ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel wanted to talk about Northwestern. The reporters who cover Ohio State wanted to talk about suspended wide receiver/punt returner Ray Small.

The result was an abridged interview session today, as Tressel walked away after answering questions about Small and the comments Small's father made about the suspension. Reporters who have covered Tressel throughout his tenure at Ohio State said they had never seen The Senator cut short a media session.

Geez, you think he would have saved this for Maurice Clarett.

Anyway, here's the play-by-play of today's session from The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Doug Lesmerises. Tressel tried to turn the discussion back to football several times and failed.

Q: Is it fair to say if a player has a history of problems, he'd be on a little bit of a shorter leash if this problem comes up again?

A: Even if you move it toward football, which is what we're here to talk about, but if a guy makes repetitive mistakes in football, he's probably going to lose opportunities to play. The same would be with anything off the field. If a guy is repetitive, it's going to impact ...

Q: Some say you bent over backward to try to help Ray along. Have you given him extra opportunities to prove himself?

A: I'm sure there are both ends of the spectrum out there in opinions, like there are about what we're doing in football. There's one end that feels this way and one end that feels that way and most things lie somewhere in the middle. But I don't feel bad about how we tried to help any of our guys.

Q: Ray said he was close to being kicked off the team last spring due to academics. What was the situation there? I know he was in the doghouse, had his number changed, what happened in the spring?

A: I can't remember all that. But I do remember that we play Northwestern. That I can recall.

Tressel never raised his voice or got visibly upset, which is consistent with his approach to handling the media. But his early exit certainly is unusual. Here's the video.

I wouldn't expect to see Ray Small in a Buckeyes uniform any time soon.