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Football
Tressel Dubious of Allegations against Holmes
By Brandon CastelCOLUMBUS — It didn’t take long for the Sports Illustrated cover story on former agent Josh Luchs to reach the desk of Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, not when one of his former players was named in the report.
“We don’t like to be mentioned in any other way but glowing ones,” Tressel said Thursday, one day after the article was released for national consumption.
Santonio Holmes
Photo by Jim DavidsonIn the story “Confessions of an Agent,” co-written by Pulitzer Prize winner George Dohrmann, Luchs alleges that he heard former Buckeye wide receiver Santonio Holmes admit to taking money from an agent while he was still a student-athlete at Ohio State.
Luchs, who names around 30 other former college players in his tell-all story, claims that he flew to Columbus in Nov. 2005 to recruit Holmes as a potential client for the upcoming 2006 NFL Draft. According to Luchs, Holmes told him not to bother because he had already been taking money from another agent for years.
“I’m always concerned when anything (like that) is brought up,” Tressel said.
“I personally haven’t talked to ‘Tone, but (wide receivers coach) Darrell Hazell has because we wanted to get a hold of him right away. I think he has made some statements, and his statements to Darrell obviously put us at ease.”
Though eight other players have admitted to accepting money from Luchs, Holmes has emphatically denied telling Luchs any such thing.
“The allegations are false. I never would let anyone challenge my career,” the 26-year-old Holmes told the New York Daily News.
“I'm in my fifth year, a former Super Bowl MVP and I didn't take anything off any table.”
During his time at Ohio State, Holmes became the fifth-leading receiver in school history. A native of Belle Glade, Fla., Holmes caught 55 passes for 769 yards in 2004 and followed it up with 53 catches for 977 yards and 11 touchdowns the following year.
His 25 career touchdown catches are the third most in OSU history behind only David Boston (34) and Cris Carter (27), despite the fact he opted to turn pro after his junior season.
“I think it was before the Fiesta Bowl, because he and I had a discussion that let’s announce it at the right time,” Tressel said of Holmes’ decision to go pro.
“If we don’t happen to be successful in the game, we might not want to bring it up because all of a sudden the conjecture is, ‘oh, you weren’t focused.’ If we happen to be successful, it could be a side note.”
Because Holmes was forthright throughout the entire process with both coach Tressel and coach Hazell, the Buckeyes have no reason to believe he wasn’t telling them the truth.
“The reason Darrell was involved was, a, he was his position coach, but Darrell sat through the agent interviews with him as his sounding board,” Tressel said.
Originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the ’06 draft, Holmes was traded to the New York Jets in the off-season for a fifth round pick. He missed the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.
Though the current Ohio State players are bound to get a hold of the article now that it has hit the mainstream, Tressel has not specifically spoken to his team about the issue as the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes prepare for their trip to Madison this weekend to play 18th-ranked Wisconsin.
“Outside of going through the normal agent education, I haven’t said to the guys, ‘hey guys have you seen this,’” Tressel said.
“I’d rather them be thinking about something else. Then when we get into those normal discussions we have very often, there’s another example.”
Tressel has been adamant in recent months about holding agents accountable for their actions, instead of strictly penalizing the schools. In a strange way, this article served that purpose.
“It reminds you that that stuff is out there,” he said.
“We’ve told our guys many times that there’s 1,200 registered agents and only 300 that have clients. That means 900 desperate folks and desperate people do desperate things, whether it’s to try to get clients or clear their name.”
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