DB Eugene Clifford (official thread)

[SEREbuckeye]

At least none of the major sites (ESPN, SI, etc) have gotten a hold of this situation and ripped it to shreds. Guessing no news is good news for us...

Im sure if ESPN did get a hold of the story and cite it in one of their awesome preseason write ups about OSU.

 

[osugrad21]

At least none of the major sites (ESPN, SI, etc) have gotten a hold of this situation and ripped it to shreds. Guessing no news is good news for us...

Im sure if ESPN did get a hold of the story and cite it in one of their awesome preseason write ups about OSU.

I don't see it happening...Not counting tOSU's fanbase, I'd guess 90% of the college football fans in this country have never heard of Eugene Clifford.

 

[SEREbuckeye]

I don't see it happening...Not counting tOSU's fanbase, I'd guess 90% of the college football fans in this country have never heard of Eugene Clifford.

True. I guess I'm just waiting for it to happen because I see coverage of Tennessee's punter's DUI charge as well as a VT Reciever (that was supposed to "contend" for meaningful time) being sidelined for the year. Neither of those persons are well known either.

 

[Oh8ch]

I don't see it happening...Not counting tOSU's fanbase, I'd guess 90% of the college football fans in this country have never heard of Eugene Clifford.

Agree. ESPN will go after OSU quicker than Alcorn St because nobody cares what happens to Alcorn St. And they will go after an incident involving MoC quicker than Eugene Clifford for the same reason.

 

[stxbuck]

Couple of points

1-Let it be said that Clifford's transgressions reflect more on Roselawn-the Cincy neighborhood that he grew up in-think Cincinnati Gardens-than on Colerain HS and the Colerain community...

2-Elite, tOSU talent is a gift-period. A player can throw it away by not working hard in HS, but a hard working kid cannot "work" themselves into an OSU level prospect. MAC-maybe.......

3-As the details on this incident come out, it looks worse and worse. Clifford was fighting the bouncers and threatening to get a gun, not stepping in to defend the honor of a girl or something like that.......have fun at Carson-Newman or James Madison Mr. Clifford............

 

[TJnTN]

ESPN - Clifford charged with assault, accused of punching 2 bar employees - College Football

 

[cincibuck]

Couple of points

1-Let it be said that Clifford's transgressions reflect more on Roselawn-the Cincy neighborhood that he grew up in-think Cincinnati Gardens-than on Colerain HS and the Colerain community...

2-Elite, tOSU talent is a gift-period. A player can throw it away by not working hard in HS, but a hard working kid cannot "work" themselves into an OSU level prospect. MAC-maybe.......

3-As the details on this incident come out, it looks worse and worse. Clifford was fighting the bouncers and threatening to get a gun, not stepping in to defend the honor of a girl or something like that.......have fun at Carson-Newman or James Madison Mr. Clifford............

1 & 2) I don't think you and oh8ch are far from where I'm at on this issue. I think we often look at physical labor--and working on being a football player IS physical labor-- and discount it. You've coached so you know the hours a kid in a GCL or GMCL program puts into becoming a player.

And yes, you see where a physical gift of strength, speed, balance and reflexes puts a kid in front of others, but as someone who coached in the GCL you have seen first hand, each and every season, cases where work and discipline defeated talent.

Talent gives you the speed to run with a receiver. Coaching teaches you to grab the receiver's upper arm with your right hand and pull it back while you stretch your left arm in front of his body. In WORK you to do it so many times that: a) you grab the arm the second the ball gets there, or b) the ref doesn't see it most of the time and call interference.

Talent wins the 100 M dash in the league meet. Work, getting down in the blocks and working on your start, learning how to relax to go faster, takes the talent to the district and state meet. Talent runs a 57 quarter, work runs 52, work and talent runs a 48. I've yet to see a kid do much of anything in the 400 without a whole lot of work.

3. You have to ask yourself how a kid grows up in Roselawn and ends up playing football in Colerain. What has that taught him about rules? Then you give him a wonderful opportunity, to play at the top of Div 1A and you wonder why he doesn't understand that rules count and they have consequences. I don't think we understand the gross difference between what a suburban kid sees, experiences and understands in terms of work balance, physical and mental, and what a kid like Clifford thinks world reality is. It ain't all his fault.

 

[SEREbuckeye]

ESPN - Clifford charged with assault, accused of punching 2 bar employees - College Football

As I said earlier today...I knew it would be a matter of time.

 

[osugrad21]

As I said earlier today...I knew it would be a matter of time.

Eh, they posted a short synopsis of the situation like a news source is supposed to do. Not really the shredding you forecasted...at least not yet, but if the other team members behave, it should all go away soon.

 

[NightmaresDad]

3. You have to ask yourself how a kid grows up in Roselawn and ends up playing football in Colerain. What has that taught him about rules? Then you give him a wonderful opportunity, to play at the top of Div 1A and you wonder why he doesn't understand that rules count and they have consequences. I don't think we understand the gross difference between what a suburban kid sees, experiences and understands in terms of work balance, physical and mental, and what a kid like Clifford thinks world reality is. It ain't all his fault.

No, it ain't, but look at how many positive role models he was exposed to at tOSU, both from a teammate and coaching perspective.

I think Grad21 said it somewhere earlier - you can't help those who don't want the help. THAT part of it IS his fault.

 

[Oh8ch]

I think Grad21 said it somewhere earlier - you can't help those who don't want the help. THAT part of it IS his fault.

"Fault" is an interesting word.

In its purest sense I have always thought of it as an imperfection. A cleft palate. A chip in a china plate. But in its more common usage it implies weakness or failure. Assigning fault in that sense involves judgment. And here I agree fully with Cincy.

I can't conceive of growing up with few or no positive role models. Little or no male guidance. In neighborhoods where the future is not something you plan for or relish. Where the very concept of 'helping' yourself may be ambiguous. I can't judge a kid who comes from that.

So in the pure sense I agree it is Clifford's 'fault' - but not in the common sense.

But in the end the only difference may be whether you send him on his way with a scowl or a pat on the back.

 

[NightmaresDad]

"Fault" is an interesting word.

In its purest sense I have always thought of it as an imperfection. A cleft palate. A chip in a china plate. But in its more common usage it implies weakness or failure. Assigning fault in that sense involves judgment. And here I agree fully with Cincy.

I can't conceive of growing up with few or no positive role models. Little or no male guidance. In neighborhoods where the future is not something you plan for or relish. Where the very concept of 'helping' yourself may be ambiguous. I can't judge a kid who comes from that.

So in the pure sense I agree it is Clifford's 'fault' - but not in the common sense.

But in the end the only difference may be whether you send him on his way with a scowl or a pat on the back.

Why would someone send him away with a scowl, even if they think his situation is ultimately his own fault?
Doesn't mean they don't want what's best for the kid.
If he's told nothing is his own fault his whole life, he'll keep making the same mistakes.

 

[Best Buckeye]

I don't know that anyone told him his whole life that it wasn't his fault.
I believe that JT and the other coaches talk to everyone on the team about how to conduct themselves. I believe that JT runs a good clean program and tells all the players that he will not tolerate certain types of behavior. I believe that Eugene has been talked to after each and everyone of his indiscresions.
no one twisted his arm and got him to smoke, no one got him to assault anyone. He made his own decisions and now has to get on with his life as something other than a Buckeye.
I wish him well in that regard but it is all his "Fault".

 

[Buckskin86]

Any day now
Eugene Clifford is still a Buckeye as I write this, but that could change at any moment.

Nobody is talking officially, but the clear-cut vibe around the program is that Clifford's arrest Friday for misdemeanor assault will mean the end of his Ohio State career.

Clifford is accused of punching two employees of a Cincinnati sports bar as the employees were trying to break up a fight.

Another man present that night, Ravelle Sadler, 18, was arrested and charged with aggravated menacing for threatening to go to his car, get a gun, and shoot the bar employees.

It's unknown whether Clifford and Sadler know each other.

Any day now (Blogging the Buckeyes)

 

[Steve19]

ESPN - Clifford charged with assault, accused of punching 2 bar employees - College Football

I agree with Grad21. This is not an attempt to shred Ohio State. One look at the Police Blotter would tell anyone that Ohio State has less problems in this regard than just about anyone. ESPN knows that. On the other hand, we are a top ranked team and Eugene was a highly rated recruit who many of us expected to have quite a future at Ohio State.

I think this will drop off the radar very quickly and it is likely it won't do Ohio State any harm.