To a man, Trojans should be motivated for this one
BILL PLASCHKE
Incendiary comments by Ohio State receiver Ray Small are sure to resonate at USC leading up to Saturday's game, which will answer a simple question: Who's the man?
Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images
The leader of the Ohio State program fell all over his sweater vest spouting admiration for the USC program Tuesday, Coach Jim Tressel claiming he believed that the Trojans played football "the right way."
We know better.
We know what the Buckeyes really think.
We know, because a few days ago, one of their players told us.
His name is Ray Small. He is a junior wide receiver in his third season with the program. He leads the team in receptions, and has scored a touchdown on a punt return.
He has a reputation for being a bit of a flake, but he is not some wide-eyed freshman or bitter benchwarmer.
He is an Ohio State veteran who, in a locked-down program where everyone seems to look and sound the same, is probably not speaking only for himself.
In an interview with ESPN.com last weekend, Small said he believed USC lacked class, discipline and integrity.
"I took my visit to USC, I'm like, 'How are they successful? They're not even serious about the game,' " said Small. "Before the game, they're all going crazy. Me and [defensive end] Rob Rose was on the visit and I'm looking like, 'Wow.'
"And then the coach said, 'You better get out of here. It's 'bout to get hectic.' "
He compared that to his recruiting visit to Ohio State.
"And then I come on the [Columbus] visit and before the game, it's all quiet, everybody getting taped, coaches talking, it's the total opposite," he said.
Then he gave his evaluation:
It's "a class thing. Here at Ohio State, they teach you to be a better man. There, it's just all about football."
A better man, perhaps, unless you are Ohio inmate Maurice Clarett.
Don't get me started.
I'm still furious at the Buckeyes for ruining the last two national championship games by failing to show up in either.
I'm sick of annually watching them awkwardly slog their way to the top of the polls by winning a conference that has become college football's version of the International League.
And, yeah, at the end of that 2002 national championship game against Miami? Bad call. That was not pass interference. Period.
It's not that slow, boring, overrated football bothers me. Hey, during the Pete Carroll era, I've sat through entire bowl games featuring Iowa, Michigan and Illinois.
Sumo football, I can handle.
But when those wrestlers and their fans show up with the attitude that this is the right way to play football? That this is the only way to play football?
