Not a gentlemanIt's been a couple of days since Tressel's "only between gentlemen" comment about whether there was a gentleman's agreement in the conference when it comes to recruiting. I personally think it was the Vest just trying to be clever and not really a dig at Rodriguez, and those in the Wolverine community seem to agree for the most part.
Well, the comment finally made its way back to Ann Arbor:
"Huh well, maybe I'm not a gentleman," Rodriguez said. "I never heard of that (gentlemen's agreement). In that regard, I would be guilty as charged. I know as soon as I took the job, there was a commitment to the University of Michigan who changed his commit and went to another Big Ten school. I didn't blame the coach for doing that. Until the guy signs, he's out there, particularly if he visits.
"If the young man is committed to your school, yet he's still visiting other schools, he's not truly committed; he's just very, very interested. You have to understand the difference in that. I've been doing this a long time, (and) I never heard of such a thing. I don't get caught up in all the he said, she said. One thing I've had to learn to develop, thick skin over the years as head coach. I'm proud of the way we recruit. We certainly aren't going to break any NCAA rules when we recruit. As far as a gentlemen's agreement, I've never heard of such a thing."
As I mentioned when the whole Tiller/Rodriguez issue first blew up, there might have been a gentlemen's agreement back in the day, but not in this era of text messages and bulk email applications.
At any rate, it's good to see that The Rivalry won't miss a beat -- even in this transition season. As much as I hate to admit it, I like the way Rodriguez handled that. Could you imagine Carr saying anything other than "I'm not going to get into that," and declaring the interview over before storming out of the room?
News out of camp has Eugene Clifford making the switch to safety. Clifford, you may recall, may have or may not have run into a little trouble with the tree last season and was subsequently suspended for the LSU game. Here's to fresh starts.
In other secondary news, linebackers Jermale Hines and Tyler Moeller are getting looks at strong safety as the staff experiments with ways to stop the spread. The thought of putting a little more size at the position is intriguing and it put a smile on my face knowing that Tressel was game-planning for Michigan in April.
Continuing their excellent series, Better Know a Buckeye, Vico and the guys at Our Honor Defend present the complete Mike Adams story. I have to check Wikipedia for the parting of the Red Sea story, but I'm pretty sure it's true.
