...coach Hood wanted a contract extension but was told no.
Funny. We were courting a guy that EKU rejected.
Thank God Tressel took control of the search process and landed Bo.
I think some of you guys were too swept away with some of the local reports of Hood. He may have been our #2, but Scott Roussel from FootballScoop.com knew Pelini was the guy 1 week before he officially came on board.
The local reporters saying we had little chance, or 10% chance of landing Bo, did not have the sources Scott had. Many were criticizing Scott, but Tressel and Pelini asked him to hold off further reporting since he already had it out in the open until everything was finalized. The only holdup was getting those commitments from the local $ folks in writing, or this would have been done late last week.
From what I've gathered, the Hood rumors of being the front-runner were simply not true.
According to Scalzo:
"Eastern Kentucky’s Dean Hood appears to have been Plan B"
http://www.vindy.com/news/2014/dec/21/how-ysu-landed-pelini/
It sounds like we were REAL close to getting a coach from the eighth ranked FCS conference with a worse recent W/L % than the guy we fired.....and apparently rejected by EKU.
Again....thank God that Tressel took the keys away from Strollo and put him in the back seat in his baby seat.....where inept ADs belong......
Nice cheap shot. Apparently you can't read because Strollo was handing much of the behind the scenese work. Also, as I said, Hood may have been our #2, which Scalzo reiterated.
Some of you folks never cease to amaze me.
Did Strollo have contact with Pelini? Of course, he is the AD. I guess that could be construed as "behind the scenes work." But Pelini made it clear WHO lured him to YSU:
From the Scalzo article:
"Pelini made it clear that Tressel made the job more attractive."
From the thread of Pelini quotes:
"Said Tressel was a big reason why he took the job, wants to learn a lot from him, since he has an understanding of how to coach on this level."
Scalzo has become a Strollo apologist, I suspect for access reasons, and completely omitted the fact that Tressel personally flew to Lincoln to court Pelini. It is a significant oversight that, IMO, impacts Scalzo's credibility. Regardless, it is clear through Bo's words that Tressel was paramount in his decision to coach at YSU.