Tressel’s Buckeyes: How Long Will it Last?

Despite their impressive success, including matching the 1968-1970 OSU mark of 27-2 with a victory over Marshall in September, these Buckeyes have failed to achieve the outright superiority of the former era.

True, both versions defeated Michigan twice in a three-year run, but the '68 and '70 Buckeyes won by a combined 49 points, for a net three-year gain of 37 points, as opposed to Tressel's Buckeyes, who have been outscored by the Maize and Blue, irrespective of that 2-1 mark.

From my vantage point, Coach Tressel has attempted to return the boys of Columbus back to the days of W. W. Hayes, when the Buckeyes won through a savage running attack, i.e. an offense that controlled the football and did not fumble it (you see, throwing it wasn't a real option), and a defense that stymied the run and forced turnovers.

In 2002, with the onset of the brief Maurice Clarett era, OSU finagled its way into the Fiesta Bowl, and won the championship through discipline and Miami's self-destruction. The following season, remnants of that defense carried a near incompetent offense to within one game of playing in the Sugar Bowl -- until the lack of a ball-control offense was exposed in Ann Arbor.

Buckeye partisans revere the 2002 team, its first edition to post nary a loss in 29 seasons, and remain grateful to Coach Tressel for bringing the order required to win the toughest games, such as the 14-9 victory over Michigan and the 31-24 2OT duel in the desert with the Hurricanes (2002 season). However, as evident by last week's performance, the 2004 edition, despite a No. 15 ranking, is becoming almost unwatchable, except for the casual fan that enjoys the inevitable close games that Tressel's system inherently renders.

In a peculiar way, Jim Tressel's style of football is more suited for the National Football League than even the Big 10 because of his beliefs: the punt is paramount, causing turnovers and not making them are keys to victory, and field goals are the "points on the board" that win football games. In the world of the NFL, 20 yards gained on a punt should net 20 less yards requisite to kick a field goal on a subsequent possession -- but this method is flawed for college football, even in a conference such as the Big 10.

The biggest difference is talent disparity; I've written before how college football is an oligarchy of the elite, which, ipso facto, entails that said elite should dominate others except when matched against themselves. In other words, there is no real reason why all but 15 teams in a given year should play the Buckeyes even remotely tough at Ohio Stadium.

In the days of former coach John Cooper, the Bucks punished inferior teams in Columbus, even if he had some difficulties with That Team Up North -- but were those OSU players more talented (chiefly 1993-1998) than Tressel's current outfit, even including the 25-2 bunch of 2002-2003?

I would posit in the affirmative; Coach Tressel simply does not recruit as well as his predecessor, but the man has his reasons. Tressel, who earned the job with his sterling record at Youngstown State (OH), loves Ohio football players, correctly or incorrectly believing them to be hungrier and tougher than perhaps those sleeker and faster teenagers from Florida, California, and Texas.

Arguably, the only star successfully recruited by Tressel was Clarett, and one knows how that turned out; the Buckeyes' most talented performer proved to be the running back necessary for moving the chains consistently (without him, the offense rarely found the end zone), but through his own voluntary action embroiled the Ohio State University in a scandal that wounded and weakened the football program.

One can almost smile with bemusement as one recalls the shortness of OSU fan memory. During the 1993-1998 (62-12-1) run which included finishing second in the polls twice, partisans moaned that despite the prodigious offense and renowned running attack, the Buckeyes flopped in the clutch, posting a dubious 2-4 cumulative effort against Michigan, three of those losses constituting their first of the season. Bowl games went slightly better (3-3) but Ls to the SEC further eroded Cooper's standing in the eyes of the masses; indeed, a loss to a less-than-powerful SEC school (South Carolina in Tampa) would end his tenure in Columbus.

Jim Tressel has coached OSU to victories against Michigan in two of three contests, won two BCS bowl games, reaching his zenith with a 19-game winning streak that ended in Madison. However, once No. 13 exited the premises, the offense bogged down, often coercing the defense to save their regretful performance with spectacular plays (i.e. Chris Gamble's interception return in a 13-7 win over Penn State; Will Allen's length of the field return against San Diego State in a 16-13 escape in Columbus).

Running the football is part of the identity at Ohio State, matched only by their counterparts in Lincoln and Los Angeles, but the very core of their football program (and all those Heisman Trophies and countless formidable running backs) remains in question. Jim Tressel's near-hypnotic hold on the emotional partisans will dissipate entirely if M-ee-chigan dominates a hapless Buckeye squad that futilely aspires to run the ball as if the year was 1973 and they had an All-American tackle and an All-American tailback.

In my view, the rest of the Buckeye season is relatively meaningless until a certain Saturday in November; certainly road wins at Iowa City, East Lansing, and especially West Lafayette would bolster the program and perhaps allow for a top-25 season once again -- but Jim Tressel has to engineer another victory at the 'Shoe over Michigan (Since 1992, the Wolverines are 2-3-1 on the banks of the Ohentange) to prove the validity of his aforementioned coaching style. In the last campaign, the yellow-and-blue helmets were in danger of falling to second place in this rivalry for the first time since 1975; they easily prevailed, 35-21, and did not lose three-straight in the series for the first time since 1963.

Now, the current OSU regime faces a critical test on that late autumn day in Columbus; failure, particularly if it reinforces the impressions garnered since the disappearance of the offense in 2003, leaves the Buckeyes staring at possibly three-straight losses to Michigan, given the setting for the 2005 contest.

With that, Jim Tressel is no longer little more than John Cooper, minus the explosive offense and talented recruits; although one supposes a shiny silver football residing at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center might afford him more time to get the program in healthier condition.