Thursday, July 12, 2007

Hotline: "Hosed" Edition


What to say? Emotions are mixed. Disappointment, frustration, anger, resentment, anxiety, angst -- you name it, Commies are feeling it after Gordon Gee announced his departure for Ohio State, the largest university in the country, his former post, and his sixth presidency.

Mostly, however, I'm just feeling hosed.

What the Pundits are Saying

-->The story made USA Today, where another O'Toole and a guy named Jack Carey laud Gee for being a reformer and assign Vanderbilt's recent athletic success primarily to him. Vice Chancellor David Williams throws him some love in the article. Schoenfield says he doesn't know if Williams will follow Gee or not. I hope the board isn't sitting on its hands...

-->Ralph Loos and Michael Cass of The Tennessean say Gee is leaving a "legacy of innovation" at Vandy. They call attention to his "flip-flop" of claiming allegiance to Vandy in June and then shocking everyone by jumping ship. John Lachs is quoted -- that guy can teach.

-->Brett Hait covers the Vandy sports family's reaction in the Nashville City Paper. Bobby Johnson and Tim Corbin go public with their admiration and support of Gee, and Bobby leaves us with some reassuring words that things aren't going to go belly-up from here.

-->One of the more interesting pieces you could read on this is Matt Wilson's challenge in the City Paper blog. He says if Gee doesn't pursue the same agenda of "declaring war" on the "wrong culture" in college athletics, then all he stood for was "empty rhetoric." It's a bold challenge and I like it.

-->Here's another piece on the "deja vu" of Gee returning to OSU.

Bottom line: The story's all over the place.

Which means, despite any other Vanderbilt sports news that may or may not be happening, we'll be talking about Gee's departure and related stories almost exclusively over the next two days.

Is he a hoser? Did Nick Saban call him and say "Nice work, Pops"? Is there any chance he can declare war on college sports culture at the home of Jim Tressel and former home of Maurice Clarett? Will David Williams turn tail as well? If so, what does the future hold for Commie sports? And dangit, didn't Gee have the good sense to read Vanderbilt Sports Line's scientifically verifiable assessment that Vandy is "definitively better than Ohio State"?

11 comments:

Douglas James said...

I believe the quote from Gee in his interview on Real Sports was if he tried to do what he has done at Vanderbilt while he was at Ohio State he would end up pumping gas in his home town of somewhere in Wyoming. I don't think there is a chance in hell he continues to fight the role of the AD in the university system. At least not with the same ferocity that he did at Vandy. If he does it will become the biggest sports story of the year but i suspect he will make modest changes to save face and not look like the $ made him change his mind about how "Corrupt" college athletics truly is.

Douglas James said...

This quote from the City Paper by Tim Corbin scares me. “Quite honestly, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him, and I wouldn’t have stayed if it wasn’t for him. He’s a personal friend. I’m hurt that he’s leaving, but I understand.”

Seamus O'Toole said...

That is a scary quote. The reality is there's no reason not to think other schools will view this as an opportunity to swoop in and steal away some of our higher profile people if they think Gee's departure will wean them off their allegiance to the school. That's especially the case if David Williams hits the path, and there's talk that he and Gee are a package deal.

Seamus O'Toole said...

As far as reforming the athletic program and "declaring war on a wrong culture in college athletics" goes, the folks in Columbus don't seem too concerned that things will change in any substantial way:

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/sports/stories/2007/07/12/gee_athletics12.ART_ART_07-12-07_C1_8P78T3L.html

Stanimal said...

It's just hard to look at the situation and not say he did it for the money. And he's going to a University that epitomizes exactly what he said the problem was with college sports. I buy the argument that the two schools are different in terms of size and funding and so an athletic department is neccessary. But Ohio State isn't a sparkling clean program itself (Clarett, Troy Smith) and so I'm curious to see what he does to make it cleaner.

Anonymous said...

From the Columbus Dispatch article: "He recognized Ohio State was a place where athletics were going to be important, so he wanted it to be very, very good."

For that reason, Geiger does not predict Gee will undertake a massive overhaul of the Buckeyes' sports program.


So if it's a university where athletics are "important," it's okay to have the athletic department be corrupt and out-of-control. Only at places like Vandy, where athletics are "unimportant" should we try to enact change?

If Gee doesn't attempt to make similar changes at OSU, then in my mind he is full of sh1t.

Douglas James said...

I don't think he has to get rid of the Athletic Dept to create change. That being said OSU had had allot of problems with eligibility, NCAA violations and so on. I really hope Gee uses a much bigger sports platform to force changes to the overall college sports culture. Otherwise I agree he will come off as a two-face, money hungry, professional used car salesman who tells the people writing the checks what they want to hear.

Seamus O'Toole said...

Agreed - no need to do away with the AD, but to avoid the label of "two-faced" it would behoove Gee to put his money where his mouth (and not just his bow tie) is.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine what Gee said to Corbin to keep him these last few years, and I am having an even more difficult time imagining how Corbin and others he worked so hard to keep feel now that he is doing exactly what he talked them out of. I am scared a bit by this, but hopefully I am wrong.

I am wondering if anyone else has noticed how good the peaches are this summer? I can't remember having a bad one yet (knock wood). I wonder if that bodes well for this year's wines.

Unknown said...

The appointment of Nick Zeppos to Interim Chancellor is the worst news I have heard in a very long time. He could care less about student interests and he has lied to face many times...

To put it bluntly, this is terrible for Vanderbilt.

Seamus O'Toole said...

Austen -

I guess that's just what they thought they were "zepposed" to do.

Who do you "zeppos" they'll put on the short-list for chancellor?

Wow I could go on for hours...