Hayes: Tressel knows how to win
Reggie Hayes knows Colts fans are not happy with the thought of Jim Tressel leading the team, but he believes Tressel knows how to get it done:
Let's look at Tressel's record on the field. He was 106-22 in 10 years at Ohio State with one national title. He put Ohio State alongside Florida, Alabama, USC and Texas as a force.
Those big-time college programs are professional in all but name. In facilities, talent and expectations, they're well-run professional businesses.
Yes, there's a difference between coaching in college and the pros. The rah-rah atmosphere and father-figure control of the college coach don't usually carry over to the NFL. Yet the success of Jim Harbaugh – and to a lesser extent, Pete Carroll – has marked a possible swing of the pendulum in that paradigm. Tressel is smart enough to modify his style to fit professional players.
Take away recruiting and the NCAA rulebook and what's left for Tressel if he becomes Colts coach? On-the-field coaching and some input on personnel, along with Irsay and Grigson.
Nonsense. I hate the implication that because the NCAA is a broken system therefore it's okay to cheat it left and right. The NFL has plenty of rules that not everybody agrees with. Does that make it okay to, say, ignore the restriction on videotaping another team's walk-through to gain a competitive advantage?
Tressel knew what his college players were doing and not only could he not keep them in line, he lied to cover it up. How will he be any different with professional players? I'm not so hell-bent on winning that I want a coach who will risk wrecking the Colts the way he wrecked Ohio State. Even if I were, there are *still* plenty of coaches I'd rather have than Jim "the most important play in football is the punt" Tressel.
Tressel won in college primarily by out recruiting his Big 10 rivals, not outcoaching them. Just look at the number of 1st round NFL draft picks OSU had vs. the rest of the Big 10. He wouldn't have that going for him in the NFL.The OSU offenses under Tressel were stodgy and unimaginative. His defenses were quite good though. I'd take Chip Kelly over Tressel in a heartbeat. Kelly knows how to coach, period.
@TrueBlue I'm not necessarily a huge Tressel fan but what is the reason for his 4 national champs at Youngstown? He had to coach those kids up. He appears to be organized and flexible enough tonwin with the players he has. That is the most important point.
Part of the reason was, again, player talent. The Ohio and western Pennsylvania areas are a hotbed for 1AA football talent. He out talented most of his competition. I'm not saying he isn't a persuasive recruiter and very capable program manager. I just haven't seen from him the type coaching skills that would translate to the NFL.
@TrueBlue It takes a lot more than just recruiting to have a record like that, but only time will tell if he actually ends up being a good NFL head coach.
Just one note, as far as his offenses go, he ran with a QB style that you won't typically see in the NFL, that part of the game will change but that is why you hire a good offensive QB. One thing to take form that, the majority of the players on his team specifically QB's progressed pretty well during their time at Ohio State.
Granted, it does require more than simply recruiting. However, his overall winning percentage was greatly influenced by the fact that he had more talent on the field than his opponents in the vast majority of the games. With the single exception of Troy Smith i didn't see evidence of exceptional QB development at OSU. The other QBs developed about as you would expect in any decent program. No doubt OSU's football budget enabled Tressel to hire top notch assistants at top notch salaries. Net, I'm not so impressed with his coaching ability, but I will grant you that he's a very capable, if not inspiring, manager.
I'm not saying all the top tier NFLers weren't good enough academically to go to the likes of ND, Stanford or Vanderbilt. Heck, some have been Rhodes scholars. However, it's a matter of numbers. ND can't really go after the Maurice Clarett's of the world. Their recruiting pool is markedly smaller. I hear Big 10 supporters make that same point versus the Big 12 schools all the time. And while ND has had a smattering of top tier talent, they never have it throughout their lineup like OSU.
I wouldn't say that Florida has had better recruiting classes than Alabama recently. I would say that Nick Saban out recruited Florida at LSU and Alabama. Auburn's Cam Newton class was certainly quite strong especially on defense and probably had more top talent than Florida.
Given the absolute miserable bowl records of the Big 10 teams over the last how many seasons, I have a strong argument that the Big 10 teams are not nearly as strong you give them credit for.
Maybe the Colts should go after the Purdue coaches then. OSU has gotten 5 and 4 star high school talent consistently. Have Tressel et al, developed the likes of Terrel Prior, Beanie Wells, Maurice Clarett, Santonio Holmes, Nick Mangold, Ted Ginn, Jr., and A.J. Hawk to the extent Purdue would have? Who knows. But they were certainly starting out with some of the best talent in the country.
@TrueBlue the last comment, was kind of weird, it basically said that NFL tier athletes aren't good enough academically.
But I will add that the Big10 is no cake walk, the conference has consistently been very strong with quality teams. I think the Big 10 as a conference is tougher from head to toe than the Big 12. Florida had stronger recruiting classes than anyone else in the SEC, I will admit the SEC is a tough conference for sure, but that has to be taken into consideration.
NFL top tier picks come from development, look at Purdue, they have probably one of the most productive system as to getting players to the league, most of their guys come in as 2 and 3 star prospects, QB's, DT, DE, LB, S.
I think ND just has not developed their guys much as they should, you can not look at ND's recruiting class and say that they do not recruit players who are expected to compete for top draft spots in the future. As far as recruiting they are right there. They still send quality players to the league, Floyd, Tao, that QB guy, D-lineman.
I would add Miami to that same list of teams.
@paulcareyjr I'll give you USC. They have had a talent edge in their conference and should have done much better. Florida plays against Alabama, LSU, Auburn, etc. a bunch of recent national champions and a top to bottom solid conference. Much, much tougher to go through the season with less than 2 losses. Nuff said. Texas plays in a tougher conference than the Big 10 and has done well, but again it's tougher to get through the Big 12 with less than 2 losses than the Big 10. I disagree altogether that ND has had top talent. How many recent ND players have been top tier NFL picks? Not that many. ND can't get the same athletes as the others you mention because of academics. I put them in a different category altogether.
@TrueBlue Last thing that I will add, there are many teams that recruit top talent and their teams don't get it done, just look at Florida, or Texas, USC, ND.
But I just hope to know who the coach is by the middle of this week.
