Ohio State Football Archives - Page 18 of 19

If A Businessman Wants to Gift a University with no Stadium

If an alumni businessman wants to gift a university with no stadium like Minnesota, you would take the money right? Well four years ago the Gophers turned down a $35 million donation and kept playing in the Metrodome where they had no home field advantage at all.

T. Denny Sanford has donated over $431 million to medical causes this past year and wants to try to donate again, this time for the completion of the TCF Bank Stadium under construction on Minnesota’s campus.

A number of institutions and organizations have stepped in to help fund the $288.5 million project. The State of Minnesota is paying 48% of the costs. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is donating $10 million. TCF Financial Corporation is buying $35 million in naming rights. And a number of ‘smaller’ donors include Best Buy ($3 million), Dairy Queen ($2.5 million), Target Corporation ($2 million), Federated Insurance, General Mills and Norwest Equity Partners.

All that is left is one final $11 million that the university is hoping Sanford will donate without all the strings that were attached to the $35 million he donated 4 years ago. The university has worked with Sanford recently on a state-of the art golf practice range, so there is a good chance the final funding for TCF Bank Stadium (It could have been called the Half Shoe as it will have a horseshoe design.) will be in place soon. 2009 can’t come soon enough when the team will play in their new 50,000 seat stadium.

How to recruit with a Rule-breaking Coach

It turns out Kelvin Sampson had one extra recruiting trick up his sleeve. In addition to illegal phone calls from himself and his assistants, Sampson offered prospects a letter of intent that allowed them to bail if things went bad at Indiana. Indiana AD Rick Greenspan has confirmed that at least two players are allowed to not honor their letters of intent due to the changing of the coaching staff. Provisions in their letters of intent had an “escape clause” related to NCAA Tournament bans or a change of coaches according to Greenspan.

Speculation is the two recruits are Indiana‘s best two 2008 recruits, Devin Ebanks and Terrell Holloway. Ebanks is a 5 Star 6’8″ small forward out of Oakdale Connecticut who is considered to be second best small forward in the country by Rivals.com. Halloway is a 4 Star 6’0″ point guard out of Cincinnati Harmony Community how is the twentieth best ball handler in the class of 2008.

Source:
Yahoo! Sports/Indy Star
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/rumors/post/Two-Hoosiers-recruits-could-opt-out-of-commitmen;_ylt=AteR2YCMKwFRMUYkNKSH9DvevbYF?urn=ncaab,68381

Kelvin Sampson: A Recovering Illegal Recruiter

The current situation at Indiana, where Basketball Head Coach Kelvin Sampson has been placed on a game-by-game tight rope while the university determines how to handle the media blitz surrounding violations by the coach and one of his assistants, is an overreaction to a situation that was sure to surface.

After making 550 illegal phone calls to 17 different recruits at Oklahoma, being on the phone during 10 conference calls to recruits over the past two seasons at Indiana, seems like jay walking. His assistant Rob Senderoff has resigned after making 35 phone calls in violation of the 2006 NCAA ruling against the Oklahoma staff. I would also consider the Senderoff violation to be miniscule in comparison to the 550 calls of the original NCAA violation. They pulled Eric Golden away from Illinois after he had committed, that’s a sure sign that someone is making a lot of phone calls.

These are great coaches that led Oklahoma to an average of 25 wins over eight consecutive seasons and have placed Indiana back on top of the Big 10. Currently Kelvin Sampson is 42-14 at Indiana with one NCAA appearance and they are on their way to another. To think that a recovering illegal recruiter could take a head coaching position and not make phone calls to recruits was a mistake by Indiana that had many scratching their heads at the time. They could have waited to hire him but Sampson would not have been available after his one-year probation was over.

They brought in someone with a tainted past that could win games. Indiana got who they knew they were hiring. For them to back out now under pressure from the media and from boosters is an overreaction that I think will go away given an investigation and probably another one to two year probationary period for one really good coach who is a little to aggressive on the recruiting trail.

What others are saying:

KOKOMO TRIBUNE

http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_051151752.html

EOG.com, Canada

http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=35190

Sporting News

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=355167

Moving on Without Terrelle

Jim Tressel has done an incredible job recruiting this year, not just Terrelle Pryor, but the entire 2008 class. He has made all the visits, made all the calls, said all the right things, had his players and recruits do all the right things. But Terrelle still is not sure. It’s been said that Ohio State has made it to two National Championships in two years without Terrelle Pryor and they will make it again during the time the 2008 class is on campus with or without Terrelle Pryor. Maybe it’s time to consider fall camp without the most wonderful human being to ever put on a football helmet or to shoot baskets in a high school gymnasium.

Ohio State recruited two quarterbacks already in the 2008 class. That may be a surprise to some, but there are two recruits in the 2008 class that are actually quarterbacks. Now all the recruiting site, including the BrutusReport.com list them as safeties, but they are very athletic quarterbacks that could be playing the position at some smaller programs.

Zach Domicone from Xenia Ohio passed for 535 yards and ran for 577 yards as a junior at Beavercreek High School. During his senior year, he passed for 572 yard and ran for 1,111 yards. How about 15 touchdowns as a junior with no interceptions? As a senior he had 16 total touchdowns with 3 interceptions. Not too bad. And he has the speed and height that you would like to see in a modern quarterback, he’s 6’3” and can run a 4.47.

Orhian Johnson is the second quarterback that is coming into Ohio State as a safety but played behind center his last two years in high school. Johnson had offers from a number of big programs including Tennessee, Kansas, and Indiana. He picked Ohio State over Indiana and South Florida which both wanted him as a quarterback. As a senior he passed for 1,200 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also has the stature and speed of a dual threat quarterback, 6’4” and can run a 4.55.

The Buckeye staff has begun recruiting quarterbacks for the 2009 class and are looking closely at Devontae Payne out of Cleveland South. Maybe that’s all they need, a 2009 recruit to compliment their current roster. In 2008 they will have three quarterbacks at camp including two scholarship players in Todd Boeckman and Antonio Henton. Joe Bauserman is also on the roster and could become the backup if there’s an injury to the first string Boeckman or the second string Henton.

My plan for the 2008 camp without Terrelle Pryor is a little different than the three quarterback rotation. The Buckeyes could bring both Zach Domicone and Orhian Johnson into camp as quarterbacks. Let me work out along side the current three players on the roster. Whichever shows the most promise moves on as a quarterback. The other switches back to a safety and practices the rest of their red-shirt freshman year at the position they were recruited to play. In recruiting no one is for sure how a player will turn out once they get to fall camp. What if Zach Domicone is the next Troy Smith? What if Orhian Johnson is the next Troy Smith? And what if Terrelle Pryor never pans out? And just maybe Joe Daniels can take any one of the three and turn them into a national championship winning Heisman quarterback.

Jeremy Beckham Comments on Joe Tiller/Rich Rodriguez

Jeremy Beckham the offensive coordinator for the Trotwood-Madison Rams provided his position on the Joe Tiller comments in the Indy Star earlier this week.

“I think it’s a shame that Coach Tiller made those comments.” Beckham told us. “He is well respected around the nation. However, I have to believe those comments were made in the heat of the moment and he would have preferred to not have made them.” Tiller criticized both Michigan’s Head Coach Rich Rodriguez for stealing away wide receiver Roy Roundtree at the last minute and the Trotwood coaching staff for allowing the students to switch so late in the process.

“What it boils down to is that Rodriguez out recruited him for Roundtree. It has nothing to do with him (Rodriguez) being honest or not.” Beckham explained. “He extended an offer and an opportunity to visit officially. And Purdue could have told Roy that if he visits Michigan that he is no longer offered at Purdue.” Roundtree visited Michigan the weekend prior to National Letter of Intent Signing Day.

“They did not and allowed him to visit. My analogy is that if your engaged, you don’t let your finance go out on a date with a model. After all it was Michigan not Ball State.”

“And also for him to make those comments and have stolen 2 other recruits away from BCS schools is a little like the pot calling the kettle black.”

“I have nothing but respect for Coach Tiller and Purdue, but it all comes back to them because they had the power not Rodriguez.”

Joe Tiller goes after Trotwood Madison and Michigan

Joe Tiller goes after Trotwood-Madison and Michigan

According to an Indy Star article (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802070460), Joe Tiller had some serious accusations against not only Michigan Head Coach Rich Rodriguez but also the coaching staff at Ohio High School Trotwood-Madison after losing wide receiver Roy Roundtree to Michigan. Roundtree committed to the Boilermakers in May but signed with Michigan this past week along with another Ram, running back Michael Shaw.

Tiller really went after Trotwood Madison in addition to Rich Rodriguez. He pretty much said Purdue won’t touch Trotwood again. And then said other programs won’t go there for kids either. Possibly referring to Penn State which lost Shaw on National LOI Signing Day to Michigan. Makes me wonder if there’s a reason Ohio State has stayed away from Trotwood for the past 6 years.

Trotwood-Madison has long been a source of D1 talent for some of the major programs that recruit Ohio. For Ohio State to not offer players from a school with so much talent would be similar to Jim Tressel not recruiting from Cleveland Glennville based on the talent of the players. Of course Glenville has Ted Ginn Sr. and a history of mentoring their students while on campus and even after graduation.

Fans of Michigan might be looking at this situation differently and feel the signing of Roundtree and Shaw show that Rodriquez can close on signing day and the program is in good hands. But others like Joe Tiller see underhandedness and unethical breaking of a gentleman’s agreement which had existed between Big Ten coaches previously.

Quotes from the Article:

“If we had an early signing date, you wouldn’t have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute, but that’s what happened,” Tiller said.

“The problem when you lose a recruit at this late date is it’s really impossible to bounce back and recover,” Tiller said. “You have to wait a full year to recover. Given the position, etc., that could be detrimental.”

“On the other side of the coin, maybe the guy did you a favor. It makes you wonder about the guy, the people surrounding him, the people in that building who would let that happen. I can say this: We won’t go back in that building again and we won’t be the only institution not to.”

“There has been an unspoken rule that if a guy commits and you’ve been recruiting him hard, you always call them up and say, ‘Are you sure about this?’ If he says yes, you back off.

“We had a basketball issue where that wasn’t true. We have a football issue where that isn’t true, so maybe that’s changing.”

North Central’s Eric Gordon committed to Illinois for basketball and maintained for months he would honor it before signing with Indiana.

“We’re not the only school it’s happened to,” Tiller said, “but whatever issues are out there are solvable if we address them in an adult type manner.”

When the BrutusReport.com spoke with assistant coach Jerel Freeman last, Roy Roundtree had four offers only Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Miami (OH), Nebraska, and Purdue.

Steve Patterson Biography

Buckeyes:

I became a fan of the Buckeyes through continued harassment from Columbus natives and have spent the past five years promoting, developing, editing and writing for the BrutusReport.com.

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