Shatel: OSU's glory days? On Omaha roster

They'll be in Las Vegas on Saturday night. They'll be playing for the Omaha Nighthawks, for money, and there's all sorts of symbolism there.

Troy Smith and Maurice Clarett won't be in Lincoln. Their Ohio State Buckeyes will be, but not the Bucks who the former heroes would recognize, not the Ohio State football team that anyone would know.

It's a clash of former dynasties. Nebraska had its turn in the 1990s. Then it was Ohio State. From 2000 to 2010, OSU was 114-24 overall and 71-17 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes won seven Big Ten championships, played in eight BCS bowls, won one national championship in three appearances in the title game.

Less than a year after its last Sugar Bowl appearance, the mighty machine looks broken. Coach Jim Tressel resigned. Terrell Pryor, the star quarterback, left. There was a scandal involving players who sold or traded team memorabilia for tattoos. Some of those players then took money from a booster at a charity event — while under suspension. They won't play Saturday.

Meanwhile, the NCAA is investigating the program. Some fear the hammer will land hard, Athletic Director Gene Smith is under fire for taking it all too lightly, and rumors swirl about Urban Meyer taking over when the dust settles.

Nebraskans won't be seeing the Ohio State glory days on Saturday. They're getting the broken Buckeyes. How did it fall so fast?

The OSU glory days reside in Omaha now. Smith won the Heisman Trophy and played for a national title. Clarett was the star who led OSU to a national title. The gap between those days and what Ohio State looks like now seems imminently farther than the 50 miles between Memorial Stadium and the Kroc Center in South Omaha.

But talk to Smith and Clarett about Ohio State, and you get a view into how Camelot fell.

Start with Smith, and ask the quarterback if he has any emotions about what's happened to his old school.

"I've been suspended by the university and by the NCAA, so I'm kind of cold and coarse when it comes to showing feelings for anybody else," Smith said. "Because I've been the scapegoat. I've been put on the pedestal, with no control over that, and then been the guy you're not supposed to learn from."

In December 2004, it was reported that Smith was suspended for the Alamo Bowl and the first game of the 2005 season for accepting cash and the promise of a job from an OSU booster. But Smith said that wasn't the case.

"To tell you the truth, it had nothing to do with a $500 thing between myself and a booster," Smith said. "I took the rap for a lot of people so a lot of people wouldn't get in trouble. But that story can't be told unless I want to get back at a lot of people. I'm not that type of guy. Never will."

Clarett's story is well documented. He looked well on the road to Heisman glory as a freshman running back in 2002. His career was derailed with one incident after another, starting with his suspension for the 2003 season after being accused of accepting thousands of dollars and benefits from a booster, and he eventually ended up in prison.

These days, Clarett is staging a comeback, in Omaha, and beating the drum for compensating college football players. That's where he starts when you ask Clarett, an anti-hero in some Buckeye circles, about his former school.

"It's just a sign of the times," Clarett said. "If you look anywhere long enough, you'll find a violation. It's a sign of the times that something needs to change.

"I don't think guys should be in that position. The guys who drive the money to the university shouldn't be in that position in the first place. Nobody talks about how they rip off their jersey sales and their likeness, guys at the end of the year auction off their jerseys and raise money for the university.

"I've said this: The UFL would actually be bigger if they scouted and signed high school players. And you get paid a real salary, then you go to Bellevue or UNO, a respected school in the city. Then the NCAA has to compete."

Money. Boosters. Player entitlement. These are not issues that come up at Nebraska. Or many other schools. But when OSU players already suspended are caught taking more money, what does that say? When Smith, the athletic director, says it's the fault of the individuals, and not the school, what does that say?

Are we naive? Is Ohio State the norm? Or is it the tip of an iceberg that could sink the structure of college sports as we know it?

"It's growing,'' Clarett said. "Because of the Internet. On the Internet, you can talk to anybody or find out anything. And guys (athletes) talk and they all know what they're worth and what's going on. They have some value if they have some ability. They think there's nothing wrong with getting compensated for your ability."

Troy Smith said Ohio State should take responsibility, though he added that there wasn't a lot the school could do.

"The school shouldn't be so popular," Smith said. "The school shouldn't want to win as bad as it does. It comes along with the territory. Then you as a university, apply a different set of rules for these guys, because it's not going to stop. It's college football everywhere. You're going to tell a diehard Alabama fan that he can't be an Alabama fan all the way through? There's a difference between college and NFL fans. College fans are that way until they die.

"To me, you would literally be taking away from your time in your job to police as many people as you have to police. There's hundreds of (boosters) at all times. Even if (athletes) got paid, they would still go after it. It's a catch 22. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. As much as people want to paint the picture that it's goody two shoes, it's not. My school is underneath the microscope right now. The best way to get them out is to tell the truth."

Both Smith and Clarett felt that Tressel, the man who recruited them and the architect of the dynasty, had been done wrong. They both still talk to their coach. Clarett spoke to Tressel on Monday night and said he intends to coach again, probably on the pro level.

"I don't believe he was trying to cover anything up," Clarett said. "This man goes into people's homes and understands where (recruits) come from, understand they don't have mothers and fathers. He's responsible for what happens to your sons. That transcends the NCAA, transcends the university. Gene Smith should have gone to him and they should have figured something out. But to act like he was trying to do something bad, that's wrong. He actually cared about the people. I believe Gene Smith knows the truth. And I can pretty much leave it at that."

Troy Smith said: "There's no doubt he was wronged. I don't know how many college coaches would jump on the sword for somebody else's kids, like he did. Obviously, it wasn't just a recruiting tool when I came to Ohio State because he did it for hundreds of other kids. The only thing I feel emotions about is Coach Tressel. Without Jim Tressel, I wouldn't have had a chance to play quarterback in the Big Ten. As far as the other stuff, I don't get emotional about it. Ohio State will be here for a long time after I'm gone, know what I mean?

"I want to tell the truth about what I think of my school, but the last time I spoke my mind, I got ripped for it."

That said, Smith is excited about the matchup between his old school and the new place where he's hanging out until he gets another call from the NFL.

"This place is very similar to Ohio State," Smith said. "I was driving around the other day and got lost and found a Cornhusker Lane or something. So I know it means something. We love football as much as you do. I don't think there's a lot different because everything here is so rich in tradition."

Speaking of rich, the Nebraska-Ohio State rivalry has already begun in Omaha. Clarett said he has a $1,000 bet with Nighthawks quarterback Eric Crouch, the 2001 Heisman winner from NU, on the game. Straight up.

"I'm not going to need any points,'' Clarett said.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

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