#Buckeyes HC Jim Tressel said suspended players were required to decide to come back for senior season before being allowed to play in bowl.
Via Twitter.


Been a lot of interesting quotes from tress.
Says Archie took players to his house to show them his basement full of awards.
Says players would not play in bowl without vowing to come back

@BCastOZone Tressel hinted he believes false Christmas day rumor about his leaving OSU was recruiting related: "What else is new?"

Tress talked about suspended players for nearly 10 minutes.

Also said he has no desire to coach in the NFL.

Tressel: Suspended Buckeyes will play in Sugar Bowl if they commit to 2011


Ohio State football players, from left, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams, Boom Herron, and Terrelle Pryor offer apologies Tuesday during a news conference in Columbus.
( ASSOCIATED PRESS )

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By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

NEW ORLEANS – Five Ohio State juniors that have been suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of 2011 for their involvement in the sale of memorabilia will play in the Sugar Bowl, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel said Thursday morning, but only after they gave the Buckeyes a commitment to return next season.

It was widely speculated that the players – quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Dan Herron, offensive lineman Mike Adams, wide receiver DeVier Posey and defensive lineman Solomon Thomas – might jump to the NFL a year early to avoid serving out the NCAA sanctions.

“I'm excited to say that all of our young people will be back. They want to be Buckeyes in 2011,” Tressel said while addressing the media for the first time since his team arrived in New Orleans on Wednesday.

“They wouldn't be here if that weren't the case.”

Tressel said he has no plans to limit the playing time of any of the players involved in the matter when the Buckeyes (11-1) face Arkansas (10-2) in the bowl game here on Tuesday.

Ohio State is appealing and seeking a reduction in the NCAA sanctions for next season, and Tressel said he has instructed his players that it was “not inbounds to talk about that situation” while the appeal is underway.

Maybe these guys are getting the meaning of being a Buckeye....too bad they didn't get it 2 years ago.

IMO, JT is handling this very well.

So Tressel is allowing them to play in the Sugar Bowl, but only because they promised to come back to OSU for their Senior season(s)?

I would think he did this to ensure that they would serve the suspensions, and not try to circumvent them by turning pro. However, I'm not so sure if I'd take some of these guys at their word, but I'm not Tress, so it doesn't matter what I think.

killer_ewok;618073 wrote:So Tressel is allowing them to play in the Sugar Bowl, but only because they promised to come back to OSU for their Senior season(s)?

No, he's saying you come back and face the penalties, rather than leave , and you play.

I think there is a lot of things going on behind the scenes here that none of us will ever know about.

This also tells me that Tressel thinks or knows that the suspensions will get reduced.

Tressel is just covering his ass and giving a good reason for playing in the sugar bowl. If the players do leave, they will be in the wrong and tressel will say "they promised to come back" etc etc.

OneBuckeye;618131 wrote:Tressel is just covering his ass

Tressel didn't do anything wrong, what does he have to cover?

^ He is covering his ass in terms of why he is letting them play, when others like Speilman etc have come out and said he should suspend them now because they will just go to the NFL. Now he is saying they will serve their NCAA punishment so he doesn't have to do it himself.

OneBuckeye;618171 wrote:^ He is covering his ass in terms of why he is letting them play, when others like Speilman etc have come out and said he should suspend them now because they will just go to the NFL. Now he is saying they will serve their NCAA punishment so he doesn't have to do it himself.

YOu know Tressel and his moral principles. Maybe he wants them to learn to deal with punishment in their lives. I mean you mess up, you pay the punishment, you don't just run off to the NFL and get away with it.

I can almost guarantee you Tressel wants these kids to serve the punishments more than he wants them to play in the Sugar Bowl. That's just my opinion though, based on Tressel's morals.

OneBuckeye;618171 wrote:^ He is covering his ass in terms of why he is letting them play, when others like Speilman etc have come out and said he should suspend them now because they will just go to the NFL. Now he is saying they will serve their NCAA punishment so he doesn't have to do it himself.

for the record, Spielman said he "thought Coach Tressel would suspend them", not that he should suspend them--big difference

^ I agree completly, but it is tressel's method for putting the responsiblity in their hands and not his and letting everyone know about it. Which is how it should be.

vball10set;618180 wrote:for the record, Spielman said he "thought Coach Tressel would suspend them", not that he should suspend them--big difference

I listened to the entire broadcast last night and I got he would suspend out of it.

Boom is making a poor career choice if he comes back.

I think that some of the players coming back next year would hurt their draft status a little...especially guys like Dan Herron, because once he comes back next year Hall, Berry, and Smith will have a lot more work in than Boom and I'm not sure Tress would throw Boom back as the starter once he's eligible again. Depending on how the QB situation is going in the first 5 games, the question will be whether to play Bauserman, Guiton, or Miller at Nebraska...which would be the first game back for the players and would be Pryor's first start of the season if Tress named him the starter...Will be interesting to see what happens after the bowl game.

are suspended players allowed to practice?

OneBuckeye;618185 wrote:I listened to the entire broadcast last night and I got he would suspend out of it.

fwiw-


http://cincinnati.com/blogs/sports/2010/12/30/will-tressel-bench-players-for-sugar-bowl/

During Wednesday night’s Texas Bowl between Baylor and Illinois, former OSU linebacker Chris Spielman insisted that he thinks Tressel will sit all five players for the Sugar Bowl for at least the first half. Spielman added that based on how well he knows Tressel, he doesn’t think Tressel will make any sort of announcement before the game – he’ll just bench them.

LJ;618196 wrote:are suspended players allowed to practice?

Being able to throw to Green in practice and not have him available for games was the ultimate, agonizing tease for Bulldogs' redshirt freshman starting quarterback Aaron Murray.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/30/coming-back-even-stronger/

Yes.

Kind of an interesting little twist to the entire story.... I gotta say I kind of like this

I'm on the fence with it.

I still want them gone, and cheering for them in the bowl game seems dirty, wrong and just sketchy. But, if it was the only way to get them to come back next year, then I guess it was the only option. Still, not a good situation all around.

If they play, they all better come back. If not, they are pretty much banished from the campus.

ptown_trojans_1;618243 wrote:cheering for them in the bowl game seems dirty, wrong and just sketchy.

I will never understand this philosophy

ptown_trojans_1;618243 wrote: If they play, they all better come back. If not, they are pretty much banished from the campus.

...and Coach Tressel will look like a patsy--I don't think any of these guys want that.