Tressel's Calming Influence Has Buckeyes In Title Game
Dec 31, 2002
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – Jim Tressel stands stoically on the sideline duringgames, nothing like the stomping, shouting Woody Hayes.
Tressel rarely raises his voice or shows any emotion. He’s an aw-shucks kindof guy in a profession that usually features yellers and cursers.
Ohio State’s coach won’t light up a room with any motivational speeches, buthe has led the Buckeyes to the national championship game against top-rankedMiami in Friday night’s Fiesta Bowl.
“He’s not a screamer. He rarely even raises his voice,” Buckeyes tight endBen Hartsock said Tuesday. “He does have a very icy stare. If doesn’t thinkyou’re doing something right he’ll give you that icy stare, and you know he’supset.”
Tressel’s troops have done just about everything right this season, heedingtheir coach’s close attention to detail to get within a win of the school’sfirst national title in 34 years.
“You have to be who you are. Woody Hayes, Paul Brown and John Cooper allhad their styles and did great jobs. I have to do what I do best,” he said,referring to the Ohio coaching greats.
Tressel spent most of his life preparing to be the coach of Ohio’s mostpopular team. The son of Division III championship-winning coach Lee Tressel,Jim shagged kicks for Cleveland Browns Hall of Famer Lou Groza as a kid.
He played quarterback for his father at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio,then served as an assistant at Akron, Miami of Ohio, Syracuse and Ohio State.
He won four national titles at Division I-AA Youngstown State, making himpart of the only father-and-son championship coaching pair in NCAA history.
He turned down chances for stardom – including an opportunity to coach Miami- until Ohio State came calling two years ago.
“It wasn’t the right place for me at that moment,” Tressel said of hisflirtation with Miami in 1995. “It was an extraordinary place withextraordinary people, but it just wasn’t right for me.”
That’s because they weren’t the Buckeyes.
The Tressel family link to Ohio State goes back to 1943. Lee Tressel scoredtwo touchdowns in the Buckeyes’ spring game that year, he but enlisted in theNavy soon after and never played at Ohio State.
Lee died in 1981 but played a big role in his son’s coaching.
“I’m not sure I was old enough to understand football philosophy when I wasaround my dad,” Tressel said. “I played for him and understood things from aplayer’s perspective. As a coach, I’ve reflected back to my father. He wasmeticulous in every way.”
Tressel is, too, from his neat, short hair – which he promises will be incornrows if the Buckeyes beat Miami – to the tie and sweater vest he wears onthe sideline.
And his team is in order, exhibiting discipline on and off the field thatwas missing under Cooper.
“I think he’s controlled,” Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger said.”I think he’s able to suppress stress as well as any human being I have everwitnessed. He is, for wont of a better phrase, unflappable.”
Tressel showed how different he was from his predecessor the day he washired. Cooper, a Tennessee native, never fully understood the OhioState-Michigan rivalry that Tressel watched every year as a kid.
Tressel, who always knows exactly how many days it is until the nextMichigan game, vowed to make Ohio State fans proud. He’s done it twice, leadingthe Buckeyes to consecutive wins over their chief rival for the first time in20 years.
“It is the tradition of Ohio State and he’s doing some things to excitepeople on his team about those things and really add to them,” said EarleBruce, who had Tressel as his quarterbacks coach at Ohio State from 1983-85.
“He’s flavored them in a way that’s really good. He’s created his ownlittle things. He’s said all the right things, and he hasn’t said any of thewrong things.”
Tressel learned players’ names and hometowns almost immediately, givingmeaning to the term “football family.” He takes suggestions from playersduring games and frequently meets with players one-on-one in his office.
He gave each player a 300-page book titled “The Winner’s Manual” when hewas hired and frequently has them read about attitude and faith during 10minutes of quiet time. He also led an offseason trip to Hartsock’s farm to helpthe team bond.
“He’s very, very much a throwback, a straightforward person,” Geiger said.”It is an extremely values-oriented presentation and it is utterly andcompletely consistent. The players have accepted this very, you’d almost say,’50s kind of value set. Because that’s the way it is. It is absolutely andcompletely resolute.”
