Prove to me that Jim Tressel deserves to be called an elite CFB coach without providing stats of how OSU has dominated an average Big Ten conference. The past two years have shown me a side of Tressel as either a poor clutch decision maker or a terrible motivator. Obviously, the Nat Champ games come to mind. The Florida game I can nearly excuse b/c they got blindsided by a majorly pumped up and ticked off team. Tell me?.how can you not have your team ready to play the next year after enduring that embarrassment for an entire year? Tressel sent the team home with videos of the Florida game to pump OSU up?.looks like that didn?t work. That game didn?t have as much poor coaching per se, but poor motivation. It is evident that when Tressel is forced to provide decisions outside the basic game plan (aka when trailing late in a game), he lays an egg. The other game that completely shocked me was the Illinois game. A team that is competing to play for a Nat Champ can?t beat a team AT HOME that won 2 games the year before? Ron Zook outcoached Jim Tressel. That should be all I have to say. - JW
A: First, prove to me that the Big Ten has been an average conference, and feel free to use stats. It?s not the SEC, but it?s been better than you, or anyone else keeps giving it credit for, or not giving it credit for.
Sorry, but I?m using stats; they don?t lie. I don?t care if the Big Ten sucks, if a coach goes 73-16 in seven years with five BCS appearances, wins three of those games, beats a supposedly all-timer Miami team for a national title, goes 6-1 against the arch-rival, and gets his team to two other national title games and that?s still not enough to make him and elite coach in your eyes, your standards might be just a weeeeee bit high.
Also, you, and most of the rest of the college football world, aren?t giving 2007 LSU enough credit for being a special team. You?re dead-on right about the Florida loss; OSU was fat, lazy and overconfident, and everyone from Tressel on down has admitted as much. An argument could still be made, even after the debacle in the desert, that the 2006 Buckeyes were actually a better team than those jacked up Gators. Last year?s LSU, when rested and close to 100% healthy, which it was by the time the national title game rolled around, was the much, much better team. Ohio State was supposed to lose.
As far as that Illinois game, yeah, Zook had a fantastic gameplan and his team executed an all-timer of a fourth quarter drive to pull off the upset. That?s not Tressel?s fault; Illinois simply won the game. Kentucky and Arkansas rolled up huge yards on LSU. USC lost to Stanford. Oklahoma lost to Texas Tech. West Virginia lost to Pitt. Should I keep going? Lots of upsets happened last year. Go off the long haul and Tressel doesn?t have to apologize to anyone.
