Smiling Tressel reveals little

COLUMBUS

Jim Tressel had an unbreakable smile throughout his post-game press conference following Ohio State’s 37-7 thrashing of Michigan on Saturday.

And why not? Another day, another Big Ten championship, another smack down of the opponent that most defines the success rate of Buckeyes coaches.

For the record, Tressel has been at Ohio State for 10 seasons. He’s won seven Big Ten championships, including the last six in a row, and he’s 9-1 against the Wolverines.

And yet, the man still won’t let you know how he feels. For example:

Coach, what does it mean to you to win nine out of 10 against Michigan?

“Well, if we were sitting here eight out of 10 [against Michigan] we would have been unhappy, I can guarantee you that.”

OK, so that question didn’t work. But what Tressel does like to talk about is the journey, or all the work that goes into the 9-1 against Michigan and the seven conference championships.

Ask him about the success — now that the success has been attained — and he’s a little more forthcoming.

“What our guys enjoy and what our staff enjoys, we enjoy the journey,” he said. “It’s the thrill of the challenge. It’s hard to do.

“And our guys work, now. Our players and coaches, they work. Our coaches will be back at a 10:30 a.m. recruiting meeting [today]. That’s the way life is. And they’ll hit the road tomorrow night and be at it. But the process of chasing the championship, to me, is the fun.”

One player who had a lot of fun on Saturday was Warren’s Daniel “Boom” Herron, who rushed for 175 yards and a touchdown. Herron, incredibly, had minus-1 yard rushing at halftime, but averaged over 10 yards per carry after the intermission. He has 1,068 yards for the season, an incredible feat considering he had less than 200 yards through four games.

“It’s definitely a dream come true,” Herron said of reaching 1,000 yards. “It was one of my goals this year, so I’m very grateful for Coach Tressel to give me the opportunity.”

Included in Herron’s day was an 89-yard run — it was actually 98 and a touchdown, but receiver Dane Sanzenbacher was called for holding at the Michigan 9 — which tied a school record.

“Any time you can get in the record book against Michigan it’s great,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without the offensive line, so I’m very grateful for them.

“Honestly, I told [fullback] Zach Boren [before the play], “I’m about to break this right now, man, and he was ‘alright, man.’ The offensive line got a lot of movement, and I just had to make the safety miss, and I was gone from there.”

Herron noted that Michigan put a great emphasis on stopping the run in the first half, so the Buckeyes had to adjust.

“I mean, we’re pretty happy. It was a little frustrating, but you have to be patient with it,” he said. “We have a great coaching staff, we have a great offensive line, so you know something was going to break sometime. We got off to a slow start, but we finished very strong.”

Which has been the Buckeyes’ trademark since Tressel arrived in 2001. Next up should be a BCS bowl game, Ohio State’s eighth in the Tressel era.

“We played hard in November,” said Tressel, “which, if you play hard in November, usually good things will happen.”

And he said that with a smile.

Rob Todor is sports editor at The Vindicator. E-mail him todor@vindy.com.