If you missed it (count your blessings), here is what happened:
Ohio State played badly and lost Saturday night to Oklahoma.
Multiple recruits – including some committed to Ohio State and some not – expressed the opinion that a change in starting quarterback would be appropriate.
That drew a rebuke from ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, a Centerville native and former Ohio State quarterback himself.
Can someone get a memo to ALL RECRUITS of EVERY SCHOOL to please keep quiet and worry about their own teams. Not a good look for these guys. https://t.co/5NLH5PXBHV
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) September 12, 2017
😂😂 Spoken like a guy who's never been in a locker room. Tryin to help them avoid issues on their future team. No to mention not their place https://t.co/0ZxWSDUIfn— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) September 12, 2017
Next one of the aforementioned recruits – five-star Fairfield offensive lineman Jackson Carman – suggested he’d have more freedom to speak his mind at USC or Clemson, two of the other schools pursing him along with Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes.
🤔 https://t.co/FMVwGpAJ2J— T H E J I A N T (@Jackthejiant) September 13, 2017Pretty sure I wouldn't have any problems in Dabo Swinney's or Clay Helton's locker room for my OPINION on OSU's qb issues.
This, of course, set fans of all three schools into a tizzy.
Let’s review:
In general society any recruit is free to say or Tweet whatever he wants (shout out to the Sooners fan who takes the time to point this out to Herbstreit), though that does not mean nothing will come of it.
Read: Marcus Hartman’s blog here
Ranking: The seven losses in Urban Meyer’s five years at Ohio State
This is a rule that should be put on a note delivered with all smart phones. Maybe dangle it from every stoplight and put it on every stop sign so no one misses it because that could save us a few steps every time someone says something that riles up anyone else.
Freedom of expression does not equal freedom from consequences.
Of course, we actually have no idea if there were any real consequences in this case because all Meyer said when he was asked about the tweets earlier this week was that he was aware of them.
Anyway, Herbstreit’s response is perfectly reasonable, but he’s not actually a member of Ohio State’s coaching staff, so representing it as Meyer’s opinion (even if it’s entirely possible they are one and the same) doesn’t make a lot of sense.
And what is Meyer’s opinion? Well, he was asked earlier this week about the tweets from recruits and said only he was made aware of it.
It’s safe to assume he wasn’t happy, but as far as we know, nobody lost a scholarship over it, either. At least not yet.
That would actually be a story.
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