Hurricanes almost had Tressel after Dennis Erickson left NFL

Miami courted the YSU coach in 1995 before hiring Butch Davis.
By DAVE HYDE
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Through a full day and deep into a night, University of Miami Athletic Director Paul Dee made dozens of phone calls from his office in January of 1995, tapping friends' thoughts, insiders' knowledge and coaches' advice.
This was the day Dennis Erickson left Miami to coach the Seattle Seahawks, and Dee was in the hunt to replace him. Who was out there? What did they offer? Where could all these voices on the other end of the phone point him?
At some point that day, Dee put down the phone and realized several people suggested a name he had never heard, from a school he didn't know much about. He saw it written several times across his legal pad: Jim Tressel, Youngstown State.
What was so special about this small-school coach? Dee began asking more questions. He kept hearing five-star reviews.
Both roles
"So I called him up and asked him if he'd be interested in talking," Dee said. "He said he would, and I said, 'Before I go any further, could you tell me the name of your athletic director so I can get his permission to talk.'
"He said, 'I'm the athletic director.' I called the school president."
And so began a dance between Miami and Tressel that, to this day, leaves Miami officials with deep respect for him and a tinge of what-if in their voices. It's not that they aren't happy with how Butch Davis ran the program or what Larry Coker has done.
But they recognized in Tressel what everyone does now. There's also a sense of irony that the small-time coach Dee found in a national haystack, and nearly hired, now has Ohio State's program in the national championship game against the Miami team he could have coached.
That Tressel isn't coaching Miami was probably his choice. Probably, because Dee never officially offered the job. A Miami insider says, "We thought we had him signed, sealed and all but delivered. We were excited by it. When he didn't come, I told people, 'He's going to make someone a great coach."'
Dee interviewed Tressel that February in a Chicago hotel. He wasn't the lone candidate. Colorado State's Sonny Lubick came to Chicago, and Dee interviewed Northwestern's Gary Barnett while in town. He also went to Madison, Wis., for the page he refers to as "Barry Alvarez, The First." Alvarez also would be a top candidate when Davis left in 2001.
After those interviews, Tressel shot to the top of Miami's list.
Prerequisites
"We had made a commitment to change directions, to do things a little differently," Dee said. "We wanted someone who was organized and disciplined while still maintaining a good relationship with players. Jim was all that."
This was in the aftermath of the Erickson era, when the NCAA was about to drop the gavel on Miami. Dee became serious enough with Tressel to stop on the way back from Chicago to meet Terry Bowden in Atlanta. Bowden had done what Tressel would have to. He had jumped from Division I-AA Samford to a major program at Auburn.
"We had to figure out what the elements were in making the jump and whether Jim could do it," Dee said. "That's what we talked with Terry about. It got out in the media, and everyone thought it was about Bowden for the job. It wasn't. It was about Tressel."
Upon returning to Miami, the search took a twist when Davis showed interest. He presented a popular choice with a sure background as Jimmy Johnson's assistant who had won a national title at Miami and Super Bowl rings at Dallas.
Dee remained interested enough in Tressel to prepare to invite him to Coral Gables, which by all accounts was the final step toward sealing the deal from Miami's view.
"How do you feel? Can you make a decision?" Dee remembers asking Tressel on the phone.
This is where the road ended. Tressel said he couldn't continue. He was wrestling with a personal issue that took precedent and became evident when he got divorced soon thereafter. He has custody of his four children and has since re-married.
Exchanged ideas
It's not like Tressel and Miami have remained distant. Coker, who was an Ohio State assistant before Tressel got there, knows him. Just last spring, Tressel and a few assistants visited Miami's practices and shared coaching ideas as part of the cross-pollinating that occurs regularly in the college game.
To many, Tressel taking Ohio State into the national championship game in his second year there is surprising. But not to Dee.
"I'm not a bit surprised at all," Dee says. "And I'm happy for him. He's a great coach and a special guy."
He also was almost on Miami's sideline for this game.