OSU has a Valley flavor

It hasn't yet sunk in for some former YSU coaches now at Ohio State.
By GARY HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
It was almost like being stuck in a Youngstown State time machine at Ohio State's media day. There was Jim Tressel, head coach of the Buckeyes, with an all-star cast of one-time YSU coaches at his side.
Assistants Ken Conatser, Jim Bollman, Mark Dantonio, Mark Snyder and Bob Tucker all patrolled the Stambaugh Stadium sideline at one time or another in their respective college coaching careers. And then there was Mike Cochran, the former strength coach of the Penguins and a recent addition to Tressel's staff, hired to be an assistant strength coach at Ohio State.
It was a reunion made possible in part because of all the hard work and dedication of these one-time Penguin coaches in helping to build and maintain the success of the YSU football program under Tressel.
Youngstown ties: Conatser, Bollman and Dantonio were all a part of the original staff. Conatser was the only one of the three around for the entire run with Tressel, while Bollman and Dantonio left after the 11-1 season in 1990.
Snyder, who was on the staff for three of the national championships at YSU, was with the Penguins from '91 through '96, while Tucker, a former Buckeye assistant under Earl Bruce, joined the YSU staff in '97 and left with Tressel to rejoin the Buckeyes.
Amidst a barrage of questions being peppered at Tressel on the green grass of Ohio Stadium, the subject of Youngstown State came up, and his affinity for his former Penguin team was on display.
"Thursday night, probably around seven o'clock, we just might be sitting around for dinner and we'll be thinking about the Penguins going out there," Tressel said. "I think about them a little every day.
"Is Jeff [Ryan] staying healthy? How's P.J [Mays]? How's the O-line? They're your kids and that's how affectionately I think about them."
Friends and fans: But it wasn't just the "kids" back in Youngstown that Tressel will forever feel a special kinship to. It's also his many friends and the fans from Youngstown. And he's grateful to have, what is certain to be, their everlasting support.
"You can feel it," he said. "We get lots of cards and letters and calls and e-mails and all that stuff, but even bigger than that, you can feel it.
"Every person you run into in Central Ohio who has any type of Youngstown roots passes on a good wish from someone back in the Valley," Tressel said. "So I guess to all of them, I would say the same thing I felt seven months ago, 'If it weren't for those folks back there, we certainly wouldn't be having this tremendous blessing here.' "
Season opener: As the media day event concluded, the Buckeyes began preparations for their season and an opening week match-up with the University of Akron, a team that many Tressel-coached YSU teams had success against.
Cochran, a former player who suited up against the Zips, said there hasn't been enough time for the former Penguin coaches to reminisce about their past associations or appreciate the situation they're together in now.
"I don't think it's sunk in yet totally," Cochran said. "Really, I don't think it has. I think it's still going. I think maybe by the Akron game it might sink in."