Ray Small suspended, will leave program
The nature of the issue isn’t entirely known. It may actually be a combination of things. The Kremlin only made it known that Small was suspended for a “violation of team rules”, which is a generic, catch-all category of suspendable offenses. However, the Cleveland Plain Dealer added more details from Small’s dad (Ken) that makes the situation look none too pleasant.
Ohio State junior receiver Ray Small has been suspended from the team indefinitely and Small’s father, Ken, believes the suspension is another instance of coach Jim Tressel unfairly holding his son back.
“We see it as a family that they are intentionally blowing his whole career,” Ken Small said Wednesday night. “Whatever it is, it’s personal.”
Small, who moved to the Columbus suburbs from Cleveland to support his son this season, said Ray came home Wednesday night and said, “I’m through,” after being told of his suspension for what an OSU spokesperson said is repeated violations of team rules.
Small’s troubles were nothing new. He spent the offseason as a topic of conversation for Buckeye beatwriters and fans alike. Hell, he even lost his no. 4 jersey entering this season, which appeared to be reducible to his absence from classes. However, things didn’t end there, according to Ken Small. In spite of meeting with Tressel in the offseason to address these issues, the elder Small thinks that the litany of youthful indiscretions — be it a bad grade, a parking ticket, or showing up late to team meetings — eventually (unfairly, according to Small) cost him his standing on the team.
But after a meeting with Tressel before the season, the Small family believed that Ray was starting fresh.
“We went into the office because we felt Ray didn’t have a chance to play here, and I looked around at all these great players and I said we should stay,” Ken Small said. “So I sided with Tressel against Ray. But we did say if this is going to be problem from this point forward and you’re going to hold it against him, then let us know and Ray will leave. They assured us there would be no repercussions from that.”
…
But then Small as demoted for the fourth game of the season against Troy, for what Ken Small said was almost being late for a meeting, along with another player. Small played once in that game, on an odd call in the fourth quarter, a reverse on third and long. Ken Small said Tressel did that to assure that Small could not red-shirt this season, because he was encouraging his son to think about faking an injury, receiving a medical red-shirt for playing in fewer than four games, and then having two years of eligibility left at another school.
Faking an injury to gain a redshirt is troubling to hear, but moving on…
So (basically) ends the Buckeye career of one the most highly hyped Buckeye recruits in recent memory. For a player that Ted Ginn Sr famously hyped as the best wide receiver he ever coached, the end to his career seems all too ignominious. Indeed, the most outstanding memory Buckeyes will likely have of his two and a half year career is of him getting his bells rung against Minnesota as a freshman. Things never got better, it seems.
I’m not into picking a side (per se) on this issue, but more interested into seeing what’s going to unfold from it. I just believed that, in spite of the errors that cost him his jersey number and in spite of his inferior play, he would eventually turn it around and be a quality receiver. Looking back 15 years in the past, his story to this point was indistinguishable in most respects from that of Terry Glenn, save for Glenn being a walk-on and Small being the highly touted recruit. Both had struggles and both even had academic issues while enrolled at Ohio State. The obvious difference now is that Small exited the program his junior year with little fanfare while Glenn exited the program his junior year with a Biletnikoff Award. Depending on what else unfolds, it should be interesting to see if this hurts (to whatever extent) Buckeye recruiting out of the Glenville pipeline.
As a personnel issue, Small’s departure takes away what was basically the best punt returner the Buckeyes had. However, minus a grab here and there, it shouldn’t matter much to the wide receiver corp. If anything, it should make next year’s receiver rotation the slightest bit clearer.
Still sad, though.
well……this sucks.
/
Definitely sad to see him go, but the pity stops where their sense of entitlement and complaints of unfairness start. It was Ray who boasted Tressel’s ability to bring up “men”, but then he feels he shouldn’t be punished for making dumb, childish decisions? Just because you received Ginn Sr’s stamp of approval doesn’t mean you’re allowed to miss class, allowed to miss meetings, shoot off at the mouth in the press, and god knows what other rules he violated.
It does suck to see him leave without having proven himself to us and to NFL scouts, I feel bad for him in that regard. But I don’t blame Tressel one bit. You have to put in work. Earn it. This isn’t high school. Get good grades. Show up on time. Play at a better level if you want more PT. Lesson learned. You’re one step closer to being that “man” you bragged about vs USC. Is it going to “blow his whole career”? Probably. But I doubt it was vindictive or intentional, as Papa Small claims. For him to even admit suggesting to fake an injury is ridiculously pathetic and loses all credibility with that.
By the way, Lamaar Thomas has proven very worthy of returning.
Another difference is the Glenn, by my recollection, kept his mouth shut about his standing on the team, and worked to regain it.
Also, Cooper was notoriously much more lax than Tress is.
MikeLew,
As far as I have read back on Glenn, that’s true as well. Glenn apparently had to miss the 1994 trip out to Seattle to play the Huskies because of an academic issue and didn’t complain about that.
You hate to see this.
I would like to see more of Ray in every game. Last game against Penn State, they waited till the last drive when he had two great receptions to move the ball. If they would have gone to him a third time, Ohio State could be in the national championship picture still.
Big deal, Small was on his way out earlier this season as he continued to screw up and find himself on Tressels bad side. As for blowing a career…the only one responsible for that is Ray Ray. Maybe his dad should have taught his son that only he is accountable for his actions and quit whining about the university being at fault. Thats rediculous.
Lets move on, there are plenty of ON THE FIELD issues to be dealing with.
GO BUCKS!!!
A few observations:
In light of all the general displeasure and second-guessing of on-the-field issues this year, the off-the-field subjects are closed. Old Tress runs a tight ship, no doubt about it. Can you imagine being a guy like Jim Tressel and having a dirt bag like Ken Small question your methods of discipline or integrity? I guarantee you that Tress cares more about Ray Small than his Mama, his Daddy, his baby-Momma, and even Ray himself.
Jim Tressel voted for McCain just like me. Suck it Buckeye Democrats.
Someone said it earlier, this is about bad advice from a parent looking to cash in on their kid’s opportunities and potential. It’s quite like being a Democrat. Bye Ray!
“…this is about bad advice from a parent looking to cash in on their kid’s opportunities and potential. It’s quite like being a Democrat. Bye Ray!”
Wow…just wow. As a rational human being I don’t even know how to appropriately respond to inane babble of this magnitude.
As for Ray Small, it’s unfortunate that it’s come to this but I seriously doubt that it’s any sort of personal vendetta. Best of luck to him, but the team will be fine without him. In fact, I believe Flash has demonstrated in his short time on KR duty that he has more potential than Ray and will likely prove to be a much better return man (now it’s just a matter of getting him the requisite experience fielding punts during practice, then eventually during 2-man return schemes, and finally solo–which probably won’t happen until next season).
E,
Let me respond to johnboy’s post: johnboy, if indeed you and JT did both vote for McCain; it is the only thing that you have in common, and thank you for showing you ignorance.
Ken (a Buckeye Democrat)