Head Shots from 2/14/2008

Joe Tiller Doesn't Like Himself Any Rich Rodriguez : Not unless Joe Tiller likes guys in wizard hats selling snake oil. By wizard hats he meant leather jackets, and by snake oil he meant playing time at running back.

"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."

Joe Tiller's crazy old man comments concern a WR, Roy Roundtree, who had been a Purdue verbal before pulling the hip thing to do this year and signing his letter of intent with Michigan. Roundtree joins two other recruits who had verballed to Florida and Penn State, respectively.

We know nothing about Rodriguez and his sales techniques. Let's just say that no other coach has drawn comparisons to wizards nor snake oil salesmen. We do know he's going to have to put out a PO to Nike for all new uniforms with 6'2" 180lbs Darryl Stonum being the "big guy" at WR. Roy Roundtree checks in at 6'0" 154lbs, Martavious Odoms at 5'8" 164lbs, and a couple ATHs under 6'0" 190lbs.

Penn State ('s Blogs) Really Wants Terrelle Pryor : As you know the superest recruit of all time, Terrelle Pryor, has 4 options on where to play his college ball (Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon) and will most likely pick one of these 4, unless North Carolina makes a late surge (ha!). Ohio State was supposedly the leader, and that makes other schools on his list jealous. The folks at the Black Shoe Diaries think that ESPN said it best in November 2004 concerning a Cooper recruit:

The conventional wisdom for the past several months was that Pryor was Ohio State's to lose. If that is indeed the case, then I would suggest he read this.

That embedded link will take you to the story about Sammy "The Bull" Maldonado, who took remedial math and reading at Ohio State and wondered why he couldn't get it to transfer. Summary of the story is: "I was a prized recruit", "I carried 22 times for 50 yards in 2000", and "I was third on the depth chart behind Jonathan Wells and Lydell Ross" (Even I can't explain him being behind Ross).

His other statement that "I think Tressel wanted the guys he recruited" really sums up the 2002 National Championship season. What it boils down to is Maldonado expecting to get by on football the rest of his life and his remedial math and reading was fine, but when football didn't pan out at Ohio State he realized his classes weren't that hard.

Antonio Smith, cornerback of the 2006 Buckeye defense, would like to argue with actions and not words. After his final season, he won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. 2008 recruit Keith Wells from Georgia says:

“They’ve got a top 20 engineering program, their football team is thriving, definitely excelling the last few years, and I definitely feel I have an opportunity to get in there and play early.”

Oh Keith, so you're going to major in Engineering? Good for you. You mean you can pick which classes you want to take? That doesn't sound anything like that ESPN article. But it does sound a lot like my time at Ohio State, and mechanical engineering was a load of work in itself. I'm sure we all remember Craig Krenzel and every announcers' obsession with saying "molecular genetics". College, for football players and laypeople, is what you make it.

SEC Sports Calls Jim Tressel a Dirty Recruiter : Did I say SEC Sports? I really meant CBS Sports, but what's the different? Gregg Doyel goes reaching with a special gem discussing Rich Rodriguez, Bobby Petrino, Urban Meyer...and you guessed it...Jim Tressel. Any story with the demand "Connect the dots" is obviously reaching but Doyel and his editors have no shame, dedicating a full page to "An Evening with Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel".

Ohio State's Jim Tressel blatantly skated up to the edge of ethical badness last week, acting with such audacity that even the newspaper that broke the news had no idea it was breaking anything at all. And still won't unless it reads this here story.

What I like about Internet articles is that they have no facts and would never be touched by print or television media. The newspaper didn't even know it was breaking news? Hmm, maybe it really isn't then. Facts are that Posey was the #3 recruit to verbal to Jim Tressel back on 3/13/07 (almost 1 year prior to the fundraiser) and that Ohio State has never secured a recruit for the football factory of Walsh University, which will be holding it's own "An Evening with Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel".

Some people are born Buckeyes, and I would be interested to hear was Devier and his mom think of this story.