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Buckeyes unfazed as NCAA probes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, right, walks away as assistant head coach Luke Fickell, left, looks over a list of plays during the first day of spring NCAA college football practice Thursday, March 31, 2011, in Columbus, Ohio.
By Ken Gordon and Tim May
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS
Maybe Nike has come up with a fancy new uniform this year for the Ohio State football team — one that contains asbestos.
Because as the flames of NCAA scrutiny and national criticism lick hungrily at their program, the Buckeyes don’t appear to be feeling any heat.
For the past 12 days, they have conducted as normal a spring as possible under the circumstances.
Those circumstances include an NCAA investigation that could drag on through the 2011 season. It was triggered by the March revelation that coach Jim Tressel withheld knowledge of his players’ NCAA violations.
As a result, Tressel will join five of his players in serving a five-game suspension this fall. The NCAA could add further sanctions.
That’s enough to rock a team to its core, but the Buckeyes appear unshaken.
“To be honest, it’s like nothing ever happened,” center Mike Brewster said. “Some guys may be rotating a little more, but Coach Tress hasn’t skipped a beat, and neither has anyone else.”
The suspended players have been practicing in their usual spots, except for starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who is sitting out the spring as he recovers from foot surgery.
One of the five, receiver DeVier Posey, was a star of the scrimmage Saturday, catching two touchdown passes.
Judging from the times when reporters have been allowed to watch practice, Tressel has not taken a step back from his role. He has been as involved and vocal as ever.
The reaction to the controversy seems to be a collective shrug.
“I think people fail to realize our team is very close, we’re really like a family here,” linebacker Etienne Sabino said. “So I haven’t seen much of a difference at all.”
Tressel has proved masterful at guiding his team through past distractions.
The Buckeyes won a national championship in January 2003, after a controversy-filled week that featured running back Maurice Clarett criticizing the university for not letting him go home to attend a friend’s funeral.
More recently, the Buckeyes could have been reeling from the Dec. 23 announcement of the players’ suspensions for selling memorabilia, but instead, they posted a victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.
Rather than crumbling in crisis, the Buckeyes pull together.
“I don’t think we’re letting that bother us at all,” offensive tackle J.B. Shugarts said. “I think we’re using it as motivation, added adversity.
“More eyes [are] on us, more people want to see us fail, and we’re going to take all that in and we’re going to succeed and prove everybody wrong.”
Could it be that these ordeals actually build chemistry, that elusive element that is so critical to success?
“You can do [one of two] things: You can get mad, or you can use it to your advantage, use it as fuel to prove people wrong,” Brewster said. “I think that is the attitude we’ve taken — ‘Let’s just keep working hard. Let’s shock the world. Let’s show people what we can do by staying together.’”