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Jim Tressel (National Champion, ex-President, Youngstown State University, CFB HOF)

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What might have been for a coach and two schools

Jeff Yakawiak
Created: 10/26/2006 7:10:01 PM
Updated:10/26/2006 7:10:01 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- What's brewing with the 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes.
BUCKEYE BUZZ: The year was 1993. Duke was finishing up another dreadful football season and Barry Wilson was all but out the door as the Blue Devils head coach.

Seeking someone to ignite the program, Duke AD Tom Butters started looking around. Among the places he looked was his home state where a coach at a blue-collar school had built a sensational
Division I-AA program. That school was Youngstown State and the coach was Jim Tressel.

Tressel's name was mentioned around Durham as a possible hire. Butters ended up hiring Fred Goldsmith, while Tressel stayed with the Penguins and, a few years later, got his dream job at Ohio
State.

Now Tressel's Buckeyes have already won one national championship and are two-thirds of the way to another. At 8-0, Ohio State is sitting atop the college football world.

And Duke? The Blue Devils had immediate success under Goldsmith, who won his first seven games in 1994, but by 1998 he was gone after a 4-7 season. Goldsmith went 17-39, was succeeded by Carl
Franks who went 7-45, followed by current coach Ted Roof's 5-29 record.

Had Butters been more persuasive, where would Duke be now? And would Minnesota's Glen Mason be coaching Saturday, only on the other sideline?
 
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OZone

Football
Tressel's Message Broadens
By John Porentas
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jim Tressel
Photo by Jim Davidson [/FONT]
JTressel.jpg
Jim Tressel's 2006 "Theme of the Week" tour may have ended. Now he's set his team on the "Theme of the Month" tour.
Throughout this season Tressel has come up with a weekly theme to keep his Buckeyes motivated and into the game with the upcoming opponent. With the change of the calendar month however, Tressel appears to have embarked on a new strategy.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Brandon Mitchell[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson [/FONT]
BMitchell.jpg
"Coach put up a graphic today of all the (OSU) outright Big Ten champions and all the national champions in Ohio State history, and they've all with the exception of the '39 team I think, they all were undefeated in November, so we know the opportunity that we've put ourselves in and the place we've put ourselves in to be able to do those things," said OSU senior safety Brandon Mitchell on Tuesday.
Tressel's November message is a bit more specific than the old "pretenders in September and contenders in November" axiom. Tressel has modified the message to match OSU's 2006 schedule that includes two road games before the home finale with Michigan.
"He told us today that Big Ten championships are won in November on the road. That's real," said Mitchell.
Tressel's message really covers all the bases and all the remaining schedule. It certainly covers OSU next two games on the road with Illinois and Northwestern, and it even conveniently covers the home game with Michigan. If things play out the way they are expected to play out, Michigan will be trying to do the very same thing, win a Big Ten championship on the road on November 18. Tressel drove that point home, and further focused his team on the Illinois game, but mentioning some rather recent OSU history.
"We also talked about the 2001 game when Illinois came here and they beat us on our home field. We were pretty much playing for an outright Big Ten championship then and they won on the road in November," Mitchell said.
That game gave Illinois the Big Ten championship, further underlining Tressel's message.
"It's games like that can define your season," said Mitchell.
Tressel and his players have dutifully recited the "one game at a time" mantra Throughout this season, but Tressel himself may have broken that rule with a comment he made to his players earlier in the season that brought their attention to the bigger picture, not the upcoming opponent, a comment that Mitchell remembered and has given the "win in November" message that much more impact now that November has arrived.
"Coach Tressel in the locker room, whenever Purdue lost their first game, he told us right them after they lost their first game that we control our own destiny in the Big Ten." Mitchell said.
"If you go back to the 2002 season we didn't control our own destiny, we didn't play Iowa and they were undefeated just like us, so we were co-Big Ten champions. I've always wanted to be an outright Big Ten champion just because it hadn't been done since '84," Mitchell said.
The message has been sent and received. Three games in November will determine whether or not the 2006 Buckeyes reach one of their primary goals, an outright Big Ten championship.
"Obviously we know how big a task that is, but I think he sets everything up for us to peak in November," Mitchell said.
​
 
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Tressel stays ready in November


The Buckeyes' head coach is 15-3 with four wins over Michigan in November.
COLUMBUS (AP) ? As the calendar turns to November, there are certain things that can be counted on in Ohio: a chill in the air, shorter days and a smaller chance of beating Ohio State under coach Jim Tressel.
"You do a lot of work prior to November, but the month of November really is the legacy that you leave," said Tressel, 15-3 in November as the Buckeyes' coach.
Tressel was an assistant at Ohio State under Earle Bruce for three seasons (1983-85) and twice saw promising seasons ruined by late losses to rival Michigan. Around these parts, a coach can keep his job by losing an occasional game ? but it had better not be against the Wolverines.
No. 1 ranked
So Tressel, whose current team is 9-0 and ranked No. 1 headed into Saturday's game at Illinois, has avoided that pitfall by beating Michigan and Lloyd Carr in four of their five meetings. That's something that Tressel's predecessor, John Cooper, couldn't do. Cooper was 2-10-1 against Michigan ? and never had a perfect November in his 13 seasons.
Cooper took unbeaten teams into November four times. The fifth-ranked Buckeyes were 9-0-1 when they lost at Michigan 28-0 in 1993, 11-0 and No. 2 when they fell 31-23 at Michigan in 1995, 10-0 and No. 2 and lost 13-9 at home to the Wolverines in 1996 and 8-0 and No. 1 in the AP poll when they blew a 24-9 lead against 261/2-point underdog Michigan State in 1998.
Tressel, then the coach at Youngstown State, is well aware of how fans remember how you finish more than how you start a season.
"There have been a lot of good teams at Ohio State over the years [and] the ones that are considered great teams are the ones that played great in November," he said.
Same success at YSU
Tressel was 39-16-1 in November in his 15 years at Youngstown State.
Asked why the Buckeyes always seem to play their best at the end of the season for Tressel, long snapper Drew Norman said it's because the coaching staff preaches improvement every day.
"If you get just that much better every day, compound that over eight or nine weeks, you're much better than when you started," he said. "And I think coach Tressel's teams are always in great physical condition."
As the season wears on, the confidence has grown for the Buckeyes, offensive lineman T.J. Downing said. No team has come closer than 17 points.
Haven't been tested
"Nobody's really tested us and maybe that's a bad thing," he said. "Guys just have the confidence going out there that there's no team in the country that can stop us. When you have that type of confidence level, then you're going to play really good."
Asked about the test awaiting Ohio State on Nov. 18 when No. 2 Michigan comes to town, Downing said, "They haven't seen the Buckeyes yet. We'll concentrate on Illinois [this week] but Michigan hasn't been hit by the Buckeyes yet."
Tressel said his players expect good things this month.
"They know the importance that November has in the course of a college football season," he said. "What the team needs is to have a great practice today and enter November with the proper mindset as to how good we have to be. But thus far, they've been very willing to do what needs to be done."
 
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Dispatch


Coach a finalist , too

Tressel has been thrust into the cast of Buckeyes up for national awards. Officials of the College Coach of the Year award named 10 finalists this week, and Tressel was among them. Coaches from all levels of college play are eligible.
The others on the list are Mack Brown of Texas, Lloyd Carr of Michigan, Danny Hale of Bloomsburg, Bobby Petrino of Louisville, Greg Schiano of Rutgers, Bob Stoops of Oklahoma, Jeff Tedford of California, Mel Tjeerdsma of Northwest Missouri State and Tommy Tuberville of Auburn.
 
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osugrad21;657263; said:
Dispatch


Coach a finalist , too

Tressel has been thrust into the cast of Buckeyes up for national awards. Officials of the College Coach of the Year award named 10 finalists this week, and Tressel was among them. Coaches from all levels of college play are eligible.
The others on the list are Mack Brown of Texas, Lloyd Carr of Michigan, Danny Hale of Bloomsburg, Bobby Petrino of Louisville, Greg Schiano of Rutgers, Bob Stoops of Oklahoma, Jeff Tedford of California, Mel Tjeerdsma of Northwest Missouri State and Tommy Tuberville of Auburn.
Click to expand...

No disrespect, but the fact that Terry Hoeppner is not on that list is a farce.
 
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redskinbucksfan;657321; said:
No disrespect, but the fact that Terry Hoeppner is not on that list is a farce.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

With the list they have now; I would expect Schiano(sp?) to be a hands-down favorite. Tressel has his program at such a place where he can't exceed expectations even if he wins an NC.
 
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Congrats Tress! Tress has managed the #1 hype, loss of 9 starters on a great defense and the defense did not miss a beat. I don't think he has a chance to win though. If Rutgers runs the table Schiano deserves the award hands down. I think Houston Nutt should be ahead of Tuberville. Bielema has done an excellent job and you could throw Jim Grobe, Urban Meyer, and Pete Carroll in the mix also.
 
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Debated whether or not to post this, but Mike Freeman's obsession with JT is comical anymore. Good ole Mike must think everyone has forgotten his little adventures in lying on a resume'

CBS



As Coach Tressel wins, 'Teflon' Tressel's armor gets stronger
10231.jpg
Nov. 13, 2006
By Mike Freeman
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]

[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Jim Tressel has built quite the football empire. He is poised to win another national championship, his second in Division I. No program, not USC, not Texas, not Florida, no school, loses talent to the NFL like Ohio State, only to quickly re-inject more sturdy muscle and DNA back into the fold. [/FONT]
img9799802.jpg
What he does on the sidelines is all that seems to concern people regarding Jim Tressel. (AP) [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Fifty years from now, when football historians look back at what Tressel has accomplished at Ohio State, they will conclude he engineered perhaps the best college football regime ever. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] It's impressive. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] It is not, however, what impresses me the most about Tressel. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] What is most stunning about Tressel is his ability to maneuver through the sordid world of college football. To survive, despite scandals during his tenure at Ohio State and Youngstown State, and emerge completely, thoroughly and unequivocally untouched and unblemished by those troubles. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] The hollow point bullets of scandal that sink other mere mortal coaches, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse -- drugs, grade fixing, drunken driving arrests and domestic violence -- deflect off of that Tressel Teflon sweater vest as if Tressel were composed not of sinew and bone but of some impenetrable metallic substance. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] He is a perfect example of how winning can armor a coach from anything. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [SIZE=+1]? A University of Miami player spits on a sidewalk, and the media portrays it as a crime against humanity, as well as an indictment on the entire Hurricanes program. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [SIZE=+1]? Reggie Bush's off-campus housing shell game led to speculation about the possibility of Pete Carroll losing control of the USC program. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [SIZE=+1]? Phil Fulmer, Coach Bail Bondsman himself, has witnessed his reputation soiled by having an army of Volunteers gracing various pokies. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] But Maurice Clarett admits to taking money and cars while at Ohio State, and none of that mess seemed to stagger Sir Teflon. If Clarett had played for almost any other program as he continued his frog walk through the judicial system, packing machine guns and hard liquor, it would have been seen as a referendum on that school's lack of control of its players. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Instead, the bullets fly in Columbus, and Tressel never gets hit. The guy next to Tressel is full of holes. But the sweater vest never needs dry cleaning. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] The problems at other schools are meticulously detailed by the media, but in Columbus, no investigative teams are formed, and nationally, there is collective amnesia.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] In 2004, the Associated Press detailed some of the player arrests under Tressel's watch. [/FONT]


  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] In October of that year, an all-nude strip club accused running back Lydell Ross of trying to pass fake currency. He was suspended for one game. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] That May, two players were accused of robbery. One received probation while the other was sentenced to three years in prison. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] In November 2003, two players were arrested for disorderly conduct. One woman reported her jaw was broken. In October of that year, backup Louis Irizarry, previously charged with robbery, was charged and later found guilty of first-degree assault. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] In October 2002, linebacker Fred Pagac Jr. was charged with persistent disorderly conduct. That August, defensive lineman Quinn Pitcock pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct. That same month, wide receiver Chris Vance was suspended for the team opener for an undisclosed violation of team policy. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] In April 2002, linebacker Marco Cooper was charged with felony drug abuse and carrying a concealed weapon. He pleaded guilty. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] There were 14 player arrests from 2001, when Tressel became head coach, until 2004. It was a Tennessee-like streak that received as much press coverage as would a grand opening of a weather museum in Puxatony. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] The arrest rate has gotten better at Ohio State. Four Buckeyes players, according to media and Internet reports, have been arrested over the past 10 months. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] This year, before playing Texas, Tressel told the media that he had voted the Longhorns the top team in the country on his USA Today ballot. The newspaper knew the truth: Tressel had voted his own Buckeyes the top team. Tressel explained the discrepancy of him saying one thing and doing another as some sort of administrative snafu. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Ping, pong went the bullets. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Imagine the rancor that would have been generated had Larry Coker made such an, ahem, mistake. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] The NCAA cited Youngstown State in 2000 for impermissible transportation and money to an athlete, in addition to lack of institutional control, while Tressel was coach and athletic director. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Athletes, their free cars and cash are in Tressel's history, and no one seems to care. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] When the Buckeyes win the national championship this year -- not if, but when -- the Corbomite in Tressel's sweater vest will give him even more superpowers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] When he wins, the CIA could later announce that Tressel shot JFK. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] And no one would care. [/FONT]
 
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As being a football coach I've modeled much of my coaching style from great coaches and on top of my list is Jim Tressel. Also thanks for making it easier to be a Buckeye Fan in Michigan and not being afraid to wear a Ohio State Football shirt without someone saying your teams sucks because they know that Ohio State is ithe greatest team in the land thanks to you!
 
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