Updated 9:45 p.m. with quotes, video: Ohio State assistant coaches monitored interviews Thursday, trying to limit questions about suspensions and wanting to focus on the Sugar Bowl. Watch video
Updated at 9:45 p.m. with quotes and video
NEW ORLEANS -- The Buckeyes are trying to move on. They're under orders to do so.
Twenty-two days after Ohio State was told by the U.S. attorney's office that some OSU memorabilia had been discovered in a tattoo parlor; nine days after OSU players were interviewed by the NCAA; seven days after the news conference to announce NCAA suspensions; two days after the public apologies; the Buckeyes on Thursday said it's over.
At least for now. As OSU players met with reporters, the sessions were monitored by assistant coaches who cut off most questions that weren't directly related to the Sugar Bowl. No suspension talk.
"I think it has more effect on [the media] than us," receiver DeVier Posey, one of the six Buckeyes suspended for the beginning of the 2011 season, said of the story that has dominated Sugar Bowl talk. "It's brought us closer as a team and we're really trying to focus on Jan. 4. Sometimes you respond to adversity and you struggle with it, and sometimes you take it on and you try to move forward. And I feel we executed that very well."
OSU coach Jim Tressel did his part Thursday morning in an eight-minute monologue about the suspensions that, in the end, made two important points:
1. The six Buckeyes facing 2011 suspensions -- quarterback Terrelle Pryor, Posey, running back Dan Herron, left tackle Mike Adams, backup defensive end Solomon Thomas and backup linebacker Jordan Whiting -- won't face other discipline for the Sugar Bowl from Tressel. The NCAA said they could play, and so did the coach, who said only football decisions will determine playing time. So unless Tressel suddenly decides Joe Bauserman can attack Arkansas better, Pryor will take the first snap for the Buckeyes.
That was good news to Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino.
"We get to a bowl game of this magnitude, you want to play against their best players," Petrino said, "so I think we're fortunate that they're eligible to play."
2. Four of the Buckeyes -- juniors Pryor, Herron, Posey and Adams -- have legitimate decisions to make about entering the NFL Draft, especially knowing they'll miss a chunk of their senior season, though Ohio State hopes their five-game suspensions will be reduced on appeal. But Tressel said those NFL decisions have been made. The right to play in the Sugar Bowl came with a promise to return next season, and Tressel said he got that promise from everyone involved.
"They would not be here if that weren't the case," Tressel said. "We didn't think it would be fair to the NCAA or fair to the other people involved in the process if someone were able to participate and have no consequences down the road."
Of course, those promises aren't legally binding. But by doing this, Tressel put the onus back on his players, offered a reason why he's not sitting them for at least part of the Sugar Bowl and, probably, let them know he'll be really ticked if they go back on their pledges.
So what are the consequences right now for the No. 6 team in the nation, as Ohio State attempts to deal with its 0-9 record against the SEC in bowl games? All that's left is losing because their heads aren't in it.
"I don't feel like something I did two years ago is gong to bother me too much today," Posey said, referring to when he sold the memorabilia that caused the sanctions.
"We're not going to let anything that happened in the past affect anything we're doing right now," said center Michael Brewster, who, as the most attractive draft prospect among the OSU juniors, could be playing his final college game. He said he'll talk about his draft decisions with his family after the game.
The coaches can limit the discussion -- Pryor and Herron are scheduled to be part of a long interview session Saturday -- but former Buckeye Malcolm Jenkins, an OSU All-American who's in his second year with the New Orleans Saints, said what the suspensions mean for Tuesday night is up to the players.
"It really all depends on your leadership, and I'm not talking about the coaches," Jenkins said. "I'm talking about the locker room. If the leaders on the team can pull their team together and say, "We're going to play our best game," then the team will be fine. But if your leaders are distracted, and some of the guys who got in trouble are some of the leaders, if they let this distract them, then in turn the whole team can get distracted.
"So it's up to the guys who got in trouble and the rest of the leaders on the team."