Really Jim, Really????? Tressel's Resignation A Little Late

Before I get started let me say this much…I don’t know Jim Tressel, I have never met Jim Tressel, and I will probably never have the opportunity to meet Jim Tressel.  With that said, I don’t feel bad for Jim Tressel, and I believe that Jim Tressel’s resignation as head football coach for the Ohio State University Football Team had little, very little, to do with what is best for the University and the football program, and more to do with Jim Tressel feeling the heat from a scandal that was getting bigger and bigger as the days went by.   Like Governor Schwarzenegger’s confession about his baby momma drama, the walls were closing in on Tressel and the Ohio State University football program.   

Tressel wasn’t doing what was best for the University, if he did, he would have come clean with all that was going on as soon as he heard it (or read the first emails from former Buckeyes walk-on Chris Cicero). If he did, he would have taken immediate action and suspended those players charged with selling their memorabilia for the Sugar Bowl, and not for three games at the beginning of the 2011-12 season. If he did, he would have stepped down earlier.  Stepping down now does nothing for the kids who are left behind, or for the Ohio State program that won’t start searching for a coach until after this year’s season.  What it does do is help Tressel avoid all the investigation, all the news reports, and all the trouble that follows his actions or lack of action.  For the better of the program – please stop. 

Feel bad for Tressel…why?  He got his championships, he got paid, he got his book deal, (The Winners Manual: For The Game of Life) and he got out looking like he is the hero who threw himself on the sword.  Some people will say that this isn’t Tressel’s problem, it is Ohio State U’s problem.  Yes, it is a problem for Ohio State University, but it starts with Tressel.  When the Buckeyes won their National Championship in 2003, wasn’t Tressel hailed the hero or was it deflected to the Athletic Director, and the rest of the school administration? 

Under Tressel’s leadership, Ohio State won a national championship in 2003 and played two other national title games. The team has had at least a share of the Big Ten title in all of the past six seasons. The Buckeyes finished last season with a 12-1 record and a Sugar Bowl victory.  Shouldn’t the leader take the blame when things go wrong especially when he knows about these misgivings and doesn’t report them.  So, please don’t tell me, Tressel is taking the all heat – he deserves all the heat. 

Think about it…Maurice Clarett acts when unnoticed by Buckeye’s coaching staff?  Nobody had knowledge of what Terrelle Pryor was doing?  And what about the Tressel admission in March that he played ineligible players and lied to the NCAA about it… Why did we believe this was Tressel’s first and only mistake?    (And don’t look into Tressel’s past at Youngstown State…there are signs there as well.)

What concerns me is how Tressel can justify his actions or more importantly, avoided taking responsibility, and some how, because he led the Buckeyes team to a National Championship and Conference Titles, we forgave him and accepted his transgressions with the old adage…Nobody is Perfect.  Perhaps we shouldn’t be looking for perfection, maybe we should just settle for doing the right thing!