Tressel Says Team Wasn’t Mentally Prepared
In his first public comments since the national championship game, The Vest told 1460’s Kirk Herbstreit and Bruce Hooley that a lack of mental preparation contributed more to the team’s defeat than anything else.
I think the fine line and the edge in games is always the mental part. I’m not so sure –and again, that’s why you start with yourself — if we had our team as mentally prepared as we could have had it.
On the fourth and a yard gamble:
I felt that at that point in time we needed to step up and make a yard when a yard was needed if we were going to ultimately be the ones who got to put the big ring on this time. We didn’t get that done. … You have to make decisions. Some of them are the right ones, some of them end up being the wrong ones. But ultimately you have to look and say why was it or why wasn’t it the right decision, and go from there.
In somewhat related news, the Ohio Department of Commerce is saying that 2006 marked the eighth straight sales record for statewide spirit sales. No doubt the first week of 2007 has the state well ahead of pace to break that record once again.
Not mentally prepared…I’d say so! It didn’t look like we were physically prepared either. The whole 4th down and 1 scenario didn’t upset me as much as the rest of Buckeye nation. I agree with what Tress had to say about that situation. We were supposed to be a good enough team to get 1 yard when we needed it.
Now look….you’ve got me all worked up about it again!
I liked Herbstreit’s discussion after the Tressel call. “What will it take for Buckeye fans to put this game behind them� I think the game will remain in everyone’s mind until we win a big game. If that’s the case we may have to wait until the home game against Wisconsin next year.
What does everyone else think?
The sting of this game will never leave. But I’ll put it behind me on 8/30 when I can watch the Bucks play football again. That’s the worst part about ending the season that way….we have 7 more months until we can watch Buckeye Football again.
Since we were not “mentally prepared”, do you think this game put an end to the posh living at a 5 star resort prior to a big game? Maybe Woody knew what he was doing when he made his teams stay at monestaries & other dumps with no modern luxuries. Knowing our players were getting pedicures, etc. makes me sick. They were obviously full of themselves. Not the attitude you should take into a big game.
We can now all agree to reevaluate the Tressel hype. Can it now be said that JT is such a great gameday coach because Larry Coker is a horrible coach…Lloyd Carr is a mediocre coach…Mack Brown is a mediocre coach at best…Notre Dame and Weis have been extremely overrated thus far…I see JT as a coach who needed tremendous luck to beat UW once in three tries and gone 3-2 vs Paterno in 5 of PSU’s worst years ever. JT had a roster full of NFL talent and yet he let Texas come in to Columbus and blew an opportunity with special teams and D giving the ball to our offense in our stadium deep in Texas territory so many times only to lose. JT and staff are a clear step up from Cooper but not great because of stubborness…the refusal to change gameplans despite the obvious advantages to doing so. It’s laughable how some people refuse to hold JT responsible for this loss.
I have to disagree. Tressel is still one of the top handful of coaches in the game. The guy is 5-3 in national championship games. Sometimes you get beat. Sometimes, even smoked. He’s human and a lot smarter guy than most people probably give him credit for, so you can bet he learned something from this.
(I do agree with what you say about Coker, Brown, Carr and Weis, though.)
jason: Indeed JT’s record at OSU has been very very good, but the overall record doesn’t really tell the story. My point is the real story is told by just a few critical games each year and if you take a hard look there is much lacking that apparently goes under the radar of most fans.
As much as we love the BIG TEN and would like to think it’s the top conference, there are only a few national powers within. The highschool talent in the state of Ohio that transferes on to the Buckeyes is just better than most other states, if we had another Big Ten team to compete with interstate like Michigan, Indiana, or Illinois it would be a different story of course.
The big games are where Tressel and staff will be judged. I realize that stubborness can be viewed as fortitude and consistency…but a football game is played by 20 year olds and won by teams with high emotion and coaches have no excuses but to get better after 51 days off. This loss was harder than the Texas loss because we were completely let down by the entire team with it’s posh living and pedicures as frosty mentioned. This embarrasment was a wakeup call.
Although the UF game was very disappointing, I think it is still a little too premature to run JT out of town or say his program is anything else but successful. He’s 1-1 in the championship game at this point. That’s really not that bad. And although this year’s recruits are not all that impressive so far, I’m going to give JT & his staff the benefit of the doubt until he proves me otherwise. Also in my opinion, his Michigan record alone gives him a free pass for awhile.
Okay frosty, every Buckeye is pleased as punch that JT is said to own Michigan. Earle and Woody also did. The only Buckeye coach over the last 50+ years that didn’t own Michigan was the greatest big game loser of all time: John Cooper. Thank goodness Lloyd is doing his best Cooper imitaition. Lloyd lost twice (2001 and 2004) when he had better horses and Tressel lost once (2003-with a squad that featured 14 players that were drafted in the following spring and loads more to hit the NFL in the next couple drafts). Tressel needed a forth quarter to rally last year and barely hung on this past Nov. 18th to win with NFL talent he’ll likely not see again in this decade. Meanwhile Michigan will have what some say the next great NFL quarterback to close out the decade with in Ryan Mallett after dealing with the Wolverine Revenge Tour this fall. We are going to have to count on some very under rated recruits in the following years as Tressel’s classes have steadily dropped in their rankings since the golden years of 2002-03. With UF, USC and even Illinois among others with programs in high gear JT had better get his act together. We know what happened to 9-3 Earle, in other words the ride could get nasty sooner than some here think especially if JT’s stubbornness continues.
I think if you look at Tress’s record at YSU, he’d have 6-5 seasons interspersed between national titles, so perhaps Ohio State could see some "down" years. But, I can’t see anything worse than 9-3 for him at OSU. The pressure to win is huge, but if he can get the Bucks cracks at the big one every couple of years, I bet fans would forgive him the occasional down year.
You obviously know a lot about football, but I don’t know how OSU could possibly have a better coach. Are they going to go snag Carroll, Spurrier or Paterno?
Jason~your a great fan, Tressel has some fine qualities as a head coach, and I’m certainly not calling for HC change. However he also has some prominent weaknesses as an offensive coordinator (I hardly feel alone in this judgement) and his stubborness to change… this could have been what led to his lack of adjustments against UF. What bothers me is how many fans are afraid to ask the questions that need to be addressed. As head of a high-profile program in one of the four most talent rich areas of the country, especially when one is paid $2.45 million, we should always question. Remember as the OSU HC, it’s inherent that you will be judged only on those couple of games each year. The UW game of ‘03, the NW game of ‘04, or the UT or PSU games of ‘05; all games in which I feel Tressel was outcoached are not nearly as important as this latest screw-up. Not only did our coaching staff refuse to make adjustments, the base plan was so contridictory to what EVERY opposing coach had done succesfully againt UF all year. Every expert talked continously about UF’s speed and emotion…and how OSU simply needed to pound the ball on the ground and keep it away from their offense. Our scheme actually seemed to be the OPPOSITE of what common sense dictated. I won’t stop cheering like you but I also won’t stop questioning.