OT - Tressel Interviewed by Colts for Head Coaching Position
ESPN is reporting that for the second time since the firing of Jim Caldwell, the owner of the Colts has spoke to Jim Tressel about their head coaching vacancy.
I'm not sure how I feel about it. I care about the NFL very little outside of the Lions and fantasy football, but maybe if Tressel stupidly gets this job, it may make me interested again (at least in the fact that I'll have a team to root against).
Any thoughts from big NFL fans here, or even better, any (possibly soon to be ex-) Colts fans?
January 21st, 2012 at 9:45 AM ^
An opportunity for the NFL to sell sweatervests. They'd be big in fashionable Indiana.
January 21st, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
To another.. Irsay, tressel, dantonio.. Etc etc. A very very successful coach (saban) couldnt hack it in the nfl.. A choke artist who shouldve won 5 natl titles like tressel will do much much worse
January 21st, 2012 at 9:47 AM ^
Colts fan here. not happy at all with this development. irsay for some reason really likes tressel. even if he doesn't get hired he's supposed to be kept on by any new staff that comes in. irsay should turn over the reins to grigson like any good owner.
January 21st, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^
If I was Andrew Luck; I'd be frightened of Tressel getting this job. Developing QB talent.... Not so much.
January 21st, 2012 at 9:54 AM ^
....they would potentially be getting someone with a decade of experience in the pros, right?
January 21st, 2012 at 9:57 AM ^
With the way he ran Youngstown St., you could argue he's actually bringing 25 years of pro experience to table. I think I now understand where the Colts are going with this...
January 21st, 2012 at 9:53 AM ^
Not happy here! Can i move teams if this happens?
January 21st, 2012 at 9:57 AM ^
I'm from Indianapolis, and I mostly don't like the place. But Hoosiers, like any people, anywhere, hate liars--part of the reason that they put up with Bob Knight as long as they did was because they believed he didn't pretend to be something that he wasn't. I predict that hiring Tressel won't go down well in the part of the sports community that cares about things beyond winning.
<br>And since we're talking about Indiana, I'll point this out: at least it's not an important job, like coaching the North Central High School basketball team.
January 21st, 2012 at 9:58 AM ^
So Ohio State has this big scandel, with almost the entire football team, along with team management involved.
- The QB, who is poster-child of this scandel, gets into the NFL without any penalties,
- 4 other atheletes have to go through minor penalties and will probably also enter NFL soon,
- the football team gets a class-1 coach and doesnot get much in terms of scholarship cuts,
- the AD and Univ president, while apparantly being fully aware of the scandel and supporting the culprits all along, get to keep their jobs,
- and now the ex-head coach, who demonstrated an utter lack of institutional control at OSU, is going to get a NFL head coaching job in less than 1 year.
Talk about irony.
I hope Andrew Luck just refuses to come to Indy to play for the Colts if this douche gets the HC job. Its a shame that Indianapolis would even consider getting Tressel as coach.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:05 AM ^
OSU did what USC could not, and that is to shut the NCAA up.
Also, it doesn't matter if Luck goes there Tresselball sucks for QBs.
January 21st, 2012 at 11:05 AM ^
Considering the leader of the NCAA is Gee's former roommate....who is completely surprised at these developments?
NCAA is and always will be an utter joke, as long as money is being put in their pocket they will look the other way.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:42 AM ^
January 21st, 2012 at 10:00 AM ^
It'll be a completely different era for the colts under Tressel, than under the Polian's. For instance, the Polian's would never over pay for a player, whereas Tressel has NO problem over paying players. Sadly though, Tressel will have to get used to a hard salary cap, they didn't have a cap at Ohio.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:20 AM ^
I have no doubt Tressel would find a way arond the salary cap. Why would he let his skill at cultivating boosters go to waste?
January 21st, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
The cap does not include cash pay-outs. I am sure he will be able to find boosters in Indy area to keep the players' back-pockets stashed. May also lure them with lower tax rates with such gestures.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:04 AM ^
Didn't the NFL prevent Pryor from playing for several games (five?) because of an NCAA ruling? After their action with Pryor, would the NFL really allow a guy to coach in the NFL who is banned for a number of years from coaching college football for lying? Seems a bit strange to me, but who knows.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:33 AM ^
Look at Pete Carrol and Seattle.. Just slid into another cushy gig. I'm glad when players are accountable, but a coach screws a program and gets promoted.
January 21st, 2012 at 2:57 PM ^
Pete didn't get one. Tressel's was for five years.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^
Tressel got a five game suspension once he took over as replay analyst for the Colts.
January 21st, 2012 at 12:27 PM ^
Then, he was hit with a five year show-cause penalty which would have virtually prevented him from coaching NCAA football for five years.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:04 AM ^
While I would love to see the Colts hire Tressel to feed my hunger for Schadenfreude, I think it would be a terrible hire. They're getting an awesome quarterback in Andrew Luck, and they're going to hire a run happy coach? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If I'm the Colts, I bring in someone who has the ability to get the most out of Luck, not someone who is going to waste his talent. Hire John Gruden or someone like that.
January 21st, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
Unless I am missing a meme...
It seems everyone loves some Gruden. If he is such an amazing coach, why hasn't he been hired for a coaching position in 3 years?
January 21st, 2012 at 10:09 AM ^
I don't think the Colts should hire him, but I don't like them anyway, so if they do, I hope they don't sniff the playoffs while he's there.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:15 AM ^
I live in Indy and there have been rumors about The Vest taking over for Caldwell for months. There were rumors that he was sitting in on Off/Def meetings--kinda strange for a "replay consultant" to sit in on meetings for offense and defense. The Colts have been an integrity organization during the Dungy/Caldwell era. Surprised that they are going after a dirtbag like JT. At least in the NFL he won't have to lie about his players getting free tatoos.
January 21st, 2012 at 1:21 PM ^
To those of us with longer memories the Colts have not been an "integrity" organization since Irsay did his midnight run out of Baltimore...and never will be as long as Irsay remains.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:18 AM ^
I dont' care about the Colts. That said, Andrew Luck would be stupid to go to any team with Tressel as head coach.
January 21st, 2012 at 11:29 AM ^
You act like Luck has any say in the matter.
January 21st, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^
Eli Manning knows a way around it...
January 21st, 2012 at 11:26 AM ^
all at once--that's hitting for the trifecta, and I approve. NFL players already have all the paid sex and trinkets that they have time for, and won't be lured by Tressel's cheap tricks. Sanctimonious religiosity lures in a certain kind of naive parent, places a patina of wholesomeness over the money machine NCAA football has become, but a hustler like Tressel won't be able to put that over in the NFL, either. Two years max, if he gets the job at all.
January 21st, 2012 at 5:15 PM ^
Agree - Tress will finally be exposed as the FRAUD he is
1. Coordinators - the OC coordinator: Look who Bollman turned out to be, the DC effort was no better - do you think Tressel can choose better talent now? And, Point 5 below, what would Peyton say?
2. Player motivation: As another posted said, the NFL'ers all have tattoo's and cars galore, what's going to motivate them? Preacher Jim's snake oil pitch won't work with 99% of these guys.
3. Running a clean organization - YSU to OSU. Mo C to Troy to TP. No way Tress runs a clean shop now that he's elevated to the pros.
4. Offense philosophy: Running that "Power Dave" off-tackle scheme can work if you have lineman juiced out of their mind, a stud runningback who is similarly jacked and a bevy of "tutors" to help with, ahem, "grades". Basically, see Point 1 - Tress is way out of his element.
5. Peyton. *If* this hire happens, Archie and Eli won't stand for Tress to put in a new offensive scheme and not allow Peyton to call the game.
January 21st, 2012 at 5:50 PM ^
January 21st, 2012 at 10:29 AM ^
Tressel is a master manipulator so it is no surprise to me that he has Irsay buying in to his bullshit. He probably was sitting in on offense and defense meetings and then going back and reporting to Irsay.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:35 AM ^
it's a holy roller thing. Sad.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:41 AM ^
He never played or held a major coaching position in the NFL, a league littered with the wreckage of successful college coaches who couldn't hack it in the pros. C.f. Carrol, Spurrier, Holtz, etc. The likelihood of the vest failing at the Colts and fading into obscurity is very high.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
While I'm absolutely NO fan of Jim Tressel would his hire be that big of a reach really? Look at the list of recent head coaching hires and tell me Tressel is worse than Jason Garret OR Chan Gailey OR Romeo Crennel (God help me) OR Joe Philbin (never a head coach anywhere before OR Mike Mularky OR Leslie Frazier OR Norv fucking Turner? And dont forget that the Raiders and the Bucs also have vacancies at the top right now as well.
And I saved the best for last. I'm a Brown's season ticket holder and without question Pat Shurmer is more over his head in this job than anybody else on the list including Tressel. In his one glorious year with the Browns so far he single handidly managed to lose at least three games, piss off our best player and fan favorite Peyton Hillis and somehow miss his starting QB getting absolutely killed by Jerome Harrison thereby setting the stage for putting a badly concussed QB back in a contested game just two plays after the hit.
Is Tressel a reach? You bet but he's certainly no worse than the guys listed above.
January 21st, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^
January 21st, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^
What you are proposing is clear collusion and would never fly in court. The article mentions that Roger Goodall would have suspended Tressel if he hadn't suspended himself, which is perplexing to me since Tressel wasn't associated with the NFL when he got in trouble and his NCAA problems weren't against the law. The NFL has regularly welcomed college athletes and coaches who ran afoul with the NCAA. I know Goodall wants to maintain a high personal conduct standard but suspending players or coaches for NCAA violations seems to be a stretch. That's not to say I wouldn't like to see a system that further discourages college coaches from ruining college programs then bailing for the NFL (Pete Carroll I'm looking at you) but I don't see how it could be done legally.
January 21st, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
called for a gentleman's agreement?
January 21st, 2012 at 4:01 PM ^
Then how did the Pryor suspension work?
January 21st, 2012 at 10:58 AM ^
January 21st, 2012 at 12:08 PM ^
The no NFL experience is definitely something to consider if I were the Colts. A great example would be Steve Spurrier. Or even Nick Saban.
January 21st, 2012 at 11:00 AM ^
But most players in the NFL already have tattoos and nice cars, so I'm not sure what Tressel brings to the table.
All kidding aside, I question this choice more from a football standpoint than as a character concern. Tressel was notorious for relying heavily on his defense and playing a conservative offense; the Colts are likely to draft Andrew Luck in next month's draft and have always been an offensive powerhouse with Manning. That defense does not have much in the way of playmakers after Freeney and, to a lesser extent, Mathis, and neither are truly dominant anymore. So Tressel would step in, with no real professional experience, and try to install a program with the wrong players in place and little immediate help on the horizon.
And for all the talk about "Harbaugh did it", he inherited a team with a very good defense and offense that had underperformed under previous coaches. Yes, Harbaugh deserves credit for finally turning that talent into wins, but tha talent disparting between Indy and SF is vast.
January 21st, 2012 at 11:08 AM ^
Tress knows how to cater to free agents. He'll wine and dine them and bring in some major talent
January 21st, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^
I only came into this thread to say that it is pointless. Tressel is a lying piece of shit and I hope he goes bankrupt.
January 21st, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
You sir speak the truth.
January 21st, 2012 at 11:58 AM ^
January 21st, 2012 at 12:12 PM ^
His convervative, never make an obvious mistake even if it means losing the game, style of playcalling is a perfect fit for the NFL. Tressel only was supposed to be such a "natural" college coach because of his alleged qualities as teacher, mentor, and saint, all of which we now know to be lies.
January 21st, 2012 at 12:20 PM ^
This hire would be an epic fail.
January 21st, 2012 at 5:19 PM ^
I'm a UM and Colts fan, with UM being my first love. Can I not like the Colts if they do this? Is this a legit reason for a grown man to switch teams?
January 21st, 2012 at 12:30 PM ^
Be honest, nobody cares about tattoo's. The only reason you hate tressel is because he bitch slapped you for 10 years. You shouldn't have been surprised. The day he took the job that's what he said he was going to do. Then he went about doing it. Deal with it.............