• E-Edition
• Home
• News
• Sports
• AP
• Obituaries
• Classifieds
• Jobs
• Autos
• Homes
• Garage Sales
• Coupons
• Subscribe
• Archive
• Services
• Contribute
• Blogs

BUCKEYES BUZZ: hat's brewing today with the 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes

Share Story:     E-mail Story    |    Print Story    |    Comments    |   

COLUMBUS -- What's brewing today with the 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes ...

BUCKEYES BUZZ: Unlike last week, when he wheeled and walked away from reporters when grilled about WR Ray Small's playing time, Jim Tressel kept his cool Tuesday when asked a question about the in-the-doghouse player.

Asked if he minded addressing Small's availability or lack thereof for the game at Illinois on Saturday, Tressel said tersely, "Lack thereof."

Last week, Small's father, Ken Small, blasted Tressel for benching his son, who was the team's second-leading receiver and top punt returner. Ken Small said Ohio State players have been arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated and trying to pick up a prostitute, and that another player was caught smoking marijuana before a national championship game.

Those players were not benched, he said, yet his son was suspended, apparently for not going to classes and meetings and for several other minor wrongs. And Ken Small thought it was unfair.

Tressel said he had not slammed the door shut on Ray Small. Asked if he could still work himself back into the lineup, Tressel said, "Yes. Absolutely."

Shifting gears, former Ohio State OL T.J. Downing was arrested Sunday in suburban Grandview Heights and charged with felony drug abuse, trafficking and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.

Tressel said that news was painful to him.

"Those things hurt," he said. "I haven't had a chance to talk with him and I don't know, I'm not judge and jury, I don't know what allegedly is the case or not the case. But any time you hear of something as disappointing, even if it's alleged, as that, it puts a knot in your stomach."

Tressel said it's a difficult transition going from college football star, to potential pro, to finding your way in the world like everyone else just a short time later. Downing had been cut by the Arizona Cardinals in 2007.

"I don't want to get on the pulpit, but there's a big difference between what you do and who you are," Tressel said. "Sometimes, I hate to say it, because all the aunts and uncles and everyone else telling us we're out of this world, we start thinking that what we do is what gives us our value. We've just got to keep working on helping ourselves understand that it's who we are that really is important."

ONE VOTE FOR A PLAYOFF: Ohio State President Gordon Gee, AD Gene Smith and Tressel are all adamantly against a playoff system, in large part because the Big Ten fills its pockets with cash under the current Bowl Championship Series system.

They always say that a playoff would be too much hardship on student-athletes, even though it seems to work fine in the other three divisions.

TE Rory Nicol said he's not all that impressed with the BCS, and wouldn't mind a playoff.

"I don't know how it (the BCS) works. We've never really gotten screwed by the system, so we've never really had to sit there and say how much we dislike the BCS, the rankings and how they work," he said. "But I don't know that a playoff would be that bad. It's kind of like, how many teams do you do? I've heard some ramblings about an eight-team playoff or something like that. It would obviously stretch the season and probably eliminate bye weeks. And I still don't know that everybody would be pleased with it. But it could help, I guess, a little bit. You'd have to truly win the games to become the champion."

FIELD TRIP: Since it was Veterans Day, Tressel said the Buckeyes took a morning field trip to the Statehouse to see a large photo-and-art display dealing with the Columbus-based Lima Company, which lost several members during the fighting in Iraq.

"It was really special for our guys," he said.