Football
Senator Jim Tressel: Buckeye Jekyll and Hyde?
By John Porentas

Senator Jim Tressel
Photo by Jim Davidson

The sweater vest, the suit, the American flag lapel pin, the even, almost monotone voice, the calm demeanor in the face of both victory and defeat; if you follow Ohio State football, you know that description applies to OSU Head Football Coach Jim Tressel. He is The Senator.

Tressel fans see that all as a gigantic plus. To them, those outward traits reflect Tressel's personal philosophy of consistency and conservative midwest values to which they can relate. "You get as your works deserve", "You improve a little each day," "Loyalty to family and friends" and "You win the surest way" sum up Jim Tressel for them, and they like it. Flash, dash, and open emotions don't matter. Solid values and consistency, particularly in the area of winning football games, are really what matter, and nothing else. We don't need no stinking loud-mouth Pete Carroll. We like our nice, quiet, calm Jim Tressel.

Dorky Jim Tressel
Photo by Jim Davidson

If Jim Tressel is not exactly your cup of tea, you see him differently. He is a stodgy, stubborn reactionary who will always do it "his way", even when it seems the the rest of the entire college football world thinks he is wrong. To his detractors, Tressel's dorky, dry, public persona make him a walking, droning gob of boredom. His lone redeeming value is that he (and his offense) have single handedly reduced your need for valium to zero. You need to sleep or drift off to la-la land? Just sit in the front row of his press conferences or watch his offense. Mr. Excitement he ain't.

Here is what doesn't make sense. Football is an emotional game. That's pretty much a universally accepted given. Teams also tend to reflect their head coach. That is also a pretty much universally accepted given. If you are a Buckeye fan, that combination of givens should give you pause, but the indisputable facts of his record say that Mr. Bland Sweater Vest fields team after team that plays with determination and passion, and that translates into winning a lot of football games.

So OK, one of two things have to be true. Either football teams do not reflect their head coach (otherwise OSU's teams would play like zombies) or deep down in the hidden recesses of The Vest there exists a different Jim Tressel that comes out at dark and shadowy times and inspires his teams. Not likely you say, Mister "Tressel is boring?" His players say otherwise.

"I've been around here for a while. I've heard it a few times, especially when we need it," said senior captain Kurt Coleman of Tressel's ability to get fired up, and more importantly, show it.

"I think half time and before the game are two of he biggest times when you can see the emotion in his face, you can feel it.

"He lets us know that it's never going to be an easy game and we have to rise to the challenge. He does a good job of telling us that," Coleman said.

Shocked? So were we. Coleman's proclamation left us dubious, so we did what any self-respecting skeptic would do, we looked for somebody to refute him. Amazingly, we couldn't find that person.

"Yeah, he does, he gets fired up before games, he'll get fired up at half time," agreed senior cornerback Chimdi Chekwa.

"Sometimes he gets loud, sometimes he just has that stern voice and he's always kicking his feet. You just know when he's serious and when he's fired up," Chekwa said.

With Coleman, we were skeptical. With Chekwa, we were slack-jawed. Jim Tressel, yelling, kicking his feet? Chimdi, you have to be thinking of somebody else, right? Wrong. Ross Homan said the same thing.

"Oh yeah, he yells. He wants to get us ready for the game and get us pumped," said Homan.

"Coach Tressel is a very competitive person. He wants to win more than anyone I think. He'll get fired up. At half time he'll get fired up," Homan said.

It was a revelation to say the least, but as we explored it further, we found a bit of the Tressel methodology in his madness. Tressel's normal calm and flat emotions serve as a stark and effective background for his occasional outburst that make them all the more effective when they happen. Tressel, not surprisingly, picks his shots.

"Yeah, and we definitely feed off it too, because he does it right at the opportune time, right before we hit the field, so as soon as we hit the field we're ready to go," he said.

"He does a great job of controlling our emotions and dictating which time to say things."

Tressel picks his spots, and the spot he picks most often is that last game of the regular season. His players say that is one time of year you can count on Emotional Tressel to be around.

"Every once in a while, (but) especially when we play Michigan, that's probably when he gets the most fired up," said Chekwa.

According to both Homan and Coleman, Emotional Tressel was front and center last season heading into the game with the Wolverines.

A determined and serious-looking Jim Tressel leads his team onto the field before the 2008 Michigan game.
Photo by Dan Harker

"Yeah, he was ready for that one. I remember that. He was pretty fired up for that," said Homan.

"Last year when we played Michigan, that's the thing that sticks out in my mind," said Coleman when asked to recollect Tressel's most emotional moment during his OSU career.

So what did Coach Fire and Brimstone say before that game?

"I can't really say what he said, but it was moving and I felt it," said Coleman.

"As you can see, we kind of took the field in a different manner."

Coleman was careful with his words. He didn't say he couldn't remember what Tressel said, only that he couldn't repeat it.

A non-repeatable outburst?

Jim Tressel?

Apparently so.

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