So let's get this out of the way right off the bat: if it's a Tuesday, and I'm writing a Skull Session, Ohio State head coaches had better start polishing their resumes.
In early March of 2011, I, Johnny Ginter, had the distinct pleasure (and by that I mean that it really, really sucked) of having to write this missive about a Yahoo! Sports report that belied that jaunty little exclamation point:
Not reporting a known rules violation to the NCAA and/or his superiors is a huge violation itself, a lie by omission, and also a specific violation of Tressel's contract with Ohio State. In fact, as pointed out by Robinson and Wetzel, the contract carries with it the possible penalty of termination should Tressel fail to report any rule violation. If true, what Tressel is now accused of could very well end his coaching career.
And then it did! End Jim Tressel's coaching career, I mean. And now, like some kind of really nerdy medieval plague doctor, I skulk from practice facility to practice facility, waiting for the weak or incompetent to either lie to the NCAA or string a bunch of crappy recruiting classes together so I can once again write dumb jokes about it on a Tuesday morning.
Here's the thing though... Thad is still Thad. He deserved to be fired because of how his team performed on the court, but in well over a decade of coaching at Ohio State, he accomplished things that no one really thought possible in Columbus. For a brief shining moment he made Ohio State basketball cool as hell and did it without a whiff of controversy or scandal, the likes of which defined his predecessor's tenure.
He was a funny, personable, prideful guy who got some of the healthiest years of his life stolen from him and yet never uttered a word of complaint. He won championships, had significant tourney runs, and almost nabbed a national title. I'm not sad to see him go, but dammit I'm always going to remember that dude for the things he accomplished for Ohio State, and not what he didn't.
Au revoir, Coach! Good luck, wherever your next stop is, and may the gum be plentiful!
ICYMI:
- Thad Matta bows out, with Tim Shoemaker's story here, and a video and the transcript of the event here.
- Thad Matta's coaching tenure, by the numbers.
- Some potential candidates to replace Thad (and on extremely short notice).
- Players react to Matta's firing.
- Oh hey, before I forget! We'd still love it if you could help us put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
THAD FOCUSES ON GETTING BACK TO NORMAL. Or, normal-ish, anyway. Right now, Matta is wanting to get healthy more than anything else. A quick recap of his issues, from Dispatch.com:
Matta, who turns 50 next month, lost all feeling in his right foot after back surgery in June 2007, two months after he led OSU to the NCAA championship game, the first of two Final Four trips for the Buckeyes under him.
For the past 10 years, Matta has suffered from chronic back pain, “drop foot” (meaning his foot flops over and has no support or stability), and balance issues that necessitated he wear an ankle-foot orthotic brace.
...
On Monday, Matta was asked if he’d still be Ohio State’s coach if he was 100 percent healthy.
“Yeah, probably,” he answered.
That's a gut-punch, because the physical pain Matta has endured while doing a ridiculously demanding job has been an issue we've too often overlooked. All we can do is hope that some time off gets him back to something close to his old self.
THE GENESIS OF SUCK. Jeff Eisenberg over at Yahoo! Sports traces Matta's downfall back to the 2015 recruiting class. That's a hot take to be sure, but I'm sure most of the people in the comments below will be quick to point out that Thad's issues go way beyond one ill-fated recruiting class. Still though...
Ohio State’s 2015-16 roster was laden with sophomores and juniors who were established Big Ten-level players yet didn’t project as NBA prospects. As a result, any freshmen who came aboard that season either had to be talented enough to nudge an older player out of the starting five or patient enough to bide his time in a supporting role for a couple years.
Four of the players Ohio State signed in the 2015 class hadn’t previously exhibited that level of loyalty. Eager to find a program where they would be showcased, they had played for multiple high school or AAU teams or backed out of commitments to other colleges in favor of Ohio State.
This kind of misread on not just talent, but character, can be fatal to the career of a coach in a sport that relies so heavily on chemistry and cohesion between a relatively small amount of players.
SOME (FUN) BUCKEYE NFL FLUFF. First, here's Ted Ginn looking fresh to death in his new Saints duds:
.@TedGinnJr_19 in his #Saints uniform! pic.twitter.com/NmyILfipST
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) June 5, 2017
And secondly, let's check in and see how our favorite Wu-Tang devotee is doing down in Miami, courtesy of PalmBeachPost.com:
If McMillan does not begin his career at inside linebacker, he may very well succeed Timmons at that position in the future.
What has he learned from Timmons, the 31-year-old with 10 years of NFL experience?
“We come in and we learn every day about the game, physically, in this building,” McMillan said. “But for them two, it’s about what they do off the field. Somebody who has played for 10-plus years, you’ve got to look at how they take care of their body and how they’ve been able to sustain his level of play over a long period of time. Really, from them, it’s been just soaking in everything they do off the field.”
I secretly think that Raekwon is going to end up having one of those sneaky awesome NFL careers that we'll look at sometime in the mid 2020s and go "Wow, I got so wrapped up in the robot apocalypse that I never realized that Raekwon McMillan ended up in like five Pro Bowls!"
HOO-AHHH! Al Pacino is going to play Joe Paterno in what will most assuredly be a very measured and thoughtful reflection on one of the greatest tragedies in modern American sports, right? RIGHT???
From TVLine.com:
The project — directed by Barry Levinson, who teamed with Pacino on the recent HBO pic Wizard of Lies — will delve into how the darkest chapter in Penn State history challenged Paterno’s legacy as the winningest coach in college football history, forcing him to face questions of institutional failure on behalf of the victims.
"Wizard of Lies" was fairly legit, and Al Pacino is definitely entering the "old man that looks like he's melting into a puddle of himself" phase of his career, but man this feels like a very high risk/low reward kind of thing. And yes, I know Pacino has played a football coach before. Slightly different.
AW SCREW IT, ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD. This, THIS is why I will never stop loving Thad Matta the human being, from Mark Titus' "Don't Put Me In, Coach":
O captain, my captain!
TURN UP THE BEAT AND BUMP TO THIS. Alex Honnold just free soloed El Capitan... Down at the ol' lava farm... The Sprinkler Rainbow Conspiracy Theory... The Teddy Roosevelt video collection from the Library of Congress... The origin of "Lorem ipsum."
