(And now a word from our sponsors)
With more than 150,000 votes cast, Coach Tressel is currently in 13th place in the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. The award is given to “the college football coach who best demonstrates sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility, and excellence on and off the field.” The vote is partially determined by fan votes and the winning coach receives $50,000 to donate to the charity of his choice and another $20,000 goes to the Alumni association for scholarships.
At the moment, Paul Johnson, coach at the Georgia Tech in leads the voting with four SEC coaches and three Big Ten coaches coming in before Tressel. In the Big Ten, JoPA is at #5 (go figure), Dantonio at 6 (I like Dantonio), and Pat Fitzgerald from Northwestern at 7. I have to say I like the lineup from the Big Ten although honestly, Paterno is there for nostalgia as much as anything. Yeah, yea…he’s a great coach who cares about his players and builds character, yada yada. While that may have been true in the good old days, Coach Paterno has had some troubles keeping his boys out of trouble the past few years.
The one thing I like about Tressel is that he truly builds character and doesn’t put up with those who don’t keep it clean. Just watch a press conference. You’ll never see an Ohio State player telling the world he’s a f’n soldier.
In an earlier post I pointed out that the Buckeyes had 53 players earning a 3.5 gpa and 8 of them earned a 4.0 gpa. While that is an impressive stat in and of itself, the recent suspension of Ray Small is another example of how Tress demonstrates responsibility and excellence.
Who knows what Small did that is causing the problems. While Small’s father may be convinced that Coach Tressel has it out for his NFL career, nobody who follows Buckeye football is putting much stock in the comment. What I like about the situation is no matter how loud Small’s father shouts, Tressel refuses to drag the kid through the mud. Whatever happened (late for class? academic problems?) is a private affair and has no business outside of the locker room. Tressel has consistently shown families that respect when dealing with the few discipline problems.
Small is a good player and has a lot of potential. Many other coaches would either go public with the problem in order to justify their actions to fans, media, ets. Worse yet, problems often just get swept under the rug. It takes a lot of guts to pull a top player when there is so much on the line.
For the most part, if you’re a Buckeye fan I’m probably preaching to the choir. You can vote daily and votes will be accepted for another 23 days. If not Tress, let’s at least move a Big Ten coach to the top of the list.
Click here to vote for the Lincoln Mutual Coach of the Year.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Butch Davis should win the award. Jim Tressel shouldn’t be in the top 25 this year
Yea, we all get a little frustrated with his play calling but it about what he does off the field as much as on it. I still think he represents this university pretty well.