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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 12, 2015

Gene Smith

Columbus, Ohio

An interview with:

GENE SMITH

GENE SMITH: Since Clay asked the first question, it got me out of my office.

Q. So Nike doesn't force feed these things to you? Do you collaborate? Do they send you something? What is the decision-making process? Have you ever turned down one of their ideas?
GENE SMITH: Yes, we have turned down one of their ideas, but let me explain the process. I can't remember what year we started with the red jerseys and uniforms. But they'll bring a design to us. We'll look at the design, we'll kick it around, get some input and make some modifications based upon what we think or feel should be added.

This particular weekend, that occurred as well. So we looked at the original design, and they have some very creative people, obviously, but we did not approve the original design, so we added some of the elements that you'll see this weekend. And that's happened every single year we've done that.

Q. (No microphone)?
GENE SMITH: Pretty much the colors, the stripes on the side of the pant in particular. I can't remember the helmet part. I wasn't a part of that piece, but the numbers, the color of the numbers on the jerseys were darker, so we added more scarlet into it.

Q. How do you find that balance to embrace trends that recruits might want or kids want with that segment of the fan base that wants to see --
GENE SMITH: That's the difficult part. You're right. You're right in the middle of it. We're blessed here, an institution has such great tradition and history. You have to make sure you respect that. And there are certain things that become untouchable in that regard. It becomes untouchable.

At the same time, you have to recognize that our demographic is changing. Our world is changing. We have 30,000 students that come to our football games, and then recruiting has changed, our competitors have changed. So there is that balance of respect, our history and tradition, but also moving ourselves further into the 21st century, which kind of the landscape defines that for you, and the uniforms are part of that.

Just not something that we'll do every game. I get a couple emails from people saying, We're not Oregon. You're right. We're not Oregon. We're not going to be Oregon. We're Ohio State University, and we're going to pick one game every year where we try to do this.

Q. This is a pretty drastic change, changing the colors of the home jerseys?
GENE SMITH: Some people thought our first one was drastic, just matters where you sit.

Q. Is this something Nike was pushing for a while and you guys are resistant to, or is this something that they offered the black jerseys and said okay?
GENE SMITH: The black wasn't one that they've been pushing for a long time. I think it was maybe two years ago that they first surfaced the idea. In fact, we're looking at next year's right now. You understand the ordering cycle, we have to make decisions now on next year because of the way things are manufactured. So we're going through that process now of determining if we're going to do it, what do we look like, what modifications do we make. It's not something that they push.

Q. Is this something the program was initially resistant to?
GENE SMITH: Specifically the black?

Q. Yes.
GENE SMITH: No, no, no. It's just this is the first time it came to us out of their creative shop, the kitchen they call it, the way it came to us.

Q. What are you looking at for next year?
GENE SMITH: Give me a break. I'm just trying to get through the day. Obviously, I can't share that.

Q. There is a perception, and maybe it's reality, that Archie -- is Archie involved in this process?
GENE SMITH: One of the other questions. I was watching you guys. I was listening to you guys. Said, okay, I got my man out.

Anyway, we go through a process first with Urban and I to look at it. Okay? Then we include some players, which he did, this leadership team. Then I get some former players. I don't actually do it. Diana Sabel gets with some former players and gets their feed back. One year I actually met with Archie early in the process.

So Arch has seen it, some other former players, which I don't know who they are, but there are some other former players who looked at it as well.

Q. This seemed to be not just a uniform thing, but I know you guys are calling it the Dark Night at the Shoe --
GENE SMITH: Actually we're not athletically, that's coming from other places. We're not driving that as an athletic department.

Q. But there were T-shirts in the grocery store.
GENE SMITH: Then buy some.

Q. But is this more --
GENE SMITH: We do not have a motion as a dark out from the athletics. So there are some things that are popping up from different parts of demographics, but we're not saying black out the shoe. That's not what we're doing. There are other people doing it. Now, we're selling items, to your point, yes, we are selling items.

Q. That say Dark Night at the Shoe, right?
GENE SMITH: I don't know. That would be new to me. That might be something that I don't know about. That's highly possible.

Q. Who would do it?
GENE SMITH: Trademark licensing. It could be IMG or trademark licensing or any licensee could do that. Any licensee could come to us with a promotion, as long as it fits our criteria for sale, then we can license that product and sell it. It's probably got the little TM on it. You have to look to make sure it's legit. You should go buy one.

But, anyway, that little TM, that means they're a licensing company that went through our trademark and licensing and got that approved. It's not something in athletics where it says we're going to go print all these T-shirts. That didn't come from us.

Q. Talk about getting into the century and how important it is for recruiting. Have you had discussions with Urban? I'm sure you have a pulse of how important. How important is that?
GENE SMITH: Huge, huge, huge. You guys all go back. Somebody was here, somebody last year, Urban had this sitting on his coffee table. Does anybody remember that? Were you the one? Was he the one?

Q. Well, he was just interviewing him.
GENE SMITH: And you saw it. Somebody saw it, right? Okay, when was that? That was 2014. So that was sitting out on his coffee table for a reason. That wasn't for you guys to come and look at so he could impress you. It's sitting on the table because the recruits saw it.

Recruits are impressionable today and have a great deal of materialistic interest. So reality is we're going to respond to that. Our job, our core mission is our student-athletes that we serve, first and foremost. And that includes the recruits we're trying to attract.

So, yes, we talk about recruiting all the time which is why we have a waterfall in the locker room that you can't walk through. I'm old school. When you say waterfall, I figure I can go underneath it, get my hair wet. Killing me. But, anyway...

Q. Gene, a lot of numbers come out every year about Michigan sells this, Ohio State sells this, and Ohio State some years is No. 1 in college marketing and all these other things. I would think a promotion like this to encourage people to purchase a brand-new product could create an amazing windfall for Ohio State trademark and licensing athletic department, whatever you want to call it. Have you guys put an estimate for a price, a number of how much money this one event, these jerseys, all the black paraphernalia is going to bring Ohio State?
GENE SMITH: No, we have not. But we can get that for you when it's all said and done. I can't do that. I really can't. I've never looked at it. Honestly, I've never looked at it. I look at spikes that are like the bowl game. The spike that you're talking about won't be huge. It won't be huge, but we can get that for you.

Q. (No microphone)?
GENE SMITH: No, no, no. Keep in mind, the items that were sold, were sold on Saturday in one day. Let me back up. Was it last Saturday or the Saturday before? Indiana Saturday. So it was announced that Friday. At 9:00 o'clock that Saturday -- all the Nike items were sent to the stores already and available for sale at 9:00 o'clock that morning. They were gone by mid-afternoon.

So the inventory that came from Nike wasn't as significant as what people think. Now, there is some more inventory coming out, but it won't be as deep. So we'll get you that number. Just we don't look at it that way. But we can get you that number from Rick when it's all said and done. Actually, the people on eBay will probably pay more money, by the way.

Q. I'm curious what's your opinion about the success Michigan's having this year --
GENE SMITH: I came over here for the uniform issue to help my coach. Why you going off on this stuff? But they have a great program and a great platform. For us to think it wasn't going to come back to a highly competitive level would be naive on our part. It's just like a Penn State or other programs that have great rich tradition and a great platform.

To think that they wouldn't be successful with the right type of leader would be naive on our part. So I've always thought one day they'll be back in the game.

Q. Good for the rivalry?
GENE SMITH: Yeah, good for the rivalry, good for the league, good for college football. Any time any of our competitors are excelling and we ultimately beat them, yeah, that's a good thing.

That's what you want, right? Yeah, it's a good thing for the Big Ten. Good thing for college football.

Q. What is the thing, 1994, Ohio State players decided to wear black socks against Penn State and you got beat 63-14.
GENE SMITH: 1994? Yeah, where was I? Go ahead.

Q. My point is, is there a risk involved when you step away from the norm?
GENE SMITH: Sure, always. Always.

Q. How much do you weigh that?
GENE SMITH: You can't. You go back to your core values of what you're trying to accomplish and your principles and planning principles. And the principles around this are the self-esteem with our student-athletes when they come out of that locker room. And the impact it has on recruiting.

I was blessed to have a personal experience when Notre Dame had played USC at Notre Dame, and we went to the green jerseys. I was actually coaching at that particular time. And Dan Devine kept that secret to really three people, and the coaches, none of us knew.

Then we'd go in the locker room, and that was the day when the jerseys were big, so you could come out, warm up in your normal stuff and then go change. Can't do that today.

But to go in there and see those guys and the excitement on their face, it was just -- it was something that you never forget.

So you go back to what's the impact it has on a Joshua Perry, on a Darron Lee, on a Tyvis Powell, on those guys, or a Taylor Decker, because he would tell you he'd prefer to wear black rather than white. So you get into those conversations and you know what it means. So you take the risk. There are a lot of things that we do that are risk, and you have to evaluate the weight of that risk.

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