly noticed that players from both teams meeting at midfield after games to pray. Gregg asked Joel to describe what goes on in those get-togethers-
“It’s really an impromptu thing…We take a knee…(and) I think last year I typically just called somebody out whether it was Dave Patterson or Stan White or Anthony (Gonzalez)…and then someone will lead a prayer. When we do that we invite the other team to pray with us, which many times they’re very open and willing, and sometimes it’s not the case. It’s a way that we can kind of demonstrate that when all is said and done, what’s most important is not the outcome of the game or even the game itself, but our faith.”
It was a pleasure to also talk one-on-one with one of my personal favorite Buckeyes, wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez. A class act, and mature beyond his 21 years, “Gonzo” has become a dependable, yet underused weapon in the offensive attack. I asked if we would see him teamed up with Ted Ginn, Jr. on punt returns this season-
“I hope so. It’s something I would like to do certainly, but that’s one of those things (that) once the coaches decide then I’ll know.”
Did the offense feel any additional pressure to put points on the board to help a young defense that’s breaking in 9 new starters?
“I feel we always have to hit the ground running. (No one) wants to go out and be mediocre. In that sense it’s the same as it always is regardless of whether we have 11 starters returning or two…We’re gonna go out and perform as best as we can just like we always do.”
“Gonzo” has made two of the biggest plays in Ohio State’s wins over Michigan the last two seasons. His 68-yard touchdown reception jumpstarted the 37-21 win in 2004, and no one will forget his leaping grab to position the Bucks for the winning score last year in Ann Arbor (For those of you who might be hazy on the details, stay tuned in our “25 Greatest Drives” series…hint, hint). I wondered if it would be neat for Anthony to someday look back on his contributions to the TBGUN wins and the mark he has left on “THE GAME”-
“I don’t know, maybe? I’m not the type of person that reminisces very often. Like I don’t think back on high school at all, or if I do it’s very little. It’s hard to say, (but) I like to look forward. I’m not a ‘backward looker’” I can certainly understand how “Gonzo” feels in a way, with two more years of college football in front of him, but having attended John Hicks’ Michigan week dinner at the Buckeye Hall of Fame the last couple of years, I’ve heard former players and coaches on both sides talk about how much the rivalry means. I could certainly see Anthony up at that podium someday, hopefully talking about going 4-0 against the Maize and Blue.
It’s traditional in the summer for players all around the country to coordinate 7-on-7 drills, which they must conduct without any coaches present. I asked Troy Smith about a story detailing 11-on-11 drills that he helped to head up, but actually he gave credit to offensive linemen Doug Datish and T.J. Downing-
“All across the board it wasn’t just me, it was a collective thing to put those kinds of workouts and drills together. Doug and T.J. did a great job in some of the things that they did. Actually, they did pretty much the bulk of the coordinating, (and) Doug scripted a lot of the plays.” While Troy is a no-brainer as a captain this season, his acknowledgement of Doug Datish’s efforts shows why Doug was featured on the media guide cover, ordinarily a giveaway as to who will be captain in the fall. (By the way, the media guide cover features Smith, Datish, Quinn Pitcock and David Patterson).
The gem of the ’06 recruiting class, runningback Chris “Beanie” Wells, garnered a lot of attention at the proceedings, and being in that close of quarters I can tell you he looks the part of a Big Ten tailback. A lot of preseason speculation has centered around how much Chris will be used, and while I agree with Brent’s assessment on our homepage that the coaches may be underplaying his potential use, I feel Antonio Pittman is still, for the time being, “the man” at tailback. When I talked to “Pitt”, he said the hamstring was feeling good, and he was looking forward to running behind what, in my opinion, could be Jim Tressel’s best offensive line yet at Ohio State. With no disrespect meant towards former placekicker Josh Huston, I asked Antonio if he felt he had to score a touchdown on the final drive against Michigan on a play that looked for all intents and purposes like it was to set up Josh for a field goal try-
“That was my thought, without a doubt. I wanted to score, and it happened.”
Simple enough, right?
Our time with the players wound down, and we headed back over to the ‘Shoe as the team photo was taken under now-clear skies. In a little over 2 weeks, Ohio Stadium’s 85th season of football will commence, and we would certainly not care to make a fourth trip in five years to the Arizona desert. The USA Today coaches poll has the Bucks at #1, and earlier Tuesday evening it was revealed that the Scarlet and Gray will be atop Sports Illustrated’s Top 25. We’ll see if the AP agrees with the coaches and SI, but whether they do or not, the fact that OSU is as highly ranked as it is despite losing 9 defensive starters and other key pieces is a tribute to Jim Tressel and the legacy left behind by the now-departed young men who have helped fashion a 50-13 record in the Tressel era, complete with an 8-2 mark against Michigan and bowl opponents.
Gregg and I would both like to thank Jeff Ruth of Clear Channel Radio in Marion, Ohio for his help in getting us to Media Day. Jeff and I will begin our fifth year of calling high school football on WMRN Radio on August 25th, and I can’t wait. Also thanks to Tim Stried, assistant director in the Athletics Communications Office. Tim, a Marion Pleasant grad, helped coordinate our credentials with Jeff, and we appreciate his efforts. Tim, we’ll see you on August 26th when the Spartans host St. Henry.
The biggest thank you, as always, goes to our readers. Working on this site is a labor of love for all involved, and we are grateful for so many of you checking us out on a regular basis. As always, contact us with any feedback, ideas or suggestions.
By Joe-S-U
Media Day 2006
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August 10th
Woody Hayes Center - Columbus, Ohio
