National writer nails UA football

[GP1]

If you were advising JT on his next career move, where would "I think you should coach at Akron" fall on the list?

You said you wanted a place to take it easy and still make an impact on kids lives. Akron is that kind of place. You want to make good on your name and legacy and you are about teaching football. Well Akron desperately needs to be taught how to play football.

I'm not interested in a guy looking to take it easy. His easy job was OSU. It's hard as Hell to win at Akron and we don't need a guy to take it easy. We want a guy who will work his butt off to get the easy job at a school like OSU.

[Zip Watcher]

If you were advising JT on his next career move, where would "I think you should coach at Akron" fall on the list?

You said you wanted a place to take it easy and still make an impact on kids lives. Akron is that kind of place. You want to make good on your name and legacy and you are about teaching football. Well Akron desperately needs to be taught how to play football.

I'm not interested in a guy looking to take it easy. His easy job was OSU. It's hard as Hell to win at Akron and we don't need a guy to take it easy. We want a guy who will work his butt off to get the easy job at a school like OSU.

Long time reader .. some time agreer .. put me down for a +1 on pretty much all GP1 is posting on the JT topic.

Go Zips!

[g-mann17]

If you were advising JT on his next career move, where would "I think you should coach at Akron" fall on the list?

You said you wanted a place to take it easy and still make an impact on kids lives. Akron is that kind of place. You want to make good on your name and legacy and you are about teaching football. Well Akron desperately needs to be taught how to play football.

I'm not interested in a guy looking to take it easy. His easy job was OSU. It's hard as Hell to win at Akron and we don't need a guy to take it easy. We want a guy who will work his butt off to get the easy job at a school like OSU.

When I say take it "easy" I don't mean sleep walk through the job. Boy way to jump on context.

Tell me, is OSU an easier job than Akron? You will say recruiting, but he had to recruit against the top 10 teams in the nation. You say winning but he had to play against the top 10 50% of the time, at Akron you are lucky to see 1 top 10 team a season.

When I say "take it easy" I meant, not constantly scrutinized by national media. Akron is an easier job from a pressure stand point and you damn well know it.

[hiroad1]

I still find it hard to believe Tressel would come to Akron, but.....

I can imagine his possible logic against taking the Akron job, or his logic for taking it.

Against it: He's been on a huge national stage for a long time. It seems to be hard for coaches, athletes, politicians, celebrities, etc. to walk away from that limelight. He may believe, probably correctly, that he could still land something high profile. While he has made a lot of money, one's earnings still remain an important measure of their achievement and success. It may not hurt his finances to take a pay cut, but it might hurt his ego. Plus, he may be fed up with the NCAA investigations and just want to avoid the hassle for the time being.

For it: Remember that his father coached forever at B-W. Fathers are powerful influences in men's lives. Maybe JT feels compelled to "give something back". He's achieved money and fame already. Maybe his motivation now comes from the heart. He sure seems to love Ohio football, he has some times to UA, and the Zips sure could use some help with the program. In the "benevolent" scenario, Akron makes some sense. Further, maybe he really wants to redeem his good name nationally. He may feel that his sincerity is much more likely to be believed if he takes on a "cause", rather than going for the limelight. On top of all of this, he must believe he can make a major impact in the MAC with/for Akron.

I'm pretty greedy. If I was Tress, I'd be more like Pete Carroll and move on for more limelight and money. But that may not be the way JT is wired.

One thing I am confident about. If Tressel comes to Akron, he will not rest. He MUST be successful here, or his name will be further tarnished. He would only come here with the intention of winning BIG.

Unless the NCAA advises Akron to avoid Tressel pending future action, we have to sign Jim Tressel if he is willing to come here. There would be ABSOLUTELY nobody close as a second option.

[GP1]

If you were advising JT on his next career move, where would "I think you should coach at Akron" fall on the list?

You said you wanted a place to take it easy and still make an impact on kids lives. Akron is that kind of place. You want to make good on your name and legacy and you are about teaching football. Well Akron desperately needs to be taught how to play football.

I'm not interested in a guy looking to take it easy. His easy job was OSU. It's hard as Hell to win at Akron and we don't need a guy to take it easy. We want a guy who will work his butt off to get the easy job at a school like OSU.

When I say take it "easy" I don't mean sleep walk through the job. Boy way to jump on context.

Tell me, is OSU an easier job than Akron? You will say recruiting, but he had to recruit against the top 10 teams in the nation. You say winning but he had to play against the top 10 50% of the time, at Akron you are lucky to see 1 top 10 team a season.

When I say "take it easy" I meant, not constantly scrutinized by national media. Akron is an easier job from a pressure stand point and you damn well know it.

I don't thin guys like Tressel and other big time coaches give a hoot what the national media says about them.

It's easier to get kids to go to OSU than Akron.

Tressel didn't play Top 10 teams very often with a MAC schedule and Big Ten schedule.

[g-mann17]

I don't thin guys like Tressel and other big time coaches give a hoot what the national media says about them.

It's easier to get kids to go to OSU than Akron.

Tressel didn't play Top 10 teams very often with a MAC schedule and Big Ten schedule.

Yeah, they don't, I mean it only almost killed Urban Meyer, but they don't care about media and fan pressure.

It is easier, hence them being better on the field, but its more difficult to get national championship talent at OSU.

No, cause he didn't play Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan St, Iowa, Texas, USC, Oregon, Miami, Florida, LSU on a regular basis. Stop the nonsense. You can be SEC biased as much as you want, but the truth is OSU and Tressel played a tough schedule and came out on top more times than not.

I get your no shortcuts concept. But how is this a shortcut? We have tried lower tier guys, the last three times. We haven't tried a name coach since Faust.

I haven't said its a perfect solution, nothing is, but if you want to make an impact for the program, this is definitely the way to go.

[ZipsAlum92]

I agree with the article. The experiment was a failure. Hiring a recruiting coordinator to be the head coach makes about as much sense as hiring a headhunter to be the CEO of a company. Recruiting and coaching are two totally different things, with a completely different set of core competencies. And let's be honest, recruiting for Notre Dame isn't all that hard. Notre Dame's admission standards alone eliminate a lot of the top prospects from even being considered.

That said, I think the one that really has some explaining to do is Wistricill. His judgment in hiring Ianello has to be questioned. It is great that he was able to retain Porter and Dambrot, but retention is different than hiring. If I were Proenza and the Board of Trustees, I would want Wistricill completely out of the hiring process for the next head coach. I would expect him to rubber-stamp whatever recommendation the search committee makes. If he doesn't like that, I would remind him that the door still works.

[GP1]

Yeah, they don't, I mean it only almost killed Urban Meyer, but they don't care about media and fan pressure.

Media and fan pressure were not killing Meyer.... He was killiing himself with the pressure he put on himself. It will be interesting to see if he puts the same pressure on himself at OSU and if he doesn't, will it impact success. Even worse, if he does, does he kill himself?

[BirdZip]

It's hard as Hell to win at Akron...

I haven't done any post searching or anything like that, but aren't you usually telling us how easy it is to win in the MAC? How the MAC is so bad that a turnip should be able to coach a team to a .500 record (paraphrasing here)?

[Blue & Gold]

It's hard as Hell to win at Akron...

I haven't done any post searching or anything like that, but aren't you usually telling us how easy it is to win in the MAC? How the MAC is so bad that a turnip should be able to coach a team to a .500 record (paraphrasing here)?

+1.

It should be relatively easy to win at Akron. A MAC schedule plus one FCS school = 10 winnable games a year.

IMHO it'd be (theoretically) easier to win at Akron than at Northwestern, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Iowa State, Kansas, etc., etc.... (Frankly almost any lower-level BCS school who gets trounced by the truly big boys every-other week.)

[Zipsrifle]

That said, I think the one that really has some explaining to do is Wistricill. His judgment in hiring Ianello has to be questioned. It is great that he was able to retain Porter and Dambrot, but retention is different than hiring. If I were Proenza and the Board of Trustees, I would want Wistricill completely out of the hiring process for the next head coach. I would expect him to rubber-stamp whatever recommendation the search committee makes. If he doesn't like that, I would remind him that the door still works.

So what you are saying is that he managed to keep two guys who wanted to stay by giving them what they wanted. Now, he should just "Rubber-stamp" the search committee recommendation. After this is done, he will go on You Tube to broadcast what has been done.

[jwmann2]

Please somebody tell me something is going to be different in the hiring process this time.

I am scared of history repeating itself. There had to be some kind of plan in the works before we decided to can Mr Personality right?

Ianello just wasn't qualified to be a head coach. Same thing happened when the Denver Broncos hired Mcdaniels. He was too young and just wasn't ready. Coaching in the college ranks with a seasoned coach is hard enough as it is, especially when you have to compete with all of the dirty upper echelon programs like USC, Miami and Auburn.