Area Buckeye fans mixed over running back's path

A group from Canfield made the trip Saturday night to the Wisconsin game.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
MADISON, Wis. -- Some of the Valley's most-passionate Ohio State fans are reserving judgment on Youngstown native Maurice Clarett's $2.5 million lawsuit against the university.
"It's a tough call because we don't have all the facts," said Dean Conley, a Canfield High teacher and wrestling coach. "I think everyone in Buckeye Nation wants to see the young man do well but you have to wonder if the people leading him are sending him astray.
"No one wants to see five years from now Clarett run out of the NFL," Conley said Saturday outside Camp Randall Stadium before the Ohio State-Wisconsin game. "Buckeye fans pride ourselves every Sunday when we see how many players are in the NFL.
"Everyone loved him when he came to Ohio State and it's too bad to see what's happened," said Conley, a 1997 graduate of Ohio State. "But the university is greater than any one player.
"[Buckeyes] Coach [Jim] Tressel has his best interest at heart and when you're from Youngstown, you can't help but feel that there's a piece of us in Coach Tressel," Conley said.
Canfield contingent
Conley was part of a contingent from Canfield who took advantage of a three-day weekend to travel to the game. John Cravens, the high school assistant principal; Tony Ross, a teacher and coach, and dentist Dr. Tony DiRenzo drove to Chicago on Friday and watched the Cubs-Marlins playoff game at Wrigley Field.
"That was the greatest 'not game' I've ever been too," said Cravens, who vowed to bring his wife to Wrigley Field next summer.
Highlighting the trip was the foursome's first visit to the University of Wisconsin.
DiRenzo and Conley have been making one Buckeyes road trip per year since graduating. DiRenzo compared the atmosphere outside of the Stadium to what he's experienced at Michigan and Penn State.
"It's much different at Illinois and Northwestern," DiRenzo said. "Here, there's plenty of good-natured bantering going on back and forth among Badger and Buckeye fans."
Speaking of Badger fans, the Buckeye quartet owed their face-value tickets to one -- Robert Reed, a Wisconsin season ticket holder from Canfield. Reed's wife, Candy, is an assistant in the Canfield High office.
A year in the making
"This trip was a year in the making," Ross said. "Candy kept [bragging] about how great the Badgers are and her connection, so we called her on it."
Reed entered a lottery for season-ticket holders and scored six tickets for the game.
Also attending the game were Dale and Jean Stryffler of Canfield, who sent three of their children (Jane, Dale and Jill) to Ohio State.
Their tickets came from their other daughter, Laurie, a Kent State graduate who works for the Ohio State University agricultural extension in Canfield.
This is the Stryfflers' second road trip together to a Buckeye game as they once attended a game at Illinois.
"Dale once went to a game at Indiana with our son-in-law Tom," Mrs. Stryffler said.
williams@vindy.com