AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > January > 07 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USBuckeyes’ Tressel is big-time in big games
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Glendale, Ariz. — He wears rimless glasses and color-coordinated sweater vests. He wears ties with short-sleeve shirts, which the fashion police consider a Class A felony. He says little that’s memorable and less that’s witty, and you might easily mistake him for the branch manager of your neighborhood Lowe’s. You might, except for this:
He’s the best college football coach in the land.
He’s Jim Tressel, and he’s the reason Ohio State keeps winning. He has five national championships in the bank — four in Division I-AA with the Youngstown State Penguins, plus the 2002 BCS title in the Buckeyes’ massive upset of Miami — and tonight he’s favored to deposit a sixth.
Good coaches win games. Great ones win big games. At Ohio State, Tressel is 25-7 against ranked opponents and 8-2 against the Top 10. (Who bats .800 against the very best?) And his repeated success isn’t a case of finding a formula and sticking with it. Tressel keeps reinventing his team and its methods, turning the school once known for the off-tackle blast into something resembling BYU.
Tressel won the 2002 championship with a team that completed only seven passes in the Fiesta Bowl. On that famous night, quarterback Craig Krenzel led the Buckeyes in rushing and passed for only 122 yards. In the game that brought this team to the desert for its championship date, Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith completed 29 passes for 316 yards against Michigan.
“A great game plan,” said Urban Meyer, whose Florida Gators will oppose Tressel’s team tonight. “They had great game plans against Michigan and against Texas [on Sept. 9] in those games where the checkers were fairly even.”
Much about this championship game seems fairly even — the Buckeyes are fast, and so are the Gators; the Buckeyes have been tested, and so have the Gators — but the edge in direction favors the Scarlet and Gray. Meyer might well be the sport’s next great coach; Tressel is great already. Think of it this way: Mark Richt came to Georgia in 2001, the same year Tressel arrived in Columbus, and has done a superior job with the Bulldogs. But Richt hasn’t played for a national title and has won only one BCS game. Richt is 61-17, which is splendid; Tressel is 62-13 over that same span.
“We’ve had good fortune,” Tressel said Sunday. “Hopefully we [meaning he] have been able to contribute something.” And then: “You’re only as good as the people around you.” And then, speaking of the Heisman-winning Smith: “You have to have an aura about you.”
Strange as it sounds, the aura ringing Ohio State emanates from beneath those sweater vests. The Buckeyes have come to believe that, in times of duress, their coach will think of something. Florida used to have that feeling about Steve Spurrier, and Notre Dame about Lou Holtz.
Born and raised in Ohio, Tressel played quarterback at Baldwin-Wallace for his dad, who had coached at famed Massillon High and who won — DNA counts for something, doesn’t it? — the 1978 Division III national title at Baldwin-Wallace. Jim Tressel apprenticed under Earle Bruce at Ohio State. (So did Meyer, though not at the same time.) He won his first championship in 1991, beating Marshall and Jim Donnan in the Division I-AA title game.
Woody Hayes, the coach most associated with Buckeye greatness, was an outsized — occasionally out of control — presence. Tressel is the essence of unassuming. He just coaches his team and outcoaches his opponents and keeps showing up in January and winning there. He seems never to put a foot wrong, but even the best have lesser moments.
Such as: This week a Buckeyes player related one of Tressel’s little motivational tacks — distributing a card bearing a thought from Confucius. “Obviously that one didn’t work,” Tressel said. “It wasn’t Confucius. It was Nelson Mandela.”
The lesson herein: Sayings might misfire, but the sweater vest rarely does.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: Mark Bradley
Comments
By Larry
January 7, 2007 08:43 PM | Link to this
Superb article and Coach! Tressel is the epitome of class, professionalism, talent and success—all qualities we could use in the next coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
He’s the best coach in the land, and should be called to see if there’s ANYTHING we can do to make the next Atlanta Falcon’s Head Coach.
AURTHUR! Are you reading!!!!!
By GW
January 7, 2007 09:33 PM | Link to this
Hard to argue any of these points about Tressel. Ohio State has always been at least pretty good regardless of the coach. Could Tressel do the same at Kentucky, Clemson, Minnesota, Missouri or Washington State? He is in a football crazy state with no local competition for the fans, players, or financial support. He deserves credit for not blowing it.
By toocoldscorpio
January 7, 2007 10:03 PM | Link to this
wow you mean he’s better than BOBBY PETRINO
By Sautee Dawg
January 7, 2007 10:38 PM | Link to this
Great article Mark, Great coach in Jim Tressel also. but, why did you compare him and his record to Mark Richt? Why not compare it to Coach Meyer’s?
By Gerry
January 7, 2007 11:10 PM | Link to this
Yeah Tressel what a great guy didn’t he give Clarett an Escalade or has everyone just forgot about all that stuff. He is just another sneaky guy whos team going to get their a* kicked tommorrow night.
By virgil thomas
January 8, 2007 01:13 AM | Link to this
In Youngstown in those days you might see a YSU playoff game three times on local TV, get a really good look. Of his NCAA titles there, he had the best team in the playoffs only once. Miami was the better team when they lost the big one to Ohio State. Tressel doesn’t need the best team to win a game. He needs a game plan and a team (“family”) that Believes, and he knows how to produce both.
By coach
January 8, 2007 08:57 AM | Link to this
Jim Tressel is a guy any parent would be happy to have coaching his or her son. His coaching goes beyound being a terrific game planner and play caller, these guys who you and I will see tonight playing for the national championships will become fine citizens and leaders in their communities. Are their some exceptions, yes, but when you look at the numbers they work with they are few and far between.
Go Bucks!!
By AUTiger
January 8, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this
.800 against the best? Not bad, but how about .889? The Auburn Tigers under Tommy Tuberville have won 8 out of their last 9 games against top ten teams. Even more impressive, they beat 2 top five/BCS teams this season. In defense of Tuberville and Richt, it takes more than just good coaching and play to reach a BCS title - there’s a lot of luck/politics involved too (and it helps if you don’t play in the SEC - Florida’s appearance this year notwithstanding).
By Rob
January 8, 2007 10:21 AM | Link to this
Jim Tressel’s teams have the second best arrest record in the nation behind Miami. Is there a correlation between winning and crime? Talent makes winners of us all. He will get it done tonight.
By thawk
January 8, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this
Good article. While living in Atlanta I constantly heard all the HYPE about the SEC. Dont get me wrong, it may be the OVERALL best conference but that simply means from top to bottom. Tressel and company will prove what I have been saying for the last 2 years. “The SEC has many good teams but no GREAT ones” The last time I checked, the National Title was not given to the team with the fastes forty time. Oh and for that goo Gerry, come see me and Miami and put your money where your mouth is.
GO BUCKS!
By Bill Scully
January 8, 2007 10:45 PM | Link to this
How many sports reporters will lead with the prophetic note that the Buckeye band played Titanic’s theme as its number 1 team sank in the Bowl game?
By rut roh
January 8, 2007 11:42 PM | Link to this
whoa!!!! someone just got an aaass whoopin
BIG TEN BLOWS
By kmart
January 8, 2007 11:44 PM | Link to this
Hey Thawk,
how’s that crow tastin, bro? your boys got SMOKED
some offense… heisman my a*
By AUTiger
January 9, 2007 12:16 AM | Link to this
Can you say OVERRATED? I knew you could… SEC baby!!