Jim Tressel: 2012 Colorado Coaching Search Profile

[buff4bcs1985]

Jim Tressel- Former Ohio St. Head Coach

Born: December 5th, 1952 Mentor, OH
Alma Mater: Baldwin-Wallace 1974

COACHING CAREER

1975-1978 Akron (GA)
1979-1980 Miami (OH) (QB/WR)
1981-1982 Syracuse (QB)
1983 Ohio State (QB/WR)
1984-1985 Ohio State (QB/RB/WR)
1986-2000 Youngstown State
2001-2010 Ohio State
2011 Indianapolis Colts (consultant)

Head coaching record
Overall 229–79–2
Bowls 5–4

Bio/Experience

John Cooper was fired as Ohio State's head football coach following a loss to unranked South Carolina in the 2001 Outback Bowl, and Tressel washired to replace Cooper. While addressing the Ohio State community duringhalftime of a basketball game just after being hired as head coach, Tresseldeclared, "I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people inthe classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor,Michigan, on the football field."
Tresselcoached the Buckeyes to two 19-game winning streaks, one in the 2002–2003season and the other in 2005–2006. Tressel's winning percentage at Ohio Stateof 81.0% is tied with John B.Eckstorm for the second best inschool history, behind only Carroll Widdoes' 16–2 (88.9%) mark in the 1944–1945seasons.
AsOhio State's head coach, Tressel is known for a conservative style of playcalling (dubbed "Tressel-ball"), winning games with just enoughscoring, strong defense, and "playing field position." Tressel often refers to the punt asthe most important play in football. In most interviews, he credits the seniorson the team, foregoing praise for his younger players, in an attempt to promotethose who have dedicated themselves to the Ohio State football program for a numberof years.] He issometimes referred to as "The Senator" (most notably by ESPN's Chris Fowler), because of hiscomposure on the sidelines during play and his diplomatic way of interactingwith representatives from the media. Heis also referred to as "The Vest" for his penchant for wearing a sweater vest on the sidelines.
Untilhis recent retirement, Tressel was one of only two active coaches with five ormore national championships in any division (only Larry Kehres of Division III Mount Union College has more with 10). His four nationalchampionships at Youngstown State gave him the distinction of being a part ofthe only father–son coaching combination to win a national championship (his father, Lee Tressel, won a Division III title at Baldwin–Wallace College in 1978). He is the third Tressel toreach 100 wins, joining his father (155 wins) and his older brother, Dick(currently OSU running backs coach), who coached at Hamline University (124 wins). As a family, with Jim's229 wins: Lee, Jim and Dick have won 508 games.
DuringTressel's first year, Ohio State had a 7–5 record. Ohio State returned to theOutback Bowl, where the Buckeyes once again fell to South Carolina. Althoughthe Buckeyes lost on a last minute field goal, the team battled back to tie thegame at 28–28 after being down 28–0. Despitea second consecutive bowl loss and a 5-loss season, Tressel had coached theBuckeyes to a 26–20 upset victory over Michigan, fulfilling the promise he hadmade 10 months earlier.
Thefollowing year Tressel and the Buckeyes became the first team in collegefootball history to finish 14–0, defeating the heavily favored University of Miami Hurricanes in double overtime to winthe 2003 Fiesta Bowl and the 2002 National Championship. Itwas Ohio State's first national championship in 34 years. That success made himthe first coach in NCAA history to win the AFCA's Coach of the Year award whileat different schools; he is also the first to win the award in two differentdivisions.
Theywere able to earn the national championship through close wins on adefensive-minded scheme that relied on field position. With a combination ofsenior leadership with Michael Doss andfreshman Maurice Clarett, Tresselwas able to pull out many close games during the season. Seven of their 14victories were within 7 points including one overtime game against Illinois,and a double overtime game coming in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. His playcalling style of toughdefense, conservative ball-control offense, and field position was dubbed"Tresselball" by the media.
Comingoff the national title season, the Buckeyes earned an 11–2 record in 2003, butthe team lost to Michigan in the 100th meeting between the two teams 35–21. TheBuckeyes finished the 2003 season with a 35–28 victory over Kansas State in theFiesta Bowl on January 2, 2004. In 2004, the team finished 8–4, closing out theseason with a 33–7 victory against OklahomaState at the Alamo Bowl and upsetting Michigan in the annualrivalry game. Ohio State was unranked and Michigan was ranked 7th and the finalscore was 37 to 21. During 2005, the Buckeyes had a 10–2 record which featuredan early season loss to eventual BCS National Champion Texas and another inHappy Valley versus Penn State, who finished the season ranked third in theBCS. However, the season ended with the Buckeyes defeating Notre Dame 34–20 in the Fiesta Bowl. The 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes football team went undefeated in the regularseason—including a 42–39 victory over Michigan which saw the first ever meetingbetween the two teams ranking numbers 1 and 2, respectively, in the nationalpolls. Ohio State finished secondin the final AP and Coaches polls after losing the 2007 BCS National Championship Game to the University of Florida, 41–14. In the2007 season Jim Tressel led the 11–1 Buckeyes to a third consecutive Big TenChampionship and second consecutive National Championship berth, played January7, 2008 against the LSU Tigers,in the Superdome. However OSU wasbeaten 38–24 by LSU, becoming only the second team to lose two consecutive BCStitle games (the first being the University of Oklahoma). In 2008 Ohio State won their fourthstraight Big Ten title. The Buckeyes played Texas in the Fiesta Bowl, comingback from an 11 point second half deficit to take the lead with just over 2minutes to play, only to lose when Texas scored with 16 seconds remaining.
The2009 team won its fifth straight conference title and earned a berth in theRose Bowl against Oregon, winning the game 26–17. The 2010 OSU football seasonfinished with the team posting a 12–1 record.

Questions

SHOW-CAUSE PENALTY: Let’s faceit, this is the only reason he is available. Is it enough of a reason not toseek him out?
Recruiting: An argument couldbe made that he is damaged goods when it comes to recruiting.
NCAA: Is he worth the headache?

Strengths

He’s Jim Tressel. He knows howto coach.
Big name
Recruiting
Highest Risk, exponentially higher reward potential.

 

[EddieCrowder]

Henderson had a tweet earlier, as well as Howell that Quoted Bohn as saying "NO WAY he would hire any coach under a show cause penalty",...... So does this make him the front runner ? because we all know anything Bohn has told us in the past is either a lie or at most 1/2 truth

 

[Tractor]

I must not be understanding this show cause penalty correctly, because I don't think it's awful.
1. Looks like it expires in December 2016, so it's only 4 years.
2. He can't coach for the first 5 games of the first season.
3. He has to submit a progress report every 6 months.


What can he do?
1. He can still recruit.
2. He can still pick whoever he wants to be on staff.
3. He's still the sweatervest.

Are we saying we won't hire him because of the initial application form thingy we'd have to write to convince the NCAA that Tressel is a good idea for us?

The NCAA hit Tressel with a five-year show-cause penalty until December 2016, under which any school that wants to hire him must submit a report to the NCAA detailing why it needs to employ him and how it would monitor him to ensure he doesn't break its rules again. Any school hiring Tressel during the five-year period would be subject to more severe sanctions if he cheats again.
Even if a school hires Tressel, he will be suspended for the first five regular-season games when he returns, as well as any postseason contests.

Does anyone actually know how serious the penalties would be if Tressell broke some rule? Or conversly, how small the infractions would be that could cause get us these massive penalties by the NCAA? I don't see the NCAA giving us the death penalty if he sent some texts to a recruit in a blackout period. I don't think we need to be concerned about him not coaching us in a national championship game in 2 years.

I'm not saying this is a must hire because I frankly thought his offenses were offensive to watch, and we need to be able to score points to win in our conference. However, I don't think this show cause penalty is that much of a dealbreaker. He's the only candidate that I think has that "Wow" factor. What am I missing?

 

[MtnBuff]

The NCAA would give us the death penalty for giving a recruit an extra toothpick if Tressel were to come here.

He's one of those guy who believes that if he isn't stretching the rules he's not trying, he doesn't consider it cheating which is why he will always be in trouble.

As successfull as he has been I think he could be the trainwreck that does actually cause CU to give up on big time football entirely. We would be like a lesser version of SMU toiling on the outskirts of the game after he was done with us, or more correctly the NCAA was done with making us an example.

 

[lawdogg]

Little risky for me, but it would be a ballsy move from the administration to make a hire like this. Pretty much a middle finger to the NCAA and it'd be kind of entertaining to see.

 

[leftybuff]

Free tatts for everyone!!!!

 

[dca]

Tressel would be a tremendous head coach. If you speak/hear/read stories from players under him you will learn he is a player's coach. Yes, he broke the rule and didn't communicate that he was warned of some possible infractions by players but let's be honest; The real problem is the NCAA. Come on, these are severe sanctions for players trading some memorabilia, quite possibly there own, for tattoos. Heck, they probably just needed beer, pizza, or video game money. These players put their careers and health at risk playing this game that getting bigger, faster, and more violent. I'm 6'1" 230lbs and I'll tell you, I'd crap my pants if Brandon Jacobs, a 6'4 265 running back, was running at me putting his helmet down. It's a different game via the physicality of it but also the competitiveness driven by 24 hours sports channels and the internet. Let's give these student athletes a break and realize what Terrelle Prior and subsequently what Jim Tressel did was minor and more a reflection of an organization leadership, NCAA, that is out of touch. Back to Jim Tressel; He is a man of integrity. He preaches it and does live by it. The situation was unfortunate and a rule is a rule but sometimes rules are meant to be broken so change occurs. CU, if you want to win, hire Jim Tressel and do not worry about the 'risk'.