Jim Tressel (official thread)

[osugrad21]

Link

The best of college football's offense and coaching
August 14, 2006
I never thought I'd ever see anything more humiliating, more emasculating, than my wife putting a diaper on my 15-year-old dog.
Seriously, he was looking at me like, "Bro, we've been through everything together. A diaper?"
So as I'm petting him and telling him it's better than the alternative, I'm thinking to myself, there's no doubt this is the best dog ever. The Best.
Now that I've wasted 30 seconds of your life with that anecdote, I've got some more bests going into the season. We'll start with coaches and offense today, and go with defense and special teams tomorrow.
Best coach: Pete Carroll, USC.
Best program builder: Mark Richt, Georgia.
Best coach to win one game: Jim Tressel, Ohio State.
Best shot at moving up: George O'Leary, UCF.
Best shot at moving out: Phil Fulmer, Tennessee.
Best RB on third and short: Brian Leonard, Rutgers.
Best RB workhorse: Kenny Irons, Auburn.
Best RB you've never heard of: Mike Hamilton, Oklahoma State.
Best QB in the clutch: Brady Quinn, Notre Dame.
Best QB in the two-minute drill: Tyler Palko, Pittsburgh.
Best QB you've never heard of: John Beck, BYU.
Best hands on third and short: TE Zach Miller, Arizona State.
Best deep threat: Jason Hill, Washington State.
Best WR you've never heard of: Joel Filani, Texas Tech.
Best dog: mine. Diaper and all.

[OSUBuckeye4Life]

Best QB in the clutch: Brady Quinn, Notre Dame.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Best QB in the clutch: Brady Quinn, Notre Dame.

I bet that Michigan would vote differently...

[osugrad21]

Sporting News

The best of college football's defense and special teams
August 15, 2006
Best of the offense and coaching

Curt Thiel in Detroit asks how I can pick Jim Tressel as the guy to coach my team for one game?
"He has been around for five years," Curt says. "Let's let him get some wear and tear on those tires before we offer him up to sainthood."
Just a hunch, but I'm guessing Curt is a Michigan fan. It helped that his email signature says Go Big Blue! Ah, those Michy fans. So ahead of the curve (see: my friend Tommy's blog), so utterly flummoxed about 1-4.
Now, on with the Bests list. This time: defense and special teams.
Best defensive coordinator: Gene Chizik, Texas
Best scheme for certain packages: Jon Tenuta, Georgia Tech
Best rush end: Gaines Adams, Clemson
Best combo end: Quentin Moses, Georgia
Best end you've never heard of: Mkristo Bruce, Washington State
Best run-stuffing tackle: Brandon Mebane, California
Best combo tackle: Andre Fluellen, Florida State
Best tackle you've never heard of: Kevin Brown, UCLA
Best rush linebacker: Vince Hall, Virginia Tech
Best combo linebacker: Rufus Alexander, Oklahoma
Best linebacker you've never heard of: Jason Phillips, TCU
Best cover corner: John Talley, Duke
Best combo corner: Darrelle Revis, Pittsburgh
Best corner you've never heard of: Joe Burnett, Central Florida
Best safety in run support: Brandon Merriweather, Miami
Best safety against the pass: LaRon Landry, LSU
Best combo safety: Michael Griffin, Texas
Best safety you've never heard of: J.D. Nelson, Oregon
Best leg for a kicker: Mason Crosby, Colorado
Best kicker in the clutch: Alexis Serna, Oregon State
Best punter: Daniel Sepulveda, Baylor
Best placement punter: Gordon Ely-Kelso, Georgia
Best kick returner: Steve Breaston, Michigan
Best punt returner: Ted Ginn Jr., Ohio State
Best return man you've never heard of: Rafael Little, Kentucky

[Buckskin86]

Updated: Aug. 17, 2006, 12:11 PM ET
Tressel expects offense, defense to work 'in concert'By Ivan Maisel
ESPN.com

The formula that Jim Tressel has used to win at Ohio State is Midwestern simple. The Buckeyes depend on defense and special teams to pin the opponent in its own territory until it makes a mistake. If the offense contributes, as it did last season, great. If it didn't contribute much, as was the case in the previous three years, that was OK, too.

It is known as Tresselball, and you would have to say it has worked pretty well. In five seasons, Tressel has won one national championship and two Big Ten titles. He has won 50 games and lost 13, which makes his .794 winning percentage third in Buckeyes history behind John B. Eckstorm, who went 22-4-3 (.810) during 1899-1901, and Carroll C. Widdoes, who went 16-2 (.889) during 1944-45.


As Ohio State prepares for its Sept. 2 opener against Northern Illinois, however, up is down and down is up. The Buckeyes' offense returns eight starters, including smooth quarterback Troy Smith and quicksilver wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. The defense returns only two starters: tackles Quinn Pitcock and David Patterson. There is no one on the roster who has ever attempted a collegiate extra point or field goal.

All of which is to say: Has Tressel gone all Mike Leach on us? Whatever happened to the game plans as conservative as the head coach's sweater-vest-and-tie look?

The answer, Tressel said, is nothing. There has been no change in outlook, only one in experience.

"There may be an awareness shift externally," Tressel said, referring to the unknown names on the Buckeyes' starting defense. "Internally, we won't change a thing as to what we deem important. That's the only way we know how to do it."

No change? No clock-milking by the offense in September to keep a young defense off the field? No patient grinding out of first downs to shorten the game?

Tressel listened to the question with the patience of a first-grade teacher, which just may have been his assessment of the level of the inquiry.

"Defense and special teams still have got to be at the root of our excellence," Tressel said. "I don't think you can win a championship without excellent special teams. Again, I haven't experienced everything, but I've experienced a lot, and I just don't think you can. I've seen teams win it a little more offensively, a little more defensively. We're not going to change any emphasis.

"Will we go into the game thinking we have to outscore people? No. That's not what we do."

You can say that again. These Buckeyes are 180 degrees different from the 2002-03 Buckeyes, who went 25-2 with an offense whose every first down was cause for a school holiday. Take the 16-13 overtime victory over Purdue in 2003. Ohio State failed to score an offensive touchdown, and in the second half never got within 23 yards of the Boilermakers end zone.

"We've never de-emphasized offense," Tressel said. "We've always tried to play both sides of the ball to make sure we're in harmony. We need to be in concert with what we do. Sometimes, I've seen teams make mistakes in who they're trying to be doesn't relate. You try to work on these things in concert."

After that Purdue game, the Buckeyes defensive players bristled at the notion that they might ever tire of carrying the offense. Three years later, that's pretty much the same reaction that came from Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith.

"It's a team effort in every sense of the game," Smith said. "Whether it's special teams, offense or defense, we all rely on one another to get to the next level, to get that victory."

Not only that, Smith said, but after a summer of seven-on-seven drills, he doesn't see much cause for concern.

"I think they're going to do more than enough to keep us in every football game," Smith said. "I think one thing I've seen thus far is a fast bunch. Year after year we produce a good defense. I think this is going to be another year where we got a group of guys who are going to fly around the ball and make plays."

You can make the case that Ohio State isn't as in need of defense as two returning starters might suggest. Senior linebacker Mike D'Andrea, for example, is a medical redshirt who played extensively in 2002-03 before a knee injury knocked him out of most of the last two seasons. Fellow senior linebacker John Kerr started 12 games as a freshman in 2002 at Indiana, before transferring. Fifth-year senior end Jay Richardson started six games as a sophomore and came into most games last season on the second series. Sophomore corner Malcolm Jenkins started three games last season.

"I think it's the recognition factor," Tressel said. "People recognize Troy's name and Teddy's name and [tailback] Antonio Pittman's name and [center] Doug Datish's name. They just do. There'll be some names they recognize a little bit on our defensive side. But right now the experience is those guys like Quinn Pitcock, who's not going to have gigantic numbers. But turn on the film in our last two games. If he doesn't make a few plays, who knows what the difference is? And you can't even read it in the stats."

OK, maybe there's no need to panic. But there's no question that, for the first time in Tressel's time at Ohio State, the offense is the most experienced and most accomplished unit on the field. The 2006 edition of Tresselball is new. The onus is on the Buckeyes to see whether it's improved.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/previe...van&id=2551593

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

msnbc.com

8/19/06

Tressel top reason for OSU's return to glory

Credit coach for having program at strongest point since Woody Hayes era


COMMENTARY
By Keith Langlois
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 9:04 p.m. ET Aug 18, 2006

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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Pick a college. Call it State U. And let’s say State U. had a terrific season in 2005, winning 10 games and routing Notre Dame in a BCS bowl. State U’s only losses were to the eventual nationa