Latest news with #Tattoogate
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Where former Florida football coach Urban Meyer ranks among the best of the 21st century
Where former Florida football coach Urban Meyer ranks among the best of the 21st century A full quarter of the 21st century has already elapsed and the first 25 years of the new millennium have been an exciting one for college football. The first two-and-a-half decades have seen dynasties come and go, with many teams ebbing and flowing in the collegiate gridiron landscape. Probably the most important part of a program is the head coach, who is responsible for every aspect of the school's student-athletes and is ultimately the one who receives the most credit (or blame) depending on the level of success. Many men have tried to succeed at the FBS level, but few have truly excelled. The Athletic recently took a look at the top 25 head coaches since the turn of the century, with Urban Meyer — who helped lead the Florida Gators to not one but two national titles — landing second overall. Former UF coach Bob Stoops was also lauded for his success with the Oklahoma Sooners at No. 6, but we will focus on the one who served as the skipper during the Orange and Blue's golden years. Breaking down Urban Meyer's accomplishments Accomplishments: Three national championships, two additional undefeated seasons, seven conference championships, nine top-five finishes "Only two coaches have won a national championship at multiple schools, and they top this list. Meyer won two at Florida in 2006 and 2008 before stepping away due to health concerns. He returned at Ohio State a few years later and opened with an undefeated season in 2012, though the Buckeyes were banned from the postseason due to the Tattoogate scandal under Tressel, but then won it all in 2014. "Meyer also went undefeated at Utah in 2004 with Alex Smith at quarterback, as the Utes became the first program from outside a power conference to reach a BCS bowl. His 187-39 record is good for a winning percentage of 85%. It's one of the most impressive runs in history, behind only the guy who ended Florida's run (Nick Saban)." The Athletic's top 25 college football coaches of 2000s Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama) Urban Meyer (Bowling Green, Utah, Florida, Ohio State) Pete Carroll (USC) Kirby Smart (Georgia) Dabo Swinney (Clemson) Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) Jim Tressel (Ohio State) Jim Harbaugh (Stanford, Michigan) Mack Brown (Texas, North Carolina) Chris Petersen (Boise State, Washington) Ryan Day (Ohio State) Brian Kelly (Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, LSU) Jimbo Fisher (Florida State, Texas A&M) Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech) Gary Patterson (TCU) James Franklin (Vanderbilt, Penn State) Les Miles (Oklahoma State, LSU, Kansas) Mark Richt (Georgia, Miami) Kyle Whittingham (Utah) Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma, USC) Mark Dantonio (Cincinnati, Michigan State) Kirk Ferentz (Iowa) Bill Snyder (Kansas State) Chip Kelly (Oregon, UCLA) Mike Leach (Texas Tech, Washington State, Mississippi State) Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Which CFB teams could have the most players drafted? Plus, favorite offseason tropes
Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic's college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. Happy early Valentine's Day to NC State's Ms. and Mr. Wuf, married for almost 44 years now. An offseason milestone approaches: April's NFL Draft, when college fans get to mock their pathetic rivals for failing to get anybody drafted (or explain the nuanced complexities that unfairly prevented their own teams from getting anybody drafted). National champ Ohio State is in line to also be this year's draft champ, with a nation-leading nine players on Dane Brugler's new top-100 Big Board, followed by Texas, Ole Miss and Oregon. In total, the SEC's 39 entries lead the Big Ten's 32. As for the individuals: As usual, I'm now interested in the schools that could have first-rounders for the first time in a while, if some of these top-100 guys move up a bit (most recent in parentheses): I had also long been used to annually updating that chestnut about Iowa State's 50-year drought of first-rounders. But this year, if one of Dane's three Cyclones sneaks into Day 1, they'll be the school's second such pick in three years (Jets DE Will McDonald IV). Three top-100 Cyclones at once! That's just normal now. Check the full list here. Band back together! Rich Rodriguez added his legendary mid-2000s QB, Pat White, to the Mountaineers' staff. 🎮 (If you're now wondering where Owen Schmitt is, Rodriguez's iconic fullback is a West Virginia high school coach.) Ohio State's new DC will be former Detroit Lions HC Matt Patricia. Previous college gig: 2003 Syracuse grad assistant. The Buckeyes had this cycle's most fascinating coordinator rearrangement, Ralph Russo explains. Advertisement If Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State are the sport's top tier, who's in Tier 2? Stewart Mandel mailbag time. UNLV senior OL Ben Christman, a 21-year-old Ohio State and Kentucky transfer, was found dead Tuesday morning, his school said. Political attack ads about Tattoogate? Jim Tressel talked to Joe Vardon about potentially running for office. Let's go, girls. An NCAA committee moved women's flag football closer to becoming an official championship sport. While FSU and Clemson flailed against the ACC, North Carolina spent two years quietly exploring realignment, documents reveal. Meanwhile, Bill Belichick doing normal CFB-coach stuff still looks so strange. So far, seems like he doesn't hate recruiting. The new White House admin rescinded a January memo that would've required NIL payments from schools to be 'proportionate' for male and female athletes. House v. NCAA ramifications. College football's offseason began weeks ago. But this season's drawn-out schedule made my brain refuse to enter Offseason Mode until the Super Bowl and signing day were out of the way, since the Jan. 20 title game meant we were weirdly close to those dates already. Either way, as of now, 191 days remain until the season begins with INTERNATIONAL FARMAGEDDON, Kansas State-Iowa State in Dublin. As we adjust, Ralph has already assembled this offseason's calendar of important business, including next week's Big Ten-SEC intergalactic-dominion assembly. In addition, spring games begin in two weeks. ⁉️ Beyond that, offseasons generally follow a familiar rhythm, largely a constant hum of recruiting news punctuated by some coach getting fired. I asked two 'Until Saturday' podcast co-hosts about their favorite CFB offseason tropes: David Ubben: Whether the new coach instituted music during spring practices to be more player-friendly … or killed all music to crack down on a roster gone wild. Advertisement Chris Vannini: When one middling program has too good of a draft, making you wonder how they only won seven games the previous year, and suddenly a positive turns into a negative. As for the offseason's guaranteed highlight: Who's the favorite to be your College Football 26 team? David: Last time, Kansas State was my online team, and USF was my dynasty team. I might stick with those this year, or perhaps shift to SMU online. Chris: Oklahoma could be an interesting online team, depending on QB John Mateer's rating. I probably gotta take one of the two newest FBS members, Delaware or Missouri State, for an early dynasty spin. Finally, are you ready for some basketball? David: If I could find a way to bottle the feeling of waking up on the first Thursday of the tournament, I would be a zillionaire. Chris: I just learned a week ago that Auburn is the No. 1 men's team, and the basketball Iron Bowl is giving us a 1 vs. 2 matchup before football does? What a world. The SEC's pivot away from dominating football into dominating basketball should make for a wild SEC tournament. Hey, your turn: What's your favorite oddball thing that seems to happen every CFB offseason? Send something to untilsaturday@ and I'll pick a few favorites. Speaking of this Saturday afternoon's Iron Bowl, did you know those two basketball schools have played each other in football? Curiously, they've even been good at that sport on occasion — believe it or not, good enough to beat Vanderbilt! The highest-ranked edition of the Iron Bowl (Football Version) was … yep, your first guess was correct. In 2013, No. 4 Auburn beat No. 1 Alabama thanks to the Kick Six, though it was a play from minutes prior that ended up changing football itself. About 11 years ago, the indie-rock RPO went mainstream: Gus Malzahn's Auburn didn't invent the concept, but soon, Pete Carroll was shouting him out for putting the Seahawks on game. (Also, check out the wheels on that staffer keeping pace with Sammie Coates. I've asked people who were on that sideline about the identity of the Khakis Flash. Will report back.) 📫 Love Until Saturday? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
With college football well beyond 'Tattoogate,' could Jim Tressel run for Ohio governor?
If Jim Tressel runs for governor of Ohio, it will come up. And he might run. Tressel, 72, the former Ohio State football coach whose 2002 Buckeyes won a national championship, whose teams were 9-1 against rival Michigan, and who served as president of Youngstown State University from 2014 to 2023, was easily approved Wednesday to be lieutenant governor to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. And in an interview with The Athletic, he stopped well short of ruling out a run to succeed DeWine, a Republican whose second term stretches through 2026. Advertisement As he explained his thinking about a gubernatorial run, Tressel recalled a lesson he learned at the University of Akron in 1975, from the first athletic director to be his boss. 'His name was Gordon Larson, and he said, 'Keep your mind and your rear end in the same place and you'll have a chance to reach your potential,' Tressel said. 'My focus is on earning the trust of the Ohioans, but also of earning the confidence (shown in) me, knowing that I didn't have as much experience in this arena.' Tressel is instantly considered a viable candidate for governor, despite no prior political experience, because of his virtually statewide name recognition earned from his 10 enormously successful seasons coaching Ohio State. The national title was nice, but beating Michigan nine times in 10 tries — if you don't think that matters in the state, well, plan a visit next November and see for yourself. He also held two positions of prestige after his coaching days were over, first as a vice president at Akron, and then president at Youngstown State — where he had previously won four Division I-AA national championships as football coach before taking the job at Ohio State. Tressel made workforce development a primary focus in the former manufacturing hub of eastern Ohio, where he worked with politicians from both major parties to boost funding and opportunities for job training. But if he were to enter the Ohio's Republican primary race for governor and become a candidate for office, opponents would have a clear angle to attack the 'trust' Tressel said he must earn from his constituents. The it comes up. Nearly 14 years ago, Tressel resigned from Ohio State, where he had been head coach since 2001, embroiled in scandal. Today, the ordeal is called 'Tattoogate,' in which five football players were suspended for violating NCAA rules by trading things of value, such as Big Ten championship rings, their Buckeyes jerseys and the golden trinkets each player gets after beating Michigan in exchange for free tattoos. Advertisement The players were caught because the owner of the tattoo parlor was under a federal investigation for drug trafficking. Tressel was notified of the investigation in an email in April 2010, and as investigations by the FBI and NCAA dragged on, he was eventually accused of intentionally lying to keep the ineligible players (including quarterback Terrelle Pryor, considered one of the best players in the country) on the field for the 2010 season. In April 2011, one year after Tressel was first notified of his players being swept up in 'Tattoogate,' the NCAA said Tressel's actions in the cover up were 'potential major violations.' A month later, Sports Illustrated reported that Tressel's players were trading memorabilia for tattoos as far back as 2002. Tressel resigned at the end of May, and in July of that year the school vacated all of its wins from the 2010 season and placed itself on two years' probation. The NCAA added a third year of probation for the school, barred the Buckeyes from playing in any bowl game in the 2012 season, and issued perhaps the stiffest penalty for Tressel — a five-year 'show cause' penalty, which would have required any school that hired him to show why it shouldn't be penalized for doing so. The entire world of college sports has changed since then. As of July 2021, athletes can earn millions of dollars for use of their name, image and likeness. Really, it simply means football players like the ones at Ohio State who used to play for Tressel can get paid. There would be no such thing as 'Tattoogate' today, and since the scandal mushroomed in Columbus all those years ago, two state universities have hired Tressel for high-level jobs. But now that he will hold public office, and could, in less than two years, run for the highest elected office in the state, Tressel was asked what he would say about the NCAA violations and his resignation from Ohio State. Advertisement 'The way our time ended at Ohio State was disappointing, on a lot of levels,' said Tressel. 'My number one care and concern was for our student-athletes and then the program itself. We know that the world of college athletics has changed dramatically, and as you reflect back on it, maybe some of the decisions that some of our guys made, obviously during the rules of engagement at the moment, were not appropriate and there had to be sanctions.' Pressed for his reflection on his own involvement, and subsequent punishment, for his role in the scandal, Tressel said, 'Well, the decision I made was to sign the NCAA form that all of our players were doing appropriate things — and that wasn't the truth.' Tressel said he should have been more forceful in questioning his players when he was originally notified of their potential wrongdoing, but was trying to maintain the confidentiality of an ongoing federal investigation, and said he should have hired a lawyer. Tressel, conceding that it was a dark time in his life, recalled hearing from his mentor, a retired English professor, who told him: 'I hope you know that your greatest impact is ahead of you.' 'And I wasn't feeling that at the moment,' Tressel said. 'I was disappointed that we were at the moment we were in.' Tressel held dozens of meetings with state lawmakers this week following DeWine's appointment, and operatives who work for those legislators said Tressel's resignation from Ohio State did not come up in their conversations. Tressel was at his home in Medina, Ohio, about a half hour south of Cleveland, on Feb. 1 when DeWine asked if he and his wife could stop by for a visit. Tressel's wife, Ellen, was not home at the time, and at first Tressel thought DeWine and the governor's wife, Fran, were simply stopping by. It soon became clear to Tressel that DeWine would ask him to take over as lieutenant governor for Jon Husted, whom DeWine had already named to replace U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance as a U.S. Senator. Advertisement 'He wanted to look me in the eye, because if I was going to be interested he probably wanted to measure me a little bit,' Tressel said. 'He thought I had what it takes. I felt a little bit like it was the head coach coming in for a home (recruiting) visit, which I did a million times.' As for Tressel's political future, he insisted it's not something he is thinking about now. He would either have to change his thinking, or hire someone to do it for him, because he would need to raise money in preparation for a likely expensive, crowded Republican primary. Current Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has already announced his candidacy, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech titan and former adviser to President Donald J. Trump is among those expected to join the field. 'I'm going to try to hold extremely true to the fact that I'm not worried about anything other than what I can learn today,' Tressel said. 'I don't even know fully what the governor does on a day-to-day basis, and I just watched him for like two days. But I have given no thought to any sequence or timeline. Any of that kind of thing. I'm just trying to get through today.'
