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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Jim Tressel resigned from Ohio State Monday morning - hours before a Sports Illustrated story written by George Dohrmann was released alleging a long pattern of dishonesty in his coaching career.

Among some of facts reported in the story were regarding favors he did for a quarterback back when Tressel was head coach at Youngstown State. Days later, former Penguins quarterback Ray Isaac came out in defense of his former head coach.

"The article is a big lie. I think that I've only done two interviews since 1991, since all the allegations came out," Isaac said in a radio interview on 790 The Zone in Atlanta.

"I'm very displeased with the article. The article is chewed up. If you look at the paragraph that goes into what I was allegedly to have said, it is poorly written. It doesn't give any facts or clarity."

Though Isaac's name doesn't necessarily have the glamour of Troy Smith or Terrelle Pryor, that was Tressel's original big-time player during his days at Youngstown State.

According to the SI article, Tressel had been involved in organizing benefits for his star quarterback through a wealth Youngstown State booster named Mickey Monus.

Among a job that was allegedly set up for Isaac through Monus, the article also asserts that Isaac had received over $10,000 from Monus during his time as the Penguins quarterback. Above all, Tressel allegedly knew.

Isaac said that couldn't be farther from the truth.

"Jim Tressel never ever knew anything about our dealings. I kept it secret," Isaac said. "To say Coach Tressel knew about this car, or knew about this money, listen, the only way that anyone knew about the money I received from Youngstown State University was Mickey Monus got indicted on $1.1 million worth of embezzlement and fraud.

"Other than that, no one in the history of the world would have known the Mickey Monus paid me a dime."

Isaac said he had the mentality where he felt he needed to take advantage of his talents as soon as possible, which led to his desire to want to take money and extra benefits from Monus.

Though Isaac won't discount the close relationship he had with his former head coach, he insisted that Tressel had nothing to do with setting him up in a situation where extra benefits could have been had.

"Jim Tressel knew nothing about that relationship," Isaac said of his relationship. "Mickey Monus knew, and I knew. It was off the cuff. If I needed something, I went to Mickey. I did it all. I initiated this. I did it wrong, and you know what, the whole thing was, you gotta get something from the man before they use you up, so I kept this a secret. He didn't know, he didn't know."

According Dorhmann's piece, a chain of dishonesty for Tressel began at Youngstown State. That dishonesty, as Dorhmann asserts, finally caught up with Tressel at Ohio State.

Tressel resigned Monday morning after enduring months of an NCAA investigation on the Ohio State football program for hiding previous knowledge that Pryor and other prominent Buckeye athletes had committed major violations.

Without questioning the magnitude of Tressel's mistake, opinions regarding the head coach from current and former players have all been consistently positive.

Isaac is just the latest to step up on behalf of his former coach.

"Jim Tressel is as good a man as you'll ever meet. It's almost to the point where it's hokey; you would think he is phony," Isaac said. "Jim Tressel is like the person you want to be when you grow up. He's always treated me like a son."

Ari Wasserman is a staff writer for BuckeyeGrove.com. He can be reached at Ari@BuckeyeGrove.com.

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