Ohio State's "winning performances," using a formula Jim Tressel learned from his father, help the Buckeyes evaluate and motivate themselves even when they're huge favorites like today against Eastern Michigan.
The tough grading system implemented by coach Jim Tressel is one way the Buckeyes try to prevent a letdown against teams such as Eastern Michigan, Saturday's opponent in Columbus. Columbus -- It's a 50-year-old formula that Jim Tressel adopted from his father, Lee, a coach and mathematician who created it during his career at Baldwin-Wallace. It's the formula that says an MVP outing in the Rose Bowl for Terrelle Pryor or a record-breaking 16 straight completions against Ohio isn't quite enough, not at least by this measure. It's the formula, that on a day like today when the Buckeyes are six-touchdown favorites against Eastern Michigan, will let the players know on Sunday, despite what the scoreboard says, whether they were good enough.
"Yeah, it's a pretty huge deal," OSU left tackle Mike Adams said this week. "The way they grade film around here is crazy. They're real picky. Everything has to be right."
The formula varies from position to position, obviously, but in the end it creates the same standard, whether a Buckeye was deemed to have a "winning performance." That's a phrase Tressel often drops into his Tuesday news conference, when somewhere between five and 20 OSU players are usually revealed to have risen above that bar. With most of the Buckeye Leaves helmet stickers awarded for team or group accomplishments, earning a "winning performance" is Ohio State's best gauge of individual achievement. Over three months, especially in games like today when the Buckeyes are huge favorites, dangling those carrots isn't a bad idea.
"I think we all have a couple innate things we need," Tressel said. "One is, what do you expect of me? And two is, how am I doing? So there needs to be, I think, a little bit of a barometer, as to here's what we're asking you do to do, now here's how well you're doing it. And by the way, if you do it at this rate, we have a chance to be successful, if you all do it at this rate."
The rates change by position as well, with 80 percent the standard for the offensive and defensive lines, 85 percent at quarterback, receiver and linebacker and 90 percent at running back and in the secondary. Players are judged on every play and everything they do. Linemen, for instance, are judged not only on whether they made a block, but whether they applied the right technique and took the right steps while making it. And a missed assignment, completely missing out on your job on a play, is a grade killer. Everything is plugged into the Lee Tressel formula and given a final number.
"It's kind of a tough deal because the better you are, the harder they grade you," senior defensive tackle Dexter Larimore said. "Now you've got to not only do your job every play, but do it very well. So it's something we strive for. But it's not something in a game we keep in the back of our minds."
Against the Eagles, Larimore won't decide to take on a double-team just because he wants a winning performance. But there's something to the idea that every play will be watched, evaluated and graded. There's no time for plays off even in a blowout. And the players admit they care about earning the performances, with some groups told on Sunday and others on Tuesday.
"I think it really tells the tale of how you actually played," senior receiver Dane Sanzenbacher said. "As a receiver, you can really hide behind big plays and think you had a successful game. But you're graded on every play, how you blocked, how you executed every single play."
"It's like a test in school," senior linebacker Ross Homan said. "You don't want to have a bad score."
Adams, a junior, earned his first winning performance last week against Ohio after saying he missed it by one play against Miami the week before. Junior center Mike Brewster and junior receiver DeVier Posey, who started all of last season, were judged to have winning performances for the first time in the opener against Marshall.
"I don't know if I'll ever get another one again," Posey said then. "Those winning performances aren't as easy as you think."
There's at least one Buckeye who has yet to earn that winning performance. The players acknowledge that quarterback is the position where a winning performance is toughest to earn. Tressel is typically asked each week whether Pryor made the grade, and by now, he nearly scoffs at the question.
The Buckeyes' most dynamic player, quarterback Terrelle Pryor, has yet to earn a winning performance on the coaches' grading system in his OSU career. "I think he does it to me to make me realize I have to play even more perfect than I ever played," Pryor said. "It definitely does motivate me."
In fact, Pryor said he hopes he doesn't earn a winning performance until the last game of his senior year.
"I always want to push myself to get better and better," Pryor said. "I always want to practice hard and dream about getting that winning performance."
That might be a bit much. Pryor should have things to dream about other than an equation that's a half-century old.
But there's no perfect formula to motivating and evaluating 105 players through 12 games over three months. Tressel's idea of a "winning performance" is one technique -- against Eastern Michigan or the real Michigan -- to help the Buckeyes take care of the only winning that matters.