Tag: jim tressel

Watch: Former Ohio State legend Jim Tressel addresses team during spring practice

The sweater vest was about in the WHAC

This Saturday Ohio State football held a scrimmage and hosted a very special guest, former Buckeyes head coach [autotag]Jim Tressel[/autotag].

The championship winning, now retired athletic director wasn’t just there to watch the action. Tressel got a chance to address the team once again, as he wore his classic outfit, the sweater vest.

Unfortunately the clip that was shared by the Ohio State football official social media account was extremely short, but it was still great to see JT back on the sidelines in Columbus.

Check out the clip below, as Tressel reminisced about his accomplishment that still adorn the hallways of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

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See former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel’s custom sweater vest

Great to see “The Senator” roaming the Ohio State sidelines once again #GoBucks

It was a homecoming of sorts for [autotag]Jim Tressel[/autotag] and the [autotag]Ohio State football[/autotag] team.

The national-championship-winning former Buckeye head coach is also the former president of [autotag]Youngstown State,[/autotag] and with the Penguins traveling to Columbus to face Tressel’s former team, he had to do something special.

On of his nicknames was “The Sweater Vest,” and Tressel did not disappoint on Saturday with his attire. He wore a custom Ohio State and Youngstown State version of his classic look, still showing that he still has love for the Buckeyes.

If you ask me, Tressel should have been named the next president over [autotag]Walter Carter Jr.[/autotag], but that is now a moot point. Regardless, the Sweater vest was once again roaming the Ohio State sidelines and it was great to see.

Here’s another look at it.

USA TODAY Sports

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Jim Tressel sensed something was off prior to the 2006 BCS National Championship game

This makes a little more sense for those that can remember. #GoBucks

It has been a long time since the Ohio State football program was bludgeoned in the desert in January 2007. That Buckeye team was ranked No. 1 all season and steamrolled through the regular season. It finished with an epic 42-39 victory over Michigan in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup that seemed the prelude to a national title.

It wasn’t meant to be though. A long layoff, a very hungry Florida squad coached by Urban Meyer, and maybe a little complacency led to a Gators romp, 41-14.

Take nothing away from Florida because it was the far better team that night, but that Ohio State team looked like a shell of the one we saw during the season. We’ve received some tidbits from former head coach Jim Tressel before on that game, but we gained a little more from him thanks to the “More than Coach Speak” podcast that dropped this past week.

According to Tressel, it’s the one game that has stuck with him over the years. In fact, he sensed the team wasn’t quite in the right mindset.

“Probably the one that I think about that I knew where we were heading and I couldn’t get us turned around was 2006,” Tressel said. “We were undefeated and we had beaten Michigan, who was No. 2, and it was a big game, we were ranked one and two. And all of a sudden going into the championship game, you could just see our guys were on their phones with their agents, it was an older team, couldn’t get their attention. You could see they weren’t training like we normally trained, and we talked to them about it. That was one of the lowlights of – gosh, how could we have gotten through to them?”

According to “The Senator,” his staff went back and forth on how to handle what they were seeing and feeling but felt the team was veteran enough and had shown enough during the season to not disrupt things too much. The one thing they implemented was to travel to Phoenix a few days earlier to try and get the team refocused, but not much else.

“As a staff, we were talking about, we were kind of vacillating back and forth that, well we don’t want to be brow-beating too bad and hit them over the head, ‘Practice 10 times harder.’ Because this team had just done a great job. They had done everything we asked them to do,” Tressel said. “They won every game. They trained like we wanted them to train. And so we probably erred on the side of thinking you know what, they’re mature enough. As it gets closer, we’ll get more tuned in.

“In fact, we went out three or four days earlier than we normally went because we were sensing we need to get this thing turned around. So I think maybe somehow getting them to address it to each other,” continued Tressel. “I’ve always found that if the players tell each other how they should be thinking — it can be even more effective than the staff doing it.”

Sometimes as a coach, there are strings to pull and it’s hard to figure out which ones get pulled at the right time and the right direction. It ultimately wasn’t enough against an SEC team that felt disrespected and underappreciated, and it showed.

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Deja vu: Former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel says ‘Buckeyes will make us proud in Ann Arbor’

Sound familiar? #GoBucks

Now where have we heard this before?

When former Ohio State football head coach Jim Tressel was hired as the Buckeyes’ new head coach after John Cooper was fired back in 2001, he was introduced in front of a Michigan vs. OSU basketball crowd at home where he uttered some famous words to Buckeye Nation.

“I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially — in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan.”

That phrase ended up being quite prophetic because Ohio State went on to upset the Wolverines in Ann Arbor that year, then went on to turn around the narrative and culture of the rivalry, one that OSU owned for nearly two decades. It was the precursor to a national title following the 2002 season.

Now, it seems, Tressel is at it again, and his words have a familiar ring to them, one that’s music to those with scarlet and gray pajamas. While appearing at a celebrity dinner to benefit the Historic South Initiative, Tressel was asked about “The Game” and the Buckeyes’ chances in Ann Arbor this fall by David Briggs of the Toledo Blade (subscription may be required).

“There’s no question,” Tressel responded, “that I think the Buckeyes will make us proud in Ann Arbor.”

Will history repeat itself? Let’s hope so. Ohio State isn’t nearly in the spot it was back in 2001 and was still arguably more talented than the last two Michigan teams. However, there clearly needs to an injection of confidence and execution that hasn’t been there the last two times out. Could Tressel’s words be a sign of things to come again?

I guess we’ll find out in 190 days …

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Jim Tressel provides thoughts on job Ryan Day is doing with Ohio State

What does Tressel think of Ryan Day? #GoBucks

The head coach of a big-time football program is a select fraternity. Being the head man at a program such as Ohio State is also a job like few others in the country: Expectations are to the moon and back. It’s a fishbowl where you have to beat Michigan, make a run for the College Football Playoff national championship — and, oh yeah — beat teams you are supposed to handle easily by a margin wider than the Grand Canyon.

So far, there is a large population of Ohio State football fans that aren’t feeling the vibes of the [autotag]Ryan Day[/autotag] era. Two straight losses to Michigan that include being eliminated from a shot at a Big Ten title whip the armchair quarterbacks into a frenzy.

Couple that with no national titles and there’s no offset to make the restless scarlet and gray natives happy. Even coming so achingly close to knocking off Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl didn’t seem to quiet the doubters despite Day holding a 45-6 record as head coach in Columbus.

Again, lofty expectations.

But someone in the Buckeye coaching fraternity has come out in support of Day: beloved former OSU coach [autotag]Jim Tressel[/autotag].

If anyone is qualified to speak on how an Ohio State head coach is doing, it’s the sweater-vested senator himself. He turned the tide in the Michigan rivalry by losing just once in 10 tries against the evil empire, brought home a national championship in 2002 by beating the “unbeatable” Miami Hurricanes, won the Big Ten seven times and made a national championship game appearance three times. He had a 106-22 overall record.

So yeah, Tressel has the authority to speak on what kind of job Day is doing on the banks of the Olentangy.

While speaking to the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club in Canton, Ohio on Monday, Tressel touched on the job he thinks Day is doing, and where he believes the program is headed under his watch.

“I’m a Ryan Day fan,” Tressel said, according to a story from cantonrep.com. “I think he’s got something about him.”

Tressel didn’t stop there and said that the program will be just fine heading into the future. He even spoke about the emerging utilization of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL), something Day and staff haven’t necessarily figured out just yet (welcome to the club).

“The people who spend a lot of time whining about (transfer portal and NIL) aren’t going to progress,” Tressel said. “The people who try to figure out how to do it well are going to be much ahead.

“I think Ryan Day is going to navigate this. Sure, he’s going to lose some players, and, sure, there’s going to be a player or two who comes to him. He’s never going to be a guy who runs all over the place and has 19 roster changes. He’s going to recruit well and build within.”

Only time and results will tell whether Tressel’s opinion of the program under Day is right, at least in the eyes of those that plan their weekends around the television watching Ohio State football in the fall.

First things first, Day needs to beat back the colors of maize and blue this November. Then things will begin to fall in place — unless, of course, the Buckeyes lose to Notre Dame, Wisconsin or Penn State along the way.

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Marcus Freeman is turning into his former coach right before our eyes

It wouldn’t be a bad comparison at all

As many of you know, or if you don’t, I went to Ohio State in the early 2000’s and was a student when Jim Tressel arrived on campus. The Senator took over a program that couldn’t get over the edge (win big games) and helped rebuild it to what we see now. Tressel won a BCS Championship in his second season, after a very shaky 7-5 initial campaign although they did win their rivalry game against Michigan after his infamous speech.

What we are seeing with Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame could very well be a similar trajectory and here as some very interesting similarities that I see between the two.

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Ohio Stadium at 100, Episode 2: ‘Tressel’s Guarantee’

The Horseshoe celebrates 100 years.

Jim Tressel’s 2002 National Championship Team

This year celebrates the 100-year Anniversary of the Ohio Stadium. The extraordinary construction was designed by architecture Howard Dwight Smith and finished in 1922. In this five-segment series, you will travel in time to learn about the rich history and the ways The Horseshoe has been celebrated over the past century.

Watch Episode 1: “Unexpected Perfection”

 

Jim Tressel delivers epic speech to celebrate 100 year anniversary of Ohio Stadium

This is well worth about ten minutes of your time.

The sweater vest still has it.

In case you missed it, former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel was back in town this past week to help celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Ohio Stadium. And while he may have left the Buckeye sidelines after the 2010 season, there’s no doubt he still bleeds scarlet and gray.

That was no more evident than during the speech he gave at a function inside the ‘Shoe in front of former players and OSU support personnel commemorating all that is the grand old stadium on the banks of the Olentangy. Despite it being an exclusive list of folks who were able to witness the speech, we have almost nine minutes of footage from “The Senator” as he walked down memory lane in a pretty humorous and sentimental speech.

It’s all thanks to one of his former players, Bobby Carpenter, who played for him from 2002 to 2005 and captured what can only be described as a very entertaining time at the podium. Watch it for yourself below.

Trust us when we say it’ll have you in stitches at times, and remembering your own fond memories of Ohio Stadium at others.

I found myself watching this twice. Not just to lob this out there for all of you to enjoy, but because it was entertaining enough to do so. In case you weren’t aware, one of the endearing qualities that Tressel had during his time at OSU was this sense of humor.

I’ve interviewed a couple of former players myself and read or watched others, and they all say that a little-known fact about him that the public didn’t often get to see was that he was an extremely witty guy.

I know he didn’t leave the program on the best of terms, but these types of moments are why Buckeye Nation will always think of Tressel with fond memories.

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Jim Tressel to step down as president of Youngstown State in 2023

Jim Tressel will apparently enter a new phase in his life. #GoBucks

The sweater vest is moving on from Youngstown State. Jim Tressel announced on Thursday that he will be retiring as president of YSU effective February 1, 2023.

“It has been truly a blessing and labor of love to serve Youngstown State University … I cannot thank my family enough for allowing my schedule, and the needs of our university, to take priority and center stage,” Tressel said. “It is now only fair to have Ellen (his wife), our wonderful children and grandchildren, extended family, friends and former students, set the schedule.”

Tressel has been the president at Youngstown State since 2014. That was after he was the head coach of the Penguins from 1986 to 2000. He was then named the new head coach at Ohio State in 2001 where he went 106-22 in ten seasons that included a national championship in 2002. He led OSU to seven Big Ten titles, stringing together five straight from 2005 to 2009.

Tressel resigned in 2011 after a well-publicized scandal that involved, among other things, a tattoo for memorabilia scandal by OSU players. He then returned to Youngstown State to continue to have an impact on the lives of young people.

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The day after: Three lasting thoughts after Notre Dame’s Blue vs. Gold game

What still sticks out in your mind?

It was a fantastic April Saturday, the weather cooperated and the Irish won a football game. There were plenty of instant takes after the game concluded but now that it has been about 24-hours, there is more to digest. Here are a few lasting thoughts from Notre Dame’s Blue vs. Gold game.

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