Buckeye House Call

"What we do over here is a lot of fun, and I'm sure people recognize Ohio State football and all of that, but it's not as recognizable as that flag with the stars and stripes."

Jim Tressel always had the men and women of our armed forces on his mind, finding any way he could to honor them, going so far as to create a position on his Ohio State staff for a Director of Military Appreciation. He honored the armed forces both publicly and privately, through his highly visible position within college athletics, and he always did it with class.

His father Lee, who had enrolled at Ohio State to play football in 1943, participated in his first spring game before choosing to enter the United States Navy. He served in the South Pacific before returning to play his college football at Baldwin-Wallace. That dedication to his country was never lost on Coach Tressel.

"I recall vividly, as I learned more and more about my dad, that serving his country came first to him, even more than his football playing and wanting to live a civilian life."

Among many other things, that appreciation to the United States Armed Forces was something Jim Tressel shared with his father. In August 2010 Tress was honored with the Patrick Henry Award, along with his Director of Military Appreciation Bob Tucker, which recognizes "local officials and civic leaders who, in a position of great responsibility, distinguish themselves with outstanding and exceptional service to the Armed Forces of the United States."

Coach Tressel knew the importance of his position at The Ohio State University, but he also recognized it as a platform that would allow him to actively seek out opportunities and channels through which he could support our military members, especially the hometown heroes from the great state of Ohio. But his efforts weren't limited to only the state for which he was employed.

Memorial Day. The dictionary defines it as the last Monday in May, on which those who died in active military service are remembered. America has long been entrenched in war, from the jungles of Vietnam and Korea to the trenches of France and Germany and the deserts of the Middle East. America was built from war, it is in our blood. The fighting spirit of our forefathers, who called their brethren to stand and fight against tyranny and injustice, forged a nation. That nation has known war ever since, and this is why we mourn and remember those who have given their lives to serve and protect our nation and preserve our freedoms. It is with this fighting spirit that was born a sport of controlled warfare, a game of gods and gladiators, bearing the colors of their respective homes and carrying the pride and spirit of its people within their hearts. This game would become more than just a game to those few who would so choose to take part in it.

War and football are more in common than most people realize. Forged during the Civil War era from a similar game brought to us by our cousins from across the sea, football quickly dug its roots deep into the heart of America, and in time, spread like a brush fire to all corners of the country from the white collar Ivy League cities, to the blue collar towns in Pennsylvania and Ohio, to the sun drenched wetlands in Florida, the oil derricks in Texas and the beaches of California, this game would become one of the most powerful enterprises in America.

Happy Sunday morning, Buckeye Nation. For those of you who are either serving or have served in our Armed Forces - and to those family member of those who are or have - we wish you a wonderful Memorial Day Eve and thank you for all you have done and continue to do for this beautiful country.

Plenty to talk about around the B1G this week, although we won't be giving you your weekend dose of Buckeye love today. We started a new weekly series here at BHC yesterday to cover everything Scarlet and Gray for you, passing out helmet stickers  to all the best Ohio State news and commentary from around the Buckeye blogosphere for the week that was - 28 links in total - ranging from full coverage of the Gene Smith Saga to the psychology of Urban Meyer and his approach to competition. We slipped in some hoops chatter and gathered plenty of football coverage, as well as hopping into the Wayback Machine and pulled in stories about former Buckeyes such as Joey Galloway, Cris Carter, Keith Byars and Chris Spielman - all written this week. If you haven't yet, go get caught up on all things Ohio State before we roll into enemy territory. We'll wait...

Back? Good, because a Purdue baseball player threw a punch in the B1G tourney, fans around the B1G hate Bret Bielema (you don't say?), Warren Buffet donated more money to Nebraska than I could fit in my work cubicle and Northwestern celebrated their Buckeye-less football schedule.   

Enjoy the B1G links from the week that was - 26 in total...

I'm beginning continuing to think Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith is all foam and no beer. I'm ready to swap out our Gene Smith for Norfolk's Gene Smith. I bet he's wrecked fewer buses than ours.

After a week that saw Ohio State release details on 46 secondary violations that have occurred in the past twelve months, including one by Smith himself, he spent this week shoving his foot into his mouth about twelve new violations that OSU is currently "processing." After some back and forth between he and The Lantern about what exactly he had to say, which included The Lantern releasing audio of his exact comments, all of Buckeye Nation is left scratching their head.

Luckily for us there was plenty more online content focusing on the better aspects of our beloved Ohio State sports. We backtrack through The Buckeye Bloggers Network, as well as many other Ohio State sites, and bring you The Week That Was in and around the Horseshoe, including giving our bus driver his well-deserved (negative) attention.

*Each snippet is a direct quote from the article contained within it's link and is not the content, property or otherwise highly intelligent thoughts of those of us at BHC.

*Click the helmet sticker > get the full story.

"We're going to build a program here with men that you'll be proud of on the field, in the classroom, and in the Bowling Green community."

In November of 2000 Bowling Green State University handed over the keys to their 2-9 football team to a 36 year old Notre Dame wide receivers coach named Urban Meyer. Quite a leap of faith for a struggling program who hadn't seen a winning record in six seasons, but Meyer would prove them wise and he didn't waste any time doing it.

Just two short weeks after taking the job, Meyer called all of his new players to the on-campus fieldhouse for a 6 A.M. meeting, one in which they were told that if you didn't show up to not bother to ever come back. It would be known simply as "Black Wednesday."

Reports had Meyer carrying a binder with him at all times that he used to keep track of who missed classes or study tables. Those that made the list were put through running drills like no other. From former BGSU running back John Gibson:

"Coach locked the doors, brought out the trash cans for those who had to vomit...and there were plenty, and set the tone for what he would be looking for from us, which was accountability."

When "Black Wednesday" and all of the dust settled from the running drills, approximately 25-30 players or more had left the program. If accountability wasn't your thing, Urban Meyer wasn't your guy. Now with a depleted roster, allbeit the one Meyer preferred, the 2-9 Falcons from a season ago would become the 8-3 Falcons of 2001. It wasn't good enough for a MAC Championship or even a bowl invite, but those eight wins included victories over the BCS's Missouri Tigers and Northwestern Wildcats. Those may not sound "epic" to most, but coming off a season that saw Bowling Green win just 18% of their outings, those two victories meant everything to a program moving in the right direction.

A year later, with his spread offense now engrained into the minds and bodies of his roster, Bowling Green started 8-0 en route to a 9-2 season that saw them beat the likes of Missouri (again) and Kansas.

Meyer only stayed with the Falcons for those two seasons, but those 21 games set the tone for a decade of greatness. We've stretched back eleven years and brought you back to the present day with Urban Meyer - A Decade of Leadership in Pictures. Enjoy.

In reponse The Lantern's article published late last night, quoting Ohio State A.D. Gene Smith and reporting 12 more NCAA violations that Ohio State is currently processing, Gene Smith has released a statement through the Ohio State athletics website:

"Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio State Athletics is not facing any major NCAA violations," Smith said. "There are several secondary violations being processed by our compliance office. These are similar to those released last week. Again, these are secondary in nature and consistent with our culture of self-reporting even the most minor and inadvertent violations.

"Again, to be clear, the Ohio State football program, its coaches and staff are not facing any violations."

Link: http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/genrel/052412aaa.html

A Wednesday night report from The Lantern, Ohio State's student newspaper, is reporting that Ohio State has 12 more NCAA violations that are currently pending. A.D. Gene Smith contacted the paper on Tuesday, but told them he didn't yet know if the violations would be deemed primary or secondary.

From The Lantern: “We’ve got 12 pending,” Smith said. “It may turn out to be secondary. It may not.”

Apparently OSU spokesman Dan Wallenberg has said the number is actually less than twelve, but neither he nor Smith would say which sport(s) were involved.

Less than a week ago Ohio State released documents self-reporting 46 secondary violations that have occurred since May 30th, 2011, the day Jim Tressel resigned, across 21 varsity sports. While much of that list was trivial, it's yet to be seen how the additional 12 might shape the overall list differently.