• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Andy Geiger- Retired Athletic Director (Merged all relevant threads)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Honorary captain role gives Geiger a real thrill
Friday, September 14, 2007 3:24 AM
By Tim May

The Columbus Dispatch

Andy Geiger will leave the coin toss call Saturday in Husky Stadium to the real Ohio State captains. But Geiger, a retired OSU athletic director, said he will stand tall at their side as the honorary captain, honored to be there.

"I am thrilled by this; I can hardly wait," Geiger said yesterday. "I've got that feeling in my stomach. It's good to be nervous about a game again. This is really nice."
Click to expand...

The Columbus Dispatch : Honorary captain role gives Geiger a real thrill

Friday, September 14, 2007
Last updated 12:04 a.m. PT

Washington now home for former Ohio St. AD
By GREG JOHNS
P-I REPORTER

Pardon Andy Geiger for having split loyalties Saturday when the Ohio State Buckeyes invade Husky Stadium.

Geiger worked as athletic director at Ohio State from 1994-2005, helping rebuild the university's massive football stadium as well as most of the athletic facilities at the Big Ten powerhouse.

But after stepping down a year earlier than planned -- amid tumultuous high-profile situations regarding the firing of basketball coach Jim O'Brien and football controversy surrounding Maurice Clarett -- Geiger retired to Port Angeles 15 months ago and adopted Washington as his new home.

So ingrained are Geiger and his wife, Eleanor, already in their new Northwest life that youngest son Greg is a sophomore at the University of Washington, where he's beginning his second season as manager for the Huskies football program.

Thus you'll have the elder Geiger accompanying the Ohio State team Saturday, serving as honorary captain for the Buckeyes, while his son huddles with Huskies compatriots across the way.

"I'll be standing with Ohio State folks, but a little of my heart will be on the other sideline as well," Geiger said Thursday while heading to a Seattle speaking engagement with an Ohio State alumni group.
Click to expand...

Washington now home for former Ohio St. AD
 
Upvote 0
Andy Geiger weighs in on the departure of JT.

Ozone (Part 2 coming tomorrow)

What surprised me in talking with Geiger is that he seemed to be in total agreement with that thought on Tressel, that he is predictable and in this case acted in an entirely predictable manner.


"I agree that his first instinct is to protect,' said Geiger, who then took the thought a step further.


"He is, in my view far more than a football coach. He is in many ways a mentor, and would try to correct the problem from within and rectify the situation rather than have it become a 'cause celebre'. That fact is at once admirable, and (at the same time) the wrong thing to do."


Geiger's pronouncement that it was "the wrong thing to do" will certainly please those militating for the removal of Tressel, but Geiger then followed up his statement by stating the very dilemma that is causing "the great divide."


"It's not something to castigate the man over," said Geiger, "or to immediately declare that he is a dishonest person."


On the surface, that is an endorsement of Tressel, and should make happy those who remain on the supporter side of the divide. It also illustrates the reason for the divide. Tressel did break rules, but most likely did it (according to Geiger) with good intentions. His statement also leaves you wondering if Tressel might still be at Ohio State if Geiger were still around. Geiger's next comments put that thought to rest.


"What happened in my view from 40,000 feet away, as you know, I'm not there, I'm 3,000 miles away, but what happened was it became in the world of college football, in the instant news cycle and non-stop kind of look at these kind of things, it became paralyzing.


"It became a situation from which they couldn't extricate themselves and Jim became the absolute focus. I don't think The University could effectively move on with him in the chair as football coach."


The pragmatic side of Geiger agrees with the decision to ask Tressel to resign, but there is another side of him that is obviously saddened by that reality.

...

"I told USA Today yesterday, I haven't looked at the paper, I don't care that much in terms of that stuff (what the paper may have said), but I said if I had a young son who was getting ready, and was talented to be a program like that, there isn't anybody in the country I'd rather have him play for and be associated with than Jim Tressel. This doesn't change my mind on that."


Cont'd ...
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top