Ohio Stae coach Jim Tressel is rare when it comes to coaches, and not just because he wears a sweater vest. Tressel is rare, writes Wall Street Journal reporter Hannah Karp, because he is the only college football coach that teachs an academic class ---- during the football season. The Wall Street Journal captures a typical academic (not coaching) day for...
Coach Jim TresselOhio Stae coach Jim Tressel is rare when it comes to coaches, and not just because he wears a sweater vest.
Tressel is rare, writes Wall Street Journal reporter Hannah Karp, because he is the only college football coach that teachs an academic class ---- during the football season.
The Wall Street Journal captures a typical academic (not coaching) day for Tressel. Which includes a class of 49 students. He teaches them the art of coaching.
And the Wall Street Journal was impressed.
But Mr. Tressel's performance in the classroom, a place where few top coaches dare to venture these days, is downright riveting, and there's a growing number of students on the waiting list to prove it. "He's a legend," whispered senior Tim Weaver, an actuarial-science major from Canton, Ohio, sitting in a desk at the back of the class last week.
And just because it's a football class taught by a coach, it isn't easy.
In addition to frequent pop quizzes on the weekend's key plays and a midterm heavy on the history of football, students must observe practices at local high schools and at OSU and prepare scouting reports on offense, kicking, defense and personnel. They must also design a ninth-grade-level training program for players of a position of their choosing, with a suggested five-week drill progression.
Two years ago, Buckeyes offensive lineman Connor Smith says he got a B in part because on the midterm he forgot the two things a quarterback must do besides "not turning over the ball." (Those are making great decisions and big plays,).
Monday morning quarterback
The Columbus Dispatch has a breakdown on what was good and bad about Saturday's victory over Illinois.
The defense was impressive, writes reporter Tim May, and as defensive end Nathan Williams put it, when Terrelle Pryor limped off for a while, the defense had to step up and save the day.
It was gashed a couple of times by the Illini and their talented redshirt-freshman QB Nathan Scheelhaase, but in the second half OSU - playing without its cannonball Tyler Moeller - gave up only three points. The bottom line is the only thing that truly matters.
May didn't particularly like the job done by the offensive line. He writes that it took OSU too long to make blocking adjustments against an Illinois defensive line that did what it always does: slant, angle and befuddle.
Just like Purdue's defensive front, the Illini almost always make the OSU line look like a bunch of fellows who just started playing together. One man missing a block is akin to one singer being flat in a barbershop quartet. The harmony is horrendous.