Gene Smith (more or less) says Columbus is as good as Rome
Regarding Michigan's visit, or others like it, Gene Smith said -
"I think it’s very important today to be as creative as you can be based upon where you are,” Smith said. “We’re blessed in Columbus with close to 2 million people and the diversity, so we can be creative with that.
“Then people in other towns, smaller towns, how do you make yourself relevant? I think you’ve got to do everything you can to be creative. Whether that’s taking a team somewhere or whether that’s changing the colors of your uniform. All of us laughed at Oregon when they started doing that and they had a pretty sweet run.”
Is he really comparing the diversity of Columbus, OH with a trip to Rome, Italy? Is he really implying that U of M is not relevant enough, so they have to take these types of trips?
WTF is up with this dude?
What a moron.
It's always a vote against. The FIFA 2.0 - College Football Playoff committee.
"Rome is a village in Green Township, Adams County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 94 at the 2010 census."
OSU's "private donors" prefer to give the money directly to players and recruits. Apparently, this is Smith's way of saying they don't "need" a trip overseas for "cultural enrichment."
Smith is just pissed that Michigan is playing within the rules and negating a large part of the advantage OSU gets by handing out the largest sacks of money north of Alabama.
I presume that is what he meant to say.
Both cities are at the edge of Appalachia.
College football matters a lot (arguably TOO much) in both places.
Both cities have Waffle Houses, with residents that consider that "fine dining."
...unless you like big suburban shopping mallsAnd the hulking corpses of defunct big suburban shopping malls. Columbus' mothballed suburban shopping malls Rome's ruins.
But having lived in Cbus for going on six years its a great place (minus the Buckeyes). It's the only place I would want to live in this state. It has great neighborhoods, great places to eat, lots of things to do, etc. But to compare it to Rome is silly.
Rome is to Columbus, as a Picasso is to a velvet painting of a tiger on sale outside a Shell gas station...
Fuck Gene Smith, Fuck The Buckeyes and while I'm at it Fuck Penn State.
He probably should have been fired a long time ago.
Yea and meeting the Pope and Chance the Rapper is the same thing.
That place sucks. The only reason 2 million people live there is because Cleveland's river catches fire and a bridge allows people from Kentucky to enter Cincinnati.
There is kind of a Marie Antoinette vibe in Smith's remarks, I think. His mindset seems to be that the recruits will still want to play for Ohio State, even if they don't go on trips abroad. Let them eat Columbus.
The trip to Rome may be a recruiting advantage, but it's a byproduct of, not the intention of, the trip.
That's what Gene (and so many others) fail to recognize (or just don't publicly admit).
Also, fuck him Ann Arbor is the best.
This is the idiot that hoped the sweater vest didn't fire HIM.
What a half-wit.
I've lived in Ohio, I've been to Columbus. It's no Flint,let alone Ann Arbor.
Yes, I'm horribly biased.
Gene Smith is the perfect representation for the ohio state university. The man just oozes class and sophistication. Educational experiences for him and osu rank right below making sure all the balls have air in them for practice. Smith, Meyer, Schiano, Wilson are all just shady enough to fit perfectly at osu. I think I like our administration and coaching staff a wee bit better. Go Blue!!.
I think what he is saying is no single OSU Alum likes their school enough to shell out the money for an awesome team trip. He also is saying that they are paying off old coaches and band directors for the schools basic incompetence and thus can't afford to fund cool trips for their sports programs.
In closing....SOUR GRAPES!!!!
to fiddle while Columbus burns.
All roads lead to Rome. But all dirt roads lead to Columbus.
How dare you besmirch dirt roads. I've had some of my best experiences on dirt roads, all of which involved debutantes, backseats, and chili dogs. Those were the days...
Is he really implying that U of M is not relevant enough, so they have to take these types of trips?
I think what he's saying - in all seriousness - is a nasty dig on Ann Arbor. Like, Columbus has everything you need to be awesome, but if you're stuck in a backwater like they are, you have to go somewhere else.
Serious question: will the same donor fund future trips for the football team?
Also, Gene Smith seems to be saying that the players OSU recruits are from small bumpkin towns, so for them Columbus IS like going to Rome. In fact, they can't qualitatively distinguish between the two. It would be like offering a dog the choice between a filet from a 4 star restaurant or a simple hunk of pork shoulder. The dog wouldn't know the difference because both are such a tremendous upgrade from flavorless dog chow.
We can see the tide is changing, but OSU still has the focus of being a football farm. Players selecting OSU are also going to back-up this decision by qualifying how beautiful the campus is and how strong an academic program they run,.. how the B-school is #25,.. and how OSU sets them up for life. But such sales jobs only work on the most prosaic amongst us, and you can bet that any Buckeye who was later hit by the smart stick can look back and wish they had gone to Michigan, the cultural hub of the Midwest. Gene Smith is simply polishing a turd and selling it to his far less sophiticated constituents. Another Mgoblogger eloquently put it "getting a degree from OSU vs. not having a degree was like chosing to eat at Arbys vs Taco Bell".
I've been to Rome and to Columbus. I'd like to go back to Rome.
It does have a lot of ruins.
His statements should fill the cockles of his employers heart with glee. It is very difficult to find employees who would double down on their employment like this. I envy the OSU management.
Gene Smith and Columbus are nothing but a bunch of ASS CLOWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!
and here are some comments I thought the board might enjoy:
"Look, Columbus sucks. I absolutely hate this place and I wish I would have stayed here a few days before deciding to move here. The air quality is horrible and this year I have had BY FAR the worst allergy season I've ever had in my entire lifetime. To call Columbus a "real city" is a complete JOKE. This is a cowtown at best full of cliquey, standoffish, backstabbing, mean, ignorant and boring people."
"Living here has just been a nightmare. This is one of the most bizarre cities I've ever lived in. I don't know what the future holds for me either but hopefully it's a one way ticket out of this place sometime soon."
John T