Compared to the overwhelming majority of Ohio State students, I know little about the logistics of football, and I certainly could not presume to predict who would have made the most successful coach. But I do know this: Watching Jim Tressel’s Thursday press conference made me so proud of OSU and its priorities for selecting a new coach. Tressel completely astonished me with his genuineness, his humility and his quiet insight. People who knew Tressel in Youngstown compliment him profusely. His players laud his interest in their lives, and not just their football lives, but their academic and personal lives as well. From every indication, the people associated with Youngstown State feel like Tressel is a member of their family, a member they are sorry to lose. The praise that the Youngstown State faithful is so quick to offer Tressel is for more than his exemplary record of 135-57-2, and four national championships. Tressel is revered for his meticulous attention to academics, and perhaps most importantly, his concern for his team’s character. At a school where the student body graduation rate is barely above 30 percent, Tressel has graduated 59 percent of his football team. When he met with the Buckeyes on Thursday, he preached the importance of class attendance and told them they should only miss a class for a death in the family, your own death. This is, obviously, a large part of what has been lacking recently in OSU athletics‚ the presence of a coach determined to see his kids succeed on the field and in the classroom.The good that everyone who knows Tressel sees in him was clearly exemplified in Thursday’s press conference. His mother and the wife of his high school football coach were in the front row supporting him. His entire family was there, except for his son, Zac, a junior at OSU, because Tressel would not allow him to miss a physics class. Throughout the entire news conference, he spoke about the importance of unselfishness, and the necessity of building strong, founded relationships with everyone associated with OSU football.He later talked about the lessons he learned from his father, Lee, who coached him at Baldwin-Wallace.Tressel said after he’d won his first championship and was awaiting the trophy presentation, a reporter caught up with him and asked if he could repeat. But that’s reality, Tressel conceded. And those victories, as Phil Jackson would say, they’re ephemeral, they disappear. But the other things, they stay there for life. And I think that’s what I learned most from my own father. That’s what struck me about that story, and indeed Tressel himself, was its authenticity. He wasn’t offering a cute parable to the media‚ he was talking to me, and everyone else who was watching him. He believes in the importance of character. Football means something more to him than winning and losing, and that transcended through everything he said. Tressel continued to answer questions with humor, honesty and integrity. And then came Michigan. When he was asked what he had done to beat the Wolverines, less than an hour after he’d been hired, he first voiced his respect for their program, and then proceeded to answer simply, ” I have begun the process to create a relationship with my new family… because without that relationship, we can’t beat Michigan. That is the key.” Such grace. Such dignity. We need people like that around here.
Sarah Topy is a sophomore in political science at OSU. While she feels very sorry for Glen Mason, who is heartbroken over losing this job, she is confident in Coach Tressel’ s ability. She can be reached at [email protected].