Is JT's NC Window Closing?

[jlb1705]

Like Mili, I think most people are not taking exception to the trend that LJB discovered so much as they are taking exception to the assertion implied by this thread's title. Consider the answer to the question in the title simply in the yes/no context. If the answer is yes, that's a rather sobering thing for many Buckeye fans. Regardless of what kind of evidence or trend you can find, I don't think any of us would want to believe that's the answer.

A couple interesting things I also noticed when I was looking up obscure lower division coaches last night:

• If we include Tressel's I-AA championships, he's still up against the trend in at least one regard. Bear Bryant had the longest span between first and last championship at 18 years (LJB said 19 years, but if the math for that one were done like most of the other instances the period from 1961-1979 would have been 18 years). Jim Tressel's first national championship was 1991. This will the be the 19th year since that first one.
• If Brian Kelly wins an NC he will join Jim Tressel in exclusive company (as if we needed another reason to root against the Domers). He won back-to-back national championships in 2002 & 2003 at Div. II Grand Valley State.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Why do you leave out the six years it took him to get to his first NC game? LBJ's example specifically cited those who won NC within their first two years at the school they won the NC. Tressel took awhile to get his first, and then consistently had his team in the title game. He has similar at Ohio State, albeit with not quite the success rate.

I left it out, probably, because I'm half assing it. lol

 

[matcar]

I'll take a different tack and say that the window is definitely closing. No doubt about it. But, how long it takes to close....not sure. Hopefully he can squeeze a few more in before it closes completely though.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

• If Brian Kelly wins an NC

At ND?

 

[buckeyefan_1]

At ND?

I know Mili. Finally some humor in this thread.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

For championship purposes, college football was pretty much without divisions until 1973. Since that time, Jim Tressel is the ONLY man to win a national championship at the I-A level and at least one other at any division below that.

So, I agree that looking past Jim Tressel's other championships is a bit obtuse.

That is an interesting point. I note that, if the pre-1973 system were still in place, then Jim Tressel would have exactly one national championship, not five. So, your point kinda cuts against your overall premise.

However, if you can make a compelling argument that Jim Tressel's 1991 YSU team (D-IA champ) would've beaten either Miami (AP champ) or Washington (coaches champ), then I'll listen. Until then, I'll remain obtuse and disregard JT's D-IA championships.

Even if you don't care to consider Tressel's I-AA championships in this list, the fact that he has accomplished something in championship history that nobody else has ever done, I think it's foolhardy to rule out the possibility of him doing something else that few or no others have done before.

I have not ruled out the possibility of JT winning a second "real" NC, I have just stated the fact that no other coach has done so outside of the seven-year window. I mean, maybe Lloyd Carr or Phil Fulmer or Larry Coker or Steve Spurrier will be the guy to break the jinx ... you just never know.

Maybe I'm still on a high from the Rose Bowl, but the team that he has right now and the optimist in me chooses to think of this not as a window closing, but a chance for Jim Tressel to do more extraordinary things to distinguish himself in the history of college football.

Well, if 2010 isn't the Buckeyes' year, then maybe we won't win another NC for a while.

When we went into the 2006 NC game against Florida, Tressel was 3-0 in BCS bowl games and 1-0 in NC games...so much for that "historical trend" helping us on Jan 8, 2007, eh?

We are talking about 18 occurrences, not one or three. It is a little bit easier to establish an historical trend when you are working with more data.

Bottom line is that Tressel doesn't fall within LBJ's suggested historical limitations.

He does until he wins another "real" NC....

 

[HotMic]

I didn't know JT had a house in North Carolina.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

He does until he wins another "real" NC....

Sorry, but I-AA titles are "realer" than BCS titles, in that they are earned far more on the field than the current BCS set-up.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Sorry, but I-AA titles are "realer" than BCS titles, in that they are earned far more on the field than the current BCS set-up.

Maybe, but do the 1991 Penguins beat the 1991 Hurricanes or Huskies?

I mean, I coached an rec. league undefeated Championship kid pitch girls softball team... does that mean I should stake a claim to some 8U competitive league title?

 

[jlb1705]

Would Oscar de la Hoya have beaten Mike Tyson? Of course not. Tyson would have pounded him into a fine powder and snorted him up off the canvas. That's why they have weight classes, and that what the current division structure serves as.

Jim Tressel won multiple championships at a lower weight class, and then stepped up and won one as a heavyweight. As we all know at Youngstown State and other schools like it, there are far fewer resources than at the heavyweight powerhouses. To start with, he had 22 fewer scholarships to offer than either Miami or Washington did. To me the point is not whether Youngstown State could beat either of those schools - that's absurd. The point is that the man at the helm knew how to do what it took to raise that program to the top of the heap among its peers. He did that at a lower level at Youngstown State and he did it at a higher level at Ohio State.

My main point in bringing up the change in division structure was not to bring up more hypotheticals. The point was to pre-empt the argument that comparing championships in different divisions would be comparing apples and oranges by pointing out that the championships that were already being considered were comparing apples and oranges. Some of them were won before divisions, some after. Some were won before scholarship limits, some after. Some were won before the game was truly "national". Some were won before television. Some were won without benefit of even participating in a bowl game against another top team from outside their region. Some were won before television, some after. Many of them never had to play the #2 team in the country.

 

[BuckeyePride]

In next 10-20 years...when he decides to retire.

 

[WaitingforKickoff]

If Tress coaches for another ten years, a couple of NCs should be within reach easily. Let's face it, it's not like we face a logjam of competition for the NC title every year. There's only those 6-10 teams that have a shot on any given year. If Tressel ensures that OSU football doesn't dip too far in any given year, which he has done and I have all the belief in the world that he will do in the future, then he'll have his fair share.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Maybe, but do the 1991 Penguins beat the 1991 Hurricanes or Huskies?

I mean, I coached an rec. league undefeated Championship kid pitch girls softball team... does that mean I should stake a claim to some 8U competitive league title?

You can't be serious. Really.

 

[matcar]

You can't be serious. Really.

Likewise, until someone breaks LJBs statistical category, you can't seriously doubt that there's some merit to it.

 

[lvbuckeye]

Then make your own list.

ok here's my list. it's of coaches who have won national championships at multiple NCAA levels:

Jim Tressel.

big list, huh?

the guy has been a head coach for 23 years. he has 9 title game appearances with 5 wins. with an average of a title game appearance every 2.56 years and a title every 4.6 years, i'd say that not only is his national championship window wide fucking open, odds are he's right in line to take home all the marbles in '10.

this thread is nothing more than contrived nonsense. if Donnyjr had posted the same topic, you all would have roasted him. the end.