Before any big showdown in college football, fans can expect tons of hyperbole and hype. But Ohio State coach Jim Tressel has added "miscommunication" to this week's clash between his "top ranked" Buckeye squad and the "#2 ranked" Texas Longhorns.
During his weekly media luncheon, when talking about his USA TODAY Coaches' Poll ballot, Tressel told reporters, "(Texas is) the defending champions, I've got them ranked No. 1 on our ballot because I think they deserve that. I think they deserve that top to bottom. I think they deserve that from a program standpoint."
Sounds nice, eh? Only one problem: it's not true.
According to USA TODAY itself, Tressel's official ballot on record with them shows he did not vote for the Longhorns as No. 1. He had Ohio State at #1 and Texas at #2.
"USA TODAY's policy is that when a vote is made public and the paper knows it to be inaccurate, then USA TODAY, in its oversight role as administrator of the poll, will set the record straight to protect the integrity of the poll," said Jim Welch, deputy managing editor for sports.Oops.
ESPN.com reported that Stan Jefferson, Ohio State's director of player development, called in Tressel's ballot Tuesday morning. He said he changed the ballot and did not have time to tell Tressel. He called the incident a "miscommunication."
"When it came time to vote on the preseason poll, we voted Texas No. 1 and us No. 3 after talking about it as a staff," Jefferson told The (Mansfield Ohio) News Journal. "When I called in his poll [Tuesday morning], he did not tell me to put Ohio State No. 1. I put that down because we were No. 1 in the preseason poll that came out. I did not have time to get with him today before the press conference. It was an honest mistake on our part."
Riiiight. This guy just took it upon himself to change the head coach's ballot. Uh huh.
Such "honest mistakes" by Tressel and Ohio State are no surprise to Michigan fans. Before the 2004 Michigan-Ohio State game, Michigan's team bus was stopped by police and subjected to a search by drug/bomb sniffing dogs.
Carr was incensed by the incident and asked one of his assistants to check into it. He was told Ohio State can “do what they want to do at Ohio Stadium.”
But later, an Ohio State media relations director announced that this check was not out of the ordinary, and had been done for all visiting teams.
When Michigan looked into that, Wisconsin, Penn State and Indiana (who visited Columbus that year), all said they didn’t face anything like this when they entered the stadium.
At the time, Carr said about the apparent discrepancy, “What really is interesting is that they would say that with all these other schools it’s been the same all year long when it hasn’t. There is an issue of credibility here.”
And that's what this latest "miscommunication" is all about: credibility.
You know, before that 2004 game, Carr and Tressel spoke on the field as head coaches often do. During that conversation, the "security check" came up.
“(Tressel) asked me if we got in okay, and how was everything going,” Carr said. “I said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, they just had your dogs out there searching our bags, Jim. I don’t know what the hell that was all about.’
“But he said, ‘Well, I didn’t know anything about that.’ ”
Just like his USA TODAY ballot.
The pattern continues.
(Thanks to reader AR for the initial tip on this)
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