...I have to say that 2002 scratched a very deep itch for me because of the near misses that were followed by an era of inexcusable mediocrity. John Cooper bringing us "back to the table" is something that I too have appreciated. But only to a point.
I have been a rabid, over-the-top, way-too-intense Buckeye fan for most of my life. I was at OSU during the "dark days", and I was as passionate then as I ever was.
My passion did not wane early in the Cooper years. But as the off-the-field and sadly, on-the-field behavior got worse and worse; I eventually reached a point where I could not cheer for the team any more. I was more interested when Earle Bruce presided over mediocrity than I was when Cooper brought us back to the table as the spoiled rotten brat punks that taunted the opposition whether they were winning or down by 4 touchdowns.
I may have been able to hang on. But Cooper left me with nothing to hang on to. The game against That School Up North was treated as just another game. Ohio High School Football meant nothing to Coach Cooper; at least not that anyone could tell. Perhaps worst of all, the head coach referred to The Horseshoe as "Buckeye Stadium". I threw up a little in my mouth as I typed that.
In short, when it became clear that these were not young men I could cheer for and this was not a school or a team that I even recognized, tradition-wise; I simply stopped watching. I didn't stop caring though. I was surprised at how bitterly disappointed I was when I heard of the inexplicable upset at the hands of the Spartans in '98. My wife was even more surprised. I had given her no indication before that of even caring about OSU football.
When Cooper was fired I warned my wife that, if "they" hire the right guy; I'm going to be an Ohio State fan again. After Tressel's first interviews, and after his "310 days" speech, I told her "It's On".
This brings me back to my point. Cooper brought us back to the table of Big Time College Football. But the way he led the team it was a place at the table for "them"; not for me.
Tressel has maintained and improved our position at the table, and he has done it in such a way that OSU is a "we" again for me. He has even surpassed Woody in this respect. Don't get me wrong; I revere Woody. But his flaws made me cringe on occasion. Not so with JT.
Not once during the Tressel tenure have I been embarrassed to be an OSU fan or ashamed of the coach's behavior. Not even during the MoC stuff. The people that taunted me then are getting their own medicine now.
And then there is the tradition. Jim Tressel has not only revived it. He's added to it. He knows of Woody's place in our hearts, and he's created places to remind today's players of the best of Woody. And he even knows that the coaches that were not quite the stewards of the program that he is still have a place in the program's history. So he created the Coach Emeritus office for them in 'The Woody'.
Jim Tressel has us in a Golden Age. But in this Golden Age; we know that cameramen will not be punched, we know that taunting of the opposition will not become a pattern, we have even seen a 1 year + hiatus in arrests and such. Problems will happen in the future, but we know they won't become the pervasive embarrassment that they once were. In this Golden Age, there are several running clocks that the players see every day that remind them of how long it is until they play "That School Up North". In this Golden Age, the players cite the accomplishments of not only their teammates, but of Buckeyes past when they are asked about themselves. In this Golden Age, being a Buckeye means more than we could ever put into words.
This is a Golden Age in more ways than one, and for that we owe Jim Tressel a debt of gratitude that we can only pay forward, for we can never pay it back.
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