Urban Meyer has been catching a lot of flak for the handling of the Johnny Townsend situation. I am of the opinion there is much that goes on behind the scenes on the recruiting trail that we, as fans, are not privy to. I do agree with the 11W masses that this is a tough situation for a kid who has been a steadfast commit to tOSU for months now. As speculation goes, the 3/3 homerun of Bell, Clark, and Wilson left tOSU with 82 players designated for schollies in the fall. Urban Meyer has been steadfast in his disdain for over signing, and it certainly appears he may have asked the Townsend family to hold off until we have a more clear picture of the numbers game (speculation).
However, the fact remains that Urban Meyer was given a situation (82 schollies) he did not expect when he took the job. Meyer was "blindsided" and felt "a punch in the gut" when the sanctions came down on the Ohio State program. In yesterday's press conference, Meyer was clearly upset when asked what it was like being down 3 scholarships.
The FACT of the situation (painful as it is for me to say) is: Jim Tressel, the most avid fan of the punt, is the primary reason for the temporary hiccup in Johnny Townsends football career. Tressel, defender of players, lover of the punt, hamstrung the recruiting of the current staff by three young men a year for three years. I LOVED having Jimmy T, always will. However, I feel that Urban is catching a lot of heat from a fire lit long before his glorious return to CBus.
Urban Meyer had NOTHING to do with tOSU's current NCAA sanctions (whatever you think of them). I certainly hope that Johnny Townsend is able to realize his dream of holding the crystal ball for the Buckeyes. However, if the dream to don the S&G never comes to fruition, we need to not blame the current regime, but the old. Urban Meyer is here to bring national championships to THE Ohio State University. In order to accomplish that feat, we MUST land guys like Bell, Clark, and Wilson. Evolve or die. The Buckeyes need athletic playmakers. Lets all hope we can get our punter, too.
EDIT: Now that Townsend has signed with UF, this all seems a bit dumb. I still think Urban got some undeserved scorn ab all this drama.
I agree with your post, but I also believe Urban has to play a numbers game. He had a kid who was already committed and wanted to be a Buckeye that could possibly miss out now. He should've played the numbers by kids he already had committed and sent out offers from there. Townsend is a stud (for a punter) and even tho this might be on the shoulders of Jim Tressel, it looks bad on Urban Meyer. I firmly believe we will have attrition from some older players who are going to get buried on the depth chart by superior, younger talent. I think Townsend should come on ahead to OSU and tough it out until August when fall camp starts. At that point, he will become a scholarship player. I asked a question on the live blog yesterday if the Townsends had money and could support him to come to OSU anyway... I believe Alex was answering me and said yes. I hope Urban works this out and Johnny comes on to Columbus. I'd hate to miss on a kid who was already committed because of a numbers miscalculation.
No, the kid changed his mind. His parents went to UF, his brother is there now, and he wanted to stay close to home.
It only looks bad on Urban to people who assume.
Baloney.
It is part of the drill that you have to ask kids to wait if you get unexpected signings, but that is exactly what happened, and you can say the kid is better off, or his grandfather founded the gator logo or whatever, but it was cheezy what happened to him
Edit: Geez, I forgot again ... tOSU would never do anything that is shady
Yes he just changed his mind out of the blue right on signing day.
I totally agree with your numbers game assertion. I just think the edge is razor thin when you are reduced to 82. If given three options: A)Look like an oversigner (which you have publicly admonished) B)Miss on a stud punter, who will still have a realistic opportunity to play big time college football now. C)Push a kid out the door, and off scholarship. Or just hope someone does something dumb.
Tough choice, but I gotta go with B from an ethics standpoint. From a future recruiting standpoint, B is the only option. How many recruits do you honestly believe we will miss from the fallout of the recruitment of a punter? My guess is not one 5 star will ever remember. Conversely, how many future 4 and 5 stars will want to play in the "No Fly Zone"?
****igan smells like old water that hot dogs were boiled in. FACT
B. would be my choice also, UNLESS you never indicated his offer may not be commitable, in which case A. clearly becomes the mnost ethical scenario, because you don't sacrifice an innocent so you can maintain your public image.
The 82 theory makes no sense. We sat at 84 last NSD and got to 82 (or under eventually). You don't think the staff could deal being at 83 (technically it doesn't matter until August)? Why would they care now and not last year?
+1. I know everyone likes to take a stab at guessing what is really going on when something odd happens in recruiting. Maybe the kid really did change his mind. Clearly, going over 82 wasn't an issue for us last February. I don't think being at 83 would have been an issue this year. You can reasonbly expect to lose a few players each year without "pushing someone out." Other coaches and programs factor that into their recruiting numbers. I think he just wanted to go somewhere else.
Are we certain the issue was one of oversigning? I know Alex thought this might be the case, but until we are sure I really hate to speculate on this. Sounds like Townsend already signed with Florida now.
Urban, like most coaches in this case, came into a situation and got handed restrictions that he had no hand in bringing to the university and is receiving criticism about it.
Is it wrong to criticize him over things outside of his power? Yes.
Is he wrong to be upset about scholarship numbers? No, especially given the other schools who've gotten in trouble as of late (Ole Miss should be on that list soon after the class they pulled SHENANIGANS).
Will coaches in a situation like Urban always receive this type of criticism/questioning? Yeah, comes with the territory but he's handled it well up to this point and will continue to.
JT
"Clay Townsend stressed that Ohio State did not pull his son's scholarship offer, but instead his son had more scholarship offers from which to choose, which caused the delay in his decision."
We would have taken him if he wanted to come. Oversigning not an issue. Sounds like, at least from his dad, circumstances changed for Johnny and he chose to stay closer to home. Not sure where the oversigning/gray shirting theories started. If he would have been like #86 I would understand but #83 isn't a big deal. Oh well, another scholly banked for '14.
Out of the last 3 we took. To take townsend which one do we say no thanks to, Bell, Wilson or Clark?
none of the above
I agree we say no to none and didn't pull the kids sclorship either but some on here want to insist this is what has happened without knowing a thing but ppl speak as if they know for a fact which doesn't make since...since we did over sign last yr why change it this yr also with Jamie Wood possibly taking a medical hardship.
When someone shows you who they are believe them! In other words piss a good friend off and see what they really think about you.
I think Jamie Wood was already removed from the official count several weeks ago due to his recurring injuries.
The attrition to open up the spot would likely have to come from a player transferring out of the program.
That's what makes it difficult, on one hand it's not fair to Townsend but on the other hand how do you say know to any of those kids. That's why I am not mad at Meyer or anything like that for what occured.
I was talking about the Townsend situation with my daughter who played D1 sports and whose boyfriend played D1 football. Apparently the boyfriend was not on scholarship however the cost of college (whether that included tuition and room and board I didn't ask) was paid by an Alumnus, as was the case for a few other players. I was a bit surprised and asked whether this didn't violate NCAA regulations. I was told that it doesn't violate NCAA regulations and that it is a common practice.
If true, then why couldn't the same been done for Townsend, at least until a scholarship opened up?
Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out. - Woody Hayes
The real irony in all of this is that by Clark signing with OSU, UF probably had an extra scholarship open to offer Johnny. I bet if UF got Clark Johnny would be at OSU
I'll take Clark...
The funny thing is, with Clarks supreme speed he may get a chance to return punts. So in 2 or 3 years when OSU meets Florida in a national title, we could realistically see Florida's Townsend punting to OSU's James Clark, and it could have easily been the other way around.
Just an interesting scenario that could play out, would love to see Clark take one of Johnny's punts to the house ;)
Sorry Urban, Woody is still my favorite