Championship coach Jim Tressel sizes up national title game

January 11, 2015 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Jim Tressel won four I-AA national championships at Youngstown State University in the 1990s, and those titles had one thing in common: The Penguins didn’t win them in September.

Tressel’s 1991 title team started 4-3. The 1993 team lost by 20 points in Week Two. The 1997 team lost its last game before the playoffs began. Even Tressel’s unbeaten national championship team at Ohio State in 2002 looked vulnerable at times, winning five games by one touchdown or less.

But like this year’s Buckeyes, who lost to a bad Virginia Tech team by two touchdowns in Week Two, Tressel’s title teams had a knack for playing their best late in the season.

“I think there’s no questions that they’ve grown a great deal,” Tressel said of Ohio State, which will meet Oregon in Monday’s national championship game. “They had some veterans and they had some people that had to become veterans. Now they’re in Game 15 and they’ve certainly grown. I guess that would be somewhat like some of our teams in the ’90s.

“I don’t think any of our teams in the ’90s scored points like this, though.”

Nearly four years after resigning in the wake of “Tattoogate,” Tressel still keeps an eye on his former team, catching as many games as he could this fall when they didn’t conflict with Youngstown State.

“Whenever I wasn’t on duty, I certainly watched with great interest,” said Tressel, now YSU’s president. “I know many, many people that are part of that team. Plus, it’s my team.”

Tressel provided the blueprint for beating Oregon’s fast-paced offense in the 2010 Rose Bowl, using Terrelle Pryor’s arm (266 passing yards, two TDs) and legs (20 carries, 72 yards) to help the Buckeyes dominate time of possession (41:37-18:23) en route to a 26-17 win.

“You know you can’t give them too many possessions,” Tressel said of the Ducks. “Ideally, if you possess the ball and score, [you’ll win]. Unfortunately, we kicked too many field goals [four], but fortunately we had the ball for 42 minutes, so they didn’t have too many possessions.”

Ohio State did struggle on special teams at times in that game, giving up more than 200 yards in punt and kick returns. Otherwise, Tressel thinks the victory would have been more decisive.

“This [Monday’s] game is for the national championship, so everything is magnified,” he said. “I haven’t watched Oregon too much this year, other than some highlights and the game they played against Florida State [in the Rose Bowl], but they’ve obviously got great speed and their quarterback [Marcus Mariota] is special.

“They had a little bit of good fortune with Florida State handing them the ball five times. You’re not going to beat a good team if that happens. What’s similar about this Ohio State team to the good ones we had at YSU is they’re not turnover-prone. Oregon is going to have a lot more difficult time with Ohio State than it did against Florida State.”

One other similarity between OSU and Tressel’s YSU teams? Preparation time. The Buckeyes had 25 days to prepare for Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. They have 11 for Oregon.

“Because there’s such a short window, you blink twice and you’re lining up and playing that ball game,” Tressel said. “You’re so far along in Game 15 that the practices aren’t as long. Everyone knows what both teams are going to do. You’re gonna have a couple little wrinkles, but you don’t have enough time to practice that many. You’ve figured out who you are at that moment.”

Short preparation time hasn’t hampered Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, who played one quarter against Michigan before leading the Buckeyes to a 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game.

Jones is similar to Pryor in size — Jones (6-foot-5) is actually one inch taller — and athleticism. Scouting Ohio.com director Mark Porter said this week that when he scouted Jones at Cleveland’s Glenville High, his evaluation was, “Terrelle Pryor with a better throwing motion.” Still, Jones entered this season as a third-stringer behind Braxton Miller (who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in August) and J.T. Barrett (who broke his ankle in the regular season finale against Michigan).

“How does a kid like that sit?” Porter said. “He’s unbelievable. He’s 250 pounds, he’s 6-5, he’s running over people and throwing strikes.

“It’s ridiculous, to come in after sitting that long and do what he’s doing.”

Jones had offers from such schools as LSU and Michigan, but he was so set on being a Buckeye that he spent one year at Fork Union Military Academy, then redshirted a year, to put some distance between him and Miller.

“He had great stature, great poise and unusual touch on the ball for having an arm so strong,” Tressel said. “He just had an unusual combination of things that led you to believe he’d have a heck of a future. Obviously, like any other young kid, he needed to grow in many areas, but there’s no question he wanted to be great.

“He’s handled his ups and downs, bided his time and grown. And not many people can grow while observing.”

Tressel was born in Mentor and grew up in Berea as the son of a famous football coach (Baldwin-Wallace’s Lee Tressel), so he’s been rooting for Ohio State since he was a child. He’ll be in Arlington, Texas, on Monday night to take part in the pregame coin toss.

When asked for a prediction for the game, he said, “Ohio State, of course.”

By how many?

“I can’t go that far,” he said. “I’ll be accused of betting. As long as it’s one point, it’s enough.”