Say What? (Gene Smith)

[kippy1040]

I think Gene Smiths comment " I never lost to Michigan " was meant in a positive way, by meaning that he hopes his demenor can add to the fact that he wants to keep Ohio State in the winning ways against Michigan. How can any of us forget Coach Tressels comments on the night of Jan 18 2001 about "310 days in Ann Arbor". Alot of people were skeptical about Jim then. Not now. Lets at least give Smith alittle breathing room here before we start bringing judgement on him.

 

[Steve19]

I agree. Let's judge him on what he does for OSU sports. This is not about style points.

I do hope that he will have learned that what made Tressel's comment so powerful was the integrity behind it. You don't hear Matta making a lot of statements. But there are few of us or the press who do not hold him in high esteem for turning a train smash into a respected team in one year.

Our new Athletics Director needs to be seen to be truthful. Trustworthiness may be the single most important quality he must show now. This statement did much to undermine him right off the bat. Credibility is a major deliverable right now because we need it to exit all of this NCAA nonsense and the Clarett era and restore the image and integrity of the athletics programs.

Research on persuasion in the scholarly literature highlights perceived credibility, trustworthiness and truthfulness as the most important characteristics a spokesperson can have.

I am not making any judgement about him yet but I do hope that he has learned that the press will be checking the veracity of every statement he makes and that he will realise the effects of inaccuracies in his statements on his ability to do his job.

This may not have been as minor as many of us seem to think. It's the kind of thing ESPiN loves to bring up five years later to stir controversy and call someone's integrity into question. Gene Smith will be wise to not repeat this kind of thing.

 

[Buckeye86]

Maybe he meant he never lost to M*ch*g@n while he played for Notre Dame. Anyone willing to get upset over something stupid like this is just looking for reasons not to like the guy in my opinion.

 

[LloydSev]

He was just trying to make a statement to make everyone cheer... that's it. He wanted to say something that people clapped about.. and "I only lost twice to TSUN" just wouldn't have cut it.

My guess is this.. he's learning quickly how bad the press is here.

 

[HabaneroBuck]

I was merely advocating the hiring of people loyal to Ohio and the institution rather than careerists. I stated that Matta and Tressel are good hires. I do not necessarily advocate hiring only OSU grads. That just isn't going to happen. I just get sick of seeing careerism infect huge institutions to the point where they lose much of their original identity in a tidal wave of corporate decisions.

An example is what has happened to the Ohio State basketball situation under Geiger. In an effort to increase revenues, they built the "Value City Arena," one of the crassest naming schemes in the history of athletics. The Buckeyes needed to "pay the bills," so a bunch of home patsies have been scheduled for the past six years rather than anything remotely interesting in the pre-season. The students are off the court, and the memory of St. John's glory days are negated for the $.

I'm not saying Smith is going to do terrible things to Ohio State. I'm just pointing out that, by and large, Ohio State would be better served by those loyal to the program or state. I would say that about just about any major, established university and athletic program in the country. Why do you think North Carolina, for instance, was constantly searching for the replacement from "its own" in the basketball field? That is all I was saying, and it is NOT the dumbest post that you have read in a while, stx...

 

[jwinslow]

But I don't see any value in sound bite minutes. I see value in performance.

Fair enough, I just think its absurd to be evaluating him with barely a week under his belt. Plenty of new coaches and other staff have taken positions, done something embarrassing, and gone on to become very successful members of an athletic department.

Haberno, I see your point, but I think that only some of the time will a tOSU grad be better able to handle the university's priorities. There are usually only 5-10 (at most) individuals that are available, willing and (the best) qualified to fill any position at tOSU at any given time. That being said, it's difficult for even one member of that small clump of the best candidates to be from tOSU. I still refer back to Bobby Knight being a perfect example of a successful, qualified tOSU grad who would have been a nightmare for this administration had he been hired for the bball coaching position (even IF he didn't do anything imagine the salivating ESPiN tabloid writers with that hire).

 

[sandgk]

This may not have been as minor as many of us seem to think. It's the kind of thing ESPiN loves to bring up five years later to stir controversy and call someone's integrity into question. Gene Smith will be wise to not repeat this kind of thing.

Steve19 - I understand where you are coming from with the post you made. However, if this is one of theyardsticks then I say - all the more reason to make light of Gene Smith's comments. If last year taught us anything it is that EsPIN's yardsticks don't sit straight on the table, and they are variable at best.
I'd be more concerned about how the home twon media is playing this up. Haven't seen the Dispatch, hope they are not making a meal out of what seems like small potatoes.

To paraphrase others -- Once Gene Smith has full hold of the reins, we can see better what degree of integrity he has in the exercise of his power.

 

[Steve19]

Sorry, guys, but I am NOT judging Gene Smith.

My point was that Gene Smith needs to understand very quickly that daggers are drawn and these bastards will use any and everything they can against him. This is not the desert anymore. There's lions in this jungle.

What I meant is that I don't place any value in these statements and he's not a coach who needs to motivate. He must understand that he will be judged by his performance. He is our new leader and voice of athletics and he has to avoid errors such as this or he will have no credibility when we need it.

Let's be clear about this. I am not judging him or why he did it, but at the best he made a very silly error and at the worst he lied. Perhaps he just got lost in the moment of taking a dream job, I don't know, but he did not play TSUN as a player and he lost to them at ND as a coach. Archie can say that he never lost to TSUN, but Smith can't.

I am very concerned that some of us seem unwilling to give this man a chance to settle into his new job. We need him to be a success. I am not judging him, but I am hoping he is reading this board so that he gets the message...we need him to be credible.

 

[jwinslow]

Let's just chalk it up to the fact that all of us were a little better yesterday regarding Wisconsin. I agree he needs to put emphasis on many of the things you highlighted, lets hope in addition to handling the boosters he can place students at the forefront of at least teh basketball scene (the football one is understandably harder to do that, whereas BBall is not yet a regular sellout so he could really do wonders by bringing some crazy students into the first rows of that arena).