First Posted: 1/3/2014
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Only a few coaches are active participants in social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But that doesn’t mean they don’t pay attention to them.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer showed how much it concerns him when dropped it into a press conference earlier this week that Ohio State employs people whose full-time job is to monitor the online activity of recruits and players.
“I have people with full-time jobs, that’s what they do is monitor Facebook and Twitter and tweets and all that stuff,” Meyer said.
LAST TIME HERE: Ohio State’s last appearance in the Orange Bowl was in 1977 when it came back from a 10-0 deficit to beat Colorado 27-10.
Colorado was coached by Bill Mallory in 1977. Mallory was an assistant coach at Ohio State from 1966-68.
RUMOR CENTRAL: What’s a Cleveland Browns coach search without a good Jim Tressel rumor?
Joe Dunn, an Akron radio sports personality reported Friday that former Ohio State coach Tressel would get an interview for the Browns job. The report was quickly denied by an unnamed Browns official, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
OFFICIALLY: The officials for the Orange Bowl were from the American Athletic Conference (Cincinnati, Louisville, Central Florida, Houston, SMU).
WEATHER REPORT: It was 62 degrees at kickoff of the Orange Bowl.
WOODY, A SOUTHERN VIEW: The last time Ohio State and Clemson played was, of course, the game where Woody Hayes’ infamous punch of Charlie Bauman in the 1978 Gator Bowl ended the career of the Buckeyes’ coaching legend.
When Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was asked about that incident on Thursday, he said it “obviously has been something, as we’ve come into this game, that has been brought up 1,001 times.”
“It’s an unfortunate part of the history for both of these teams. I mean, it’s a situation that you wish didn’t occur. There’s been a few times I’d loved to have run out there and punched a few guys myself, but I’ve never crossed that line,” Swinney said. “I’d like to have tripped a couple of them and climbed on a couple of them’s backs, but that’s just, that’s not part of the game,” Swinney said.
Bauman rebuffed all interview requests leading up to the Orange Bowl but in a 2003 interview he recalled Hayes calling him after the incident, having a pleasant conversation with him but not getting an apology.
ADVICE FOR TEBOW: Meyer said he hopes Tim Tebow being hired by ESPN as a commentator does not mean the end of his career.
“I think Tim will excel at anything he does because of his work ethic, his passion for what he does. Tim and I talk frequently. He’s like a family member. I hope he’s not done playing. I think a lot of people hope he’s not done playing.”
