Last night Ohio State football great Chris Spielman - who thanks to his glorious career as a Buckeye football player and his late wife Stefanie’s inspiring cancer fight may be the most revered former Buckeye football player alive - spoke at a high school sports benefit in Lima, Ohio.
From Spielman’s Tuesday evening speech and accompanying media appearances, there’s yet to be more ominous rhetoric emanating from inside the Ohio State Nation regarding Tressel’s plight with the Buckeyes.
Spielman to WLIO-TV in Lima:
“Coach Tressel will have a decision to make, on what’s best for the university going forward. Not what’s best for (Ohio State President) Gordon Gee or (Ohio State) Athletic Director Gene Smith or me.
“I’d be surprised if he was coaching (Ohio State) next year.”
This may be as bad a sign for Tressel’s future at the school as anything, because there aren’t many folks in Columbus more connected at Ohio State than Spielman when it comes to knowing the sentiment of OSU’s biggest school donors - at least as it pertains to the Buckeye football program.
Donors like ‘The Limited’ billionaire founder Les Wexner ($100M recent OSU donation) and the Schottenstein (Value City Arena donors) and Wolfe (Columbus Dispatch, WBNS radio and TV) families.
It will be those individuals as much as anyone who will make the final call on Tressel’s future at the school.
Spielman’s tone at the Lima event and in past weeks almost seems as if he’s bracing Buckeye football fans for what appears to be Tressel’s inevitable ouster.
If Tressel was as much a team player as Spielman, he’d have already departed the scene.
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7:39 pm on May 11th, 2011
HELL NO, I won’t go!! Come and get me with my camo-fatigues. I dare you, Spielman!!!
8:37 pm on May 11th, 2011
Of course Spielman predicts it. I bet he prays for it every night, because in his delusional little mind he thinks he’s a qualified replacement.
10:30 pm on May 11th, 2011
As much as I hate Ohio State, I could never bring myself to say one bad thing about Spielman. A fantastic linebacker and a truly good person. When Spielman speaks out against the Sweater-Vest, then you doomsday is coming for OSU
12:05 pm on May 12th, 2011
Russ- cmon, man… Pull you’re head out of the sand. He is only the latest former buckeye great saying what rational and realistic people already know. You can fight it all you want, but it’s inevitable. Tress is done.
1:08 pm on May 12th, 2011
I hear Rich Rod is available. If you can wait another year or 2 Saban will be too.
2:22 pm on May 12th, 2011
hmmmm…a non-delusional bucknut —- schedule Spielman for a full physical and psychological checkup