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

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ABJ

Posted on Wed, Nov. 15, 2006



Dennison still coaches Tressel

By Terry Pluto

This is the story of two Jims.
The first is the coach at Walsh University, the other at Ohio State.
The first is Jim Dennison, 68, whose Walsh Cavaliers are making the program's first trip to the NAIA playoffs.
The second is Jim Tressel, the Buckeyes' coach, whose team plays Michigan on Saturday.
Dennison gave Tressel his first coaching job -- as a graduate assistant at the University of Akron in 1975. Three decades later, Tressel still calls Dennison ``coach.''
It's like that with Tressel, the son of a coach who never forgets the men who have been his fathers in coaching. He spent four years with Dennison on the Zips' staff from 1975-78, and he learned something about PMA.
That's Positive Mental Attitude, the code that Dennison lives by.
It's also a part of Tressel's personality. He doesn't use the PMA code; he just remains forever upbeat, under control.
``I really believe in being even-keeled,'' Dennison said. ``Jim does, too.''
Dennison was telling this story Tuesday afternoon, sitting in his office looking like a guy whose biggest decision all week will be what to have for dinner.
``Don't kid yourself,'' he said. ``Right now, my stomach is in a knot.''
That's because his Walsh University football team is getting ready to meet University of St. Francis (Ind.), the top-ranked NAIA team, on Saturday.
``You can be sure that Jim (Tressel) feels the same way,'' Dennison said. ``He may not show it, but it's there, in your stomach. You feel it.''
At that moment, Tressel probably was sitting in a much bigger office in Columbus, thinking about what it would take to knock off Michigan.
Tressel is 4-1 against his major rival. He's 4-1 in bowl games, 8-2 against schools ranked in the Top 10.
``Jim knows how to prepare a team for a big game,'' Dennison said. ``He may lose, but they will be prepared. He'll have the kids in the right frame of mind. He'll know what game plan he wants to use. He'll be ready.''
Jim Tressel loves coaches such as Jim Dennison.
This spring, Tressel invited Dennison to speak to more than 1,000 Ohio high school coaches. It was the OSU coaching clinic, and Tressel remembered history.
``Coach, 30 years ago, Woody Hayes had you and Bill Walsh talk to the high school coaches here,'' Tressel told Dennison. ``Now, I want you to come back. I want you to talk about football and life.''
Dennison did just that, discussing not only his favorite offensive strategies, but PMA and his other philosophies.
Once upon a time, it was a hot college coach named Jim Dennison who gave a blessing to a young coach fresh out of Baldwin-Wallace named Jim Tressel.
Now, Tressel was telling those high school coaches: See this man, he's important to me. Listen to what he has to say.
Tressel didn't have to say any of that. Bringing in Dennison was message enough.
Tressel graduated from Baldwin-Wallace in 1975. He had played for his father, the legendary small-college coach, Lee Tressel.
Jim Tressel grew up with an appreciation of small-college football and the men who coach it. He never thought big-name coaches had a monopoly on wisdom or teaching skills. A good coach could be found anywhere at any age; that was something that he learned from his father.
Joe Paterno had offered Jim Tressel a chance to be a graduate assistant at Penn State. Lee Tressel had other ideas. The coach from Baldwin-Wallace who always wore a bow tie wanted his son to really learn what it meant to be a college coach. He respected what Jim Dennison had accomplished at UA, and even more, appreciated Jim Dennison the man.
Jim Tressel interviewed with Dennison, and he was offered a chance to be a graduate assistant for the Zips, who then played in Division I-AA.
``Lee Tressel liked Akron for Jim because he knew we had a small staff and he'd get a chance to do a lot and learn quickly,'' Dennison said.
The bright lights and big time of Penn State tempted Jim Tressel, but he trusted his father. When it came to coaching, Lee Tressel knew best.
And Lee Tressel knew Jim Dennison.
``The first job I gave him was to drive a van with the coaches wives to our game in Delaware,'' Dennison said. ``The team and coaches flew; they drove. Jim had one tape, the Beach Boys. He played it over and over.''
BA-BA-BA-BA- BARBARA-ANN... As a couple of wives told Dennison, it was enough to make you hate the Beach Boys after 10 hours.
``Jim told me, `Coach, I don't know how much they liked the ride, but they got there safe and sound,' '' Dennison said. ``I told that story at the coaches clinic this spring.''
Within a few months, Tressel was tutoring UA's quarterbacks. After that first year, he was hired onto Dennison's staff and spent three more seasons with the Zips as an assistant.
``I told Jim to never change,'' Dennison said. ``He treats everyone well. That's why all the high school coaches like him so much.''
Lee Tressel coached at Baldwin-Wallace from 1958-80 with a 115-52-6 record and one Division III national championship. He died in 1981 at the age of 56 of lung cancer.
Jim Tressel will be 54 on Dec. 5.
He's much like his father and like Dennison. He never has coached with his eye on the next job.
Consider that Dennison worked at UA for 28 years, then at Walsh in North Canton for the past 12 years.
Jim Tressel spent 15 years at Youngstown State before taking the Ohio State job in 2001.
``If Ohio State hadn't come open, Jim would still be at Youngstown,'' Dennison said. ``That was the only job that he wanted. He turned down chances to go to other big schools. He never was caught up in being at the biggest school. He really is an old-fashioned coach; just do a good job where you are.''
Tressel won four I-AA national titles at Youngstown. Several Mid-American Conference schools, and Miami (Fla.) courted him. None could persuade him to leave Youngstown.
When Tressel was hired as the Buckeyes coach in 2001, one of the people whom he invited to attend the announcement was Dennison.
``I know some people don't believe when Jim talks about his team being a family and having an attitude of gratitude, but he's very sincere about that,'' Dennison said.
Jim Tressel has often said he learned this from his father: ``He cared about every player. He knew the most important thing the player was concerned with was if the coach cared about him.''
``That's Jim,'' Dennison said. ``Jim and I have a lot in common. Both of us know that the `Big Time' is where you are at the moment. You never look beyond that.''
And you always remember where you came from and who helped you along the way.
 
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Link

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Born and bred a Buckeye
Tressel's love for Ohio State was instilled by his father

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When Jim Tressel was a youngster, the Saturday of the annual Ohio State-Michigan game always was his favorite day of the year.
But it wasn't so much for the football. It was for family. Tressel's father, Lee, spent most of his waking hours in the fall at work, coaching football at tiny Baldwin-Wallace College near Cleveland. Lee Tressel, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, adored Woody Hayes and the Buckeyes, and since his season usually ended by the third week of November, "The Game" often became a family reunion of sorts for him and his three sons, Dick, Dave and Jim.
"It used to be about the first time I saw my dad in the light of day," joked Tressel, now living his dream job -- and that of his late father's -- as coach at Ohio State. "We got to watch the game, and (my father) was a huge Buckeye fan, and probably the most important thing to me was, I got a chance to be with him and watch the game. And, of course, here he was rooting for his team, so that became my team."
Now that it really is histeam, it is through that prism, Tressel admits, he sees this storied rivalry for what it is, at least in Columbus.
"It's the greatest game that there is."
Tressel, who won four national titles in seven years during his last coaching stop at Division I-AA Youngstown State, is on the verge of his second BCS championship game in six years at Ohio State.
That's not what matters most in Buckeye Nation. Tressel was hired in January 2001 to replace John Cooper, whose 2-10-1 record against Michigan played a critical role in his dismissal. Ohio State's record against the Wolverines since then is 4-1, not that anyone in Ann Arbor -- least of all Lloyd Carr -- needs reminding.
Of the 18 Ohio State coaches to face Michigan in the 102-year history of the rivalry, only three others can boast a winning record against the Wolverines: Francis Schmidt (1934-40), Hayes (1951-1978) and Earle Bruce (1979-87).
"When Woody and Bo (Schembechler) were here, this rivalry was as big as it got, just because it was Ohio State-Michigan, and a national championship and a Big Ten championship seemed to always be on the line," said ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback (his father also played and coached under Hayes) who was Cooper's first recruit in 1988. "Since Jim Tressel has been here and Lloyd Carr has taken over, we've come full circle."
Tressel, like Carr, embraces the history of the rivalry, something his predecessor at Ohio State didn't always do. Then again, Tressel says, how couldn't he?
"It's the one I know the best," said Tressel, 53, who signed a contract extension in May that pays him nearly $2.5 million annually through 2012. "Growing up with it, having been an assistant coach within it, and now being a part of it, I can't fathom anything else being like it."
That's one reason Tressel has his team spend each week in spring practice analyzing one quarter of the previous season's Michigan game, "to see things we did wrong and things we need to get better at," senior free safety Brandon Mitchell said.
It's also why Tressel invites Bruce, the intense, passionate former coach, to speak to the team at the beginning of Michigan Week each year.
"He always gets us fired up," Mitchell said, smiling. "He's a very emotional guy, and he's yelling and telling stories.
"To me, it seems like he's still coaching us for this game. Last night, he told us we can be 11-0 and riding high, but if we lose this game, we better not show our faces around town."
Tressel, you see, prefers to let others fan the flames while he keeps his cool.
"Coach Tressel is Coach Tressel, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year," said Doug Datish, the Buckeyes' senior center and co-captain. "He does a really good job of keeping everybody focused."
It hasn't always been easy, either. Off-field troubles hounded Tressel during Michigan Week in previous years: Steve Bellisari's drunken-driving arrest in 2001; a campus fight involving Troy Smith and Santonio Holmes in 2003; the lingering Maurice Clarett allegations and an NCAA investigation in 2004.
This year, though, the biggest challenge simply is the magnitude of the game: No. 1 vs. No. 2, with a spot in the BCS championship game on the line.
"It's a tremendous feeling," Tressel said Monday, addressing an overflow crowd of nearly 100 media members at his weekly luncheon. "You can feel the electricity and the energy, and you can't quantify it, but you can feel it."
With a chuckle, he remembers the first time he felt it, too. It was as a rookie assistant on Bruce's staff at Ohio State in 1983, when the Buckeyes lost at Michigan Stadium, 24-21.
"I remember thinking I was preparing for just another game as a coach," Tressel said. "And then all of a sudden you got into the environment, and I wasn't worth a hoot in the first quarter because I was just in awe of the feeling.
"I probably wasn't worth a hoot in the fourth quarter, either. But it's just a tremendous feeling to be a part of something that so many people are excited about and so many people count it special."
 
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Good article about JT.

ozone

The "T" Factor
By John Porentas

Here's something that probably didn't occur to you. Writing about the biggest game of the year, maybe even the biggest game of a lifetime, is a lot harder than you think.

The guy on the other side of the screen you are now staring at has been wrestling with that problem. He thought about writing about how big the rivalry is, but decided that you already know about that. He personally has been involved in telling you that for the last ten years. If you don't have that message by now, then you probably are a cabbage.

Then he considered writing about how much bigger this particular game in the rivalry is because of it's BCS implications and unique one vs. two matchup. It's a pretty good bet you know that already too.

How the game will be won in the trenches? Nah, already done. Troy Smith? Great story, but you'd have to be living in a cave not to know about Troy and his Heisman chase. Ted Ginn? Henne? Hart? Nope. All been done to death. The Michigan defense? The Ohio State defense? Senior day? You know all that stuff. What's left to say that will make you feel more informed when you come to the end of the column?

It's rather embarrassing. It's the biggest game of a lifetime, and people want something fresh, and it's all been done over and over and over. It's almost hopeless.

So here sits the guy on the other side of screen, wondering what he can tell you that you didn't already know or how to tell you something in a way you haven't already seen or heard, in a way that when you finish reading, you'll say, 'Gee, I haven't seen that before.' He decided that there is almost nothing left that you didn't already know, haven't already seen. For heaven's sake, some idiot even wrote a column about a player vomiting on a regular basis. What could possibly be left?
Here it is.

He's going to tell you why you, as an OSU fan, are comfortable about this game, and why you, as a Michigan fan, are sweating more than you want to admit.

Jim Tressel.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Head Coach Jim Tressel[/FONT]
JTressel.jpg


The Ohio State football program has been under Jim Tressel for six seasons now. It is truly his. The players now on the team were all recruited by him and the upper classmen have all been "Tresselized", and that, for the most part, is what we want to tell you about, because it is, for the most part, why you Buckeyes are calm and comfortable today, and you Wolverines are just a bit more edgy than you care to admit.

Jim Tressel (or Cheaty McSweatervest for you detractors) is not charismatic in the way you think of a Bo Schembeckler or Woody Hayes. He is not clever like Lou Holtz. He is not flashy, not urbane, not, actually, exciting at all. He is though, first and foremost, the consummate leader, in specific, the consummate leader for a college football team.

Tressel's leadership is really characterized by three qualities. He is a rare mix of an individual who has a clear understanding and firm grasp of the big picture and is yet obsessively immersed in every detail of his undertaking.

Those two qualities almost never coexist in people. That's why we have CEOs (big picture people) and accountants (detail people). Tressel, however, is both for his football team. He provides clear-cut big picture goals, but can call the parents and siblings of every player on his team by first name. He knows everyone's major, where every picture is hung in the WHAC, who every football alumnus is, the name of every team manager and trainer.

Those two traits in one person are rare, but what Tressel also has is the ability to convince people that his vision, his big picture, is the right one. At the same time he has them firmly believing that his methods, his techniques, the specific details he takes so much care to put in place, monitor and enforce, are the ones that will make the big picture become a reality.

In convincing his team of those ideas he has insured that those teams have become a mirror of the man himself, and that mirror image is what has Ohio State fans calm and Wolverine fans edgy. Tressel's players recognize that after enough time in his program they have become "Tresselized", mirrors of Tressel himself in the way they prepare for games to the way they react to situations. They even start to sound like him.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Anthony Gonzalez [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson[/FONT]
AGonzalez.jpg

"I know you look at organizations, football teams, whatever the case may be, and ordinarily the organization whatever it is takes on the personality of its leader," said OSU wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez.
"Since Coach Tressel is our top leader, yeah, I think that does trickle down a lot. It's kind of funny. If you listen to the interviews that we give I think a lot of the stuff is taken directly from stuff he's said," Gonzalez said.
"Indeed," said the writer who has heard Tressel's mantra over the past six seasons.
What is he about?
What Tressel lacks in charisma he make up for in consistency. He is what he is, you always know what you are going to get. You can always count on him performing a certain way no matter what the situation. He never varies. It's what player after player has said about Tressel and one of his strongest characteristics.

His consistency is maddening for the local media. All of them can predict exactly what he will say in every situation. It makes writing about him hard. It is also what makes him successful.

He truly believes in his message, his ideals, his way of doing things. His consistency has enabled him to accomplish the most difficult task for any coach or leader, getting those who he is leading to internalize his vision and concepts. He does it not with eloquence or flash, but by example. He is consistent, down to the smallest detail, and expects those whom he leads to be the same.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Luke Fickell [/FONT]
Photo by Jim Davidson
LFickell.jpg


"We're all who we are, we all have our own little things, but it comes from the top down," said OSU linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell.

"Here's an example. You walk in in the morning and Coach Tressel is picking up trash as he's walking through the parking lot off the ground. I'm thinking 'I better pick up some if he's picking up trash.' What kind of example is that. Just little things like that," Fickell said.

"It's about people, it's about doing the right thing, it's about being a good person. I think those are the things that come from him. It's the way you coach. A lot of the things you take are from the top down."

Senior Antonio Smith has had five years of Tresselization. He has come to recognize the process and its impact.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Antonio Smith [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photo by Jim Davidson[/FONT]
ASmith.jpg

"When you come to college and you're 18-years old and still growing into a young adult, but when you leave here you leave with a lot values and great things that Coach Tressel instills in us," said Smith.
"Whenever Coach Tressel speaks we all listen. He definitely has great things to say, but he doesn't really get too fired up. What you see is what you get. How you see him now is pretty much how he stays each day throughout our practice and throughout the game. He doesn't get too fired up but as a team we're ready to play."
Consistency, preparation, humility, hard work, and above all, team. Those are the traits Tressel believes in and exhibits at all times. He never changes. No one prepares more for games, he always refers to "we", never "I". He's the same in practices, in games no matter what the situation, and after the game whether in victory or defeat.

Focusing it on Michigan Week

This week before arguably the biggest football in a lifetime Tressel will coach with the firm belief that the qualities he has been preaching all year will allow his team to be the best it can be. He will not hype the game to his players. He won't have to. He has already let them know how important it is, not because of the circumstance, but because it is their job, week after week, to be the best they can be. That, he believes, is all he needs his team to believe.

"As far as we?re concerned, we just do whatever we?re told," said Gonzalez.
"Is his demeanor different (this week)? I think his demeanor is rather consistent, I really do. He?s pretty even-keeled guy all the way across," said Gonzalez.

Tressel's approach is perfect for the rivalry. His methodical "get a little better ever week" approach with emphasis on "being the best you can be by the end of the season" is exactly what is needed by a football program whose rivalry game is, coincidently, always the last game of the season. His approach de facto makes the Michigan game the focus of the entire season.

"In the beginning of the season, we know we have to take one step at a time, one game at a time and we have to focus on our specific role that week," said Smith.

"Now it's the last game of the season, but this is our task at hand this week. We know we have to focus on Michigan and Michigan only. We can't focus on the national championship game, we can't focus on our records in previous years, we have to focus on Michigan. Coach Tressel just does a good job of preparing us throughout the year," said Smith.
"He always talks about November performance," defensive tackle and captain David Patterson.

"Coach Tressel is a perfectionist. Every time he's watching the film he's seeing something we can improve on. He's never satisfied. A 44-0 shutout doesn't satisfy him because we're still not playing the best that we can or we had things that didn't go right in that game. He just stresses the little
things and realizes that we can always get better.
David Patterson
DPatterson.jpg


"We think about Michigan all year round. We talk about how it is the game and Coach Tressel talks about the things it takes to be successful in that game. During this season we?ve been taking it one game at a time. I know that?s a clich?, but we actually have," Patterson said.

Come Saturday Jim Tressel will be on the OSU sideline, most likely wearing his gray sweater vest. His headphones will be on and his focus will be riveted on one thing and one thing only, doing his part on the sideline to win the football game.
That's what every coach does on game day. Tressel will have something else going for him.He will have a team that is fully Tresselized on the field, one that has bought into the value system he believes will allow them to be the best they can be in The Game of Games.

"When you're a freshman you learn what's important here," said Patterson.
"You learn that winning is important, that November is important and that humility is important," said Patterson.
"You start becoming a Buckeye."

The Buckeyes may win. The Buckeyes may lose. What you can be sure of is that their coach will have given them the best opportunity to be as good as they can be in the biggest game in memory. They will have a good game plan, they will be well-conditioned, they will be well-drilled, but most importantly, they will have been Tresselized from the first day of their Buckeye careers. If they win, the will do it with class and dignity. If the lose, they will do it the same way.

And that is what is calming you, Mr. Ohio State fan, and worrying you more than just a little, my Wolverine friend.
 
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ABJ

Tressel's fame at OSU forged in days at YSU

Here's look at Buckeyes coach from perspective of his time leading Penguins

The trademark red sweater vest.
I saw it years ago. Only, instead of a Block ``O'' on the front of the sweater, there was a Block ``Y.''
Oh, and the trademark pre- and post-game remarks from Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel about special teams play being a key factor in every game, taking care of the task at hand and ``we can only control what we can control''?
Heard them before, too. Years ago. He was describing his Youngstown State football players.
Nothing that coach Tressel does or says surprises me, because I saw and heard it firsthand at Youngstown State. It was a privilege to get to know him then.
I was a YSU student-athlete, then YSU graduate and writer covering my alma mater in the 15 years Tressel was in the Mahoning Valley.
He was the kind of guy who, when he saw you on campus, would ask about how you were doing and what was going on in your life. He genuinely wanted to know how you were as a person. He is a very loyal person and always talked about never compromising your character and loyalty.
He was someone you could look to for guidance and advice; a man who could make you feel like you could run for president when you walked out of his office.
So when I see Buckeye senior quarterback Troy Smith go from an inconsistent player a few years ago to a Heisman Trophy favorite this season, it doesn't surprise me. Coach Tressel knows how to develop players and instill a level of confidence in them that they never knew they had.
For instance, undefeated Ohio State (11-0) began this season having lost nine starters on defense from last season, but the Buckeyes head into the Michigan game Saturday with one of the top-ranked defenses in the country.
When I see the Buckeyes having the chance to play for a second Division I-A national championship under Tressel, it doesn't surprise me, either. The man knows how to prepare his teams for big games.
The Ohio State-Michigan game is, using a word from legendary boxing promoter Don King, ``splendiforous.''
The winner gets it all: the undisputed Big Ten title and a shot at the national championship.
No. 1 Ohio State against No. 2 Michigan.
It's a game Tressel, a former assistant coach for the Buckeyes, has told his players is a privilege just to play.
It's about enjoying the opportunity of participating in a game that is being hyped as one of the best college football matchups in the last century, in a collegiate rivalry that's considered one of the best in the country, regardless of the sport.
Coach Tressel wouldn't want it any other way, because he knows what this game means to every Ohio State fan.
Remember when Tressel was named head coach at Ohio State on Jan. 18, 2001?
Remember when some critics wondered why such a storied university would hire a coach from a I-AA school like Youngstown State?
Well, Tressel showed you what everyone in the Mahoning Valley knew -- that he is the real deal and that he would be a winner if and when he got the Ohio State job.
One of the first things Tressel did in his official capacity as coach at Ohio State was address the basketball crowd at Value City Arena.
He told the crowd that in 300-something days, it would be proud of his young men when they defeated that team ``up north.''
Tressel gets it.
In his 15 years at YSU, Tressel compiled a 135-57-2 record and guided the Penguins to six Division I-AA national championship appearances, winning four (1991, 1993, 1994, 1998).
He was 2-1 in national championship games against Marshall University (YSU lost to Marshall in 1992 on a last-second field goal) and he had a 7-2-1 record against rival University of Akron.
Mahoning Valley residents knew he was the right man for the job.
Want to know how much coach Tressel understands the importance of the Ohio State-Michigan game?
While he was at YSU, his team was scheduled to play a home game on a Saturday afternoon -- opposite the Ohio State-Michigan game.
Tressel moved the game to Friday night so fans wouldn't miss the big game.
Why?
He gets it.
 
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Dispatch

How Tressel gets his men to win

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

20061118-Pc-E1-0500.jpg

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel preaches about doing something every day to get better as a player and as a person.


If Jim Tressel had not become a football coach, he would have made an incredible farmer. His harvests have become legends of the late fall, and he has aimed his combine at another bountiful take today. If No. 1 Ohio State can defeat No. 2 Michigan in Ohio Stadium, it not only will give him five wins in six tries against the Wolverines but a second national championship game appearance in five years. And Ohio State fans remember what happened in the first one.
The man knows how to bring in a crop. He won four national championships at Youngstown State in the 1990s, having to win a 16-team playoff each time to do it.
But asked why his teams seem to be so good at the end of seasons, Tressel said simply, "This is 2006, so ? "
In other words, a farmer knows never to take a crop for granted. Mark Brungard wasn?t surprised by that response. He was the quarterback on two of those Youngstown State national championship teams in 1993 and ?94. He witnessed firsthand Tressel?s green thumb when it came to growing a football team.
"There is no magical formula to his success, no pregame speech that suddenly makes it happen," said Brungard, now coach at Poland Seminary High School. "It is a system, a process that he implemented as soon as he stepped on campus. He did it at Youngstown State, and he?s done at Ohio State.
"From the start of spring ball through the season, it?s an attention to detail, of trying to do something every day to get better as a player and as a person, a leaving-no-stone-unturned approach that I appreciate even more now that I?m a high school coach."
What?s strange is how much of Tressel?s formula seems to have little or nothing to do with the X?s and O?s, at least at first. It includes making his team sing Carmen Ohio after a game, or encouraging players to make public appearances and get involved in community causes.
"It?s something that comes with playing for Ohio State," senior defensive tackle David Patterson said. "When you?re a freshman, you just learn what?s important here. You know winning is important, that November performance is important. We also learn that humility is important."
They learn they are playing for more than just themselves, senior defensive back Antonio Smith said. That they are playing for state pride, for a nationwide community of alumni and fans, and more than anything else, for the players and teams from the past who helped pave the way.
But the main lesson, "I would say, is that it is just more about life," Smith said. "When you are at Ohio State, you grow into a man."
Don Zwisler played in four Division I-AA national championship games for Tressel, with the Penguins winning three, and singing the school song after every one. But when Tressel recently wrote an unsolicited letter of recommendation that helped put Zwisler in the Akron Hoban High School hall of fame, he didn?t dwell on football.
"He said the No. 1 thing I did in college was get my degree," Zwisler said. "He?s right, because as he told us even then, eventually football was going to end for us sooner or later, but the degree would last forever. I?ve got a wife and three kids now, and a good job, and I don?t think I would have all of that were it not for his prodding."
It?s just part of fertilizing the crop, and it doesn?t stop with the players. Ohio State linebackers coach Luke Fickell arrived at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center a few seconds after his boss one morning earlier this year. Then he watched Tressel, walking in front of him, picking up trash on his way to the door.
"And I?m looking around like I?d better find something to pick up, too," Fickell said. "If he is picking up trash, I mean, what kind of example is that? Just little things like that every day lets you know it?s about people, it?s about doing the right thing, it?s about being a good person."
But how does that help a team win a game in late November?
"You?re all looking for quality, trying to become better as people as well as football players, and what you find out after you?ve been with him for a while is everything he gets you to do builds toward that in some way," Zwisler said. "Like the way he makes you sing the school song. Basically, he wants everybody on the same page, no matter whether you?re a star or a third-team receiver."
Brungard said, "After every game, win or lose, he would tell us three things: ?Remember who you are, men. Go worship somewhere tomorrow. And if your parents aren?t here, call them.? "
Ohio State senior center Doug Datish has watched Tressel for five years.
That specter of the man in the sweater vest out standing on his field today, knowing he has done the planting, the fertilizing and the cultivating, and now it?s time for another harvest ? it has effect on the players.
"I don?t know if it takes any pressure off, but I think it gives us that sense of ? being able to watch him and learn from him over these past five years, it is something I admire about him and try to do myself, and I think other guys on the team try to do the same thing," Datish said. "And I think as you see him exuding that type of confidence and that calm he has about him, it is really something to marvel at, and something that really helps you out."
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Where does Jim Tressel rank among OSU coaches? He has brought the Tradition back to Columbus and the shine to the Shoe. Now after starting 5-1 against scUM and beating the best coach ever to coach (whining weiss) not to mention 1 National Champion and on the verge of a second. I know it is young in His tenure, but where does everyone else think he will end up as far as coaches not only in The OSU history, but also nationaly?
 
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texasbuckeye;665599; said:
Where does Jim Tressel rank among OSU coaches? He has brought the Tradition back to Columbus and the shine to the Shoe. Now after starting 5-1 against scUM and beating the best coach ever to coach (whining weiss) not to mention 1 National Champion and on the verge of a second. I know it is young in His tenure, but where does everyone else think he will end up as far as coaches not only in The OSU history, but also nationaly?
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I think it's hard to say. With his age, I can't see him surpassing Jopa or Bowden in the win column. But as far as quality of wins, and national championships you have to put him up there with the best of them.
 
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Oneshot;665617; said:
Everyone was trying to guess the 'wrinkle' that Tressel adds for the Michigan game...

This year it was the toss-it-around 4, 5-wide sets! And I LOVED it!
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i thought that the wrinkle was lining up Ted Ginn as a tight end in the jumbo set on second and short, and then running the play-action bomb... they never knew what hit them. :biggrin:
 
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