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Sports Digest || Jim Tressel takes a job with the Colts
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Jim Tressel
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS
Jim Tressel is heading to the NFL.
The former Ohio State head coach was hired Friday by the Indianapolis Colts as a game-day consultant to help determine when the team should challenge plays. Coach Jim Caldwell said it was a position he’s wanted to fill for the past couple of years.
“He’s a guy I have known for quite some time and have a good relationship with,” Caldwell said during a conference call. “We have hired him as a game-day consultant. He was around last night and will be working with us next week.”
Caldwell did not provide details on the friendship, but it’s likely the two crossed paths on the recruiting trail in the 1980s when both were coaching quarterbacks at big-time schools.
Tressel was an assistant at Syracuse in 1981 and 1982 before taking a similar post at Ohio State from 1983-85, then leaving to take the Youngstown State job in 1986. Caldwell coached quarterbacks at Penn State from 1987-92. He coached at Northwestern, Colorado and Louisville, too, before joining Joe Paterno’s staff.
Tressel had been actively seeking employment after resigning from Ohio State on May 30 amid a damaging NCAA scandal. He had been seen at practices in Cleveland and Indianapolis recently and attended the Colts’ preseason finale Thursday in Cincinnati.
But his job with the Colts, Caldwell said, will be limited exclusively to working game days from the coaches’ booth.
Browns sign Moore
CLEVELAND
Evan Moore has his first big catch of 2011.
Cleveland’s tight end signed a two-year contract extension on Friday with the Browns, who are expecting big things from the 6-foot-6 Moore this season.
Sources told the Associated Press that Moore’s extension is worth nearly $3 million per year and carries through the 2013 season.
The 26-year-old Moore caught 16 passes for 322 yards in 12 games last season, but the Browns believe he could be a major piece in their new West Coast offense. Moore had a strong training camp and preseason, developing a nice chemistry with second-year quarterback Colt McCoy.
Steelers are ready
PITTSBURGH
Coach Mike Tomlin made it a point to shake hands with each player as the team entered the locker room Thursday after beating the Carolina Panthers 33-17 in the preseason finale.
The gesture was Tomlin’s way of saying thanks for a month of hard work. For some, it served as the last thing they’d hear from Tomlin before he said goodbye.
The defending AFC champions cruised through four exhibition games.