Jim Tressel arrived in Columbus with a promise: succeeding on the field, in the classroom and especially in Ann Arbor against hated rival Michigan.
A bold statement at the time for a man who has become perhaps the most straight-laced of coaches in the Big Ten. And it paid off by every stretch of the imagination when Ohio State beat the Wolverines twice and brought home a national championship in 2002. Under Tressel, the Buckeyes have remained one of the consistently strong programs in the nation.
But these days, it's not as easy to patrol the sidelines at the Horseshoe in a sweater vest as the Buckeyes have now lost three in a row, all coming against Big Ten opponents and the record stands at just 3-3.
Ohio State took a surprise punch on the road at Northwestern three weeks ago, losing 33-27 and has yet to recover. Then Wisconsin came into Columbus and won a tough 24-13 battle before the Buckeyes were trounced at Iowa Saturday, 33-7.
But the impossibly even-keeled Tressel refused to read into Ohio State's unexpected 0-3 start in conference play and said that nothing has changed in his staff's approach to things.
"What you hope to do, whether you're 3-0 or 0-3, is to appeal to a person to do what they can at that moment to do their job better than they've ever done it," Tressel said. "After we were 6-0 two years ago, we appealed to the very same things. Our record is irrelevant -- what we can do to get better is what it's all about. It sounds canned and cliched, but we just need to focus on getting better."
Barring last weekend's embarrassment in Iowa City, the Buckeyes still have a lot in common on paper with the '02 title team: a very strong defense and a relatively weak offense.
But this season, there has been no Maurice Clarett and no real running game to speak of.
And where two years ago there was the very bland but efficient Craig Krenzel at quarterback, Justin Zwick has been something of a disappointment, especially compared to the success of other young quarterbacks in the Big Ten like Michigan's Chad Henne.
Unlike Henne however, Zwick does not have the types of weapons at his disposal, particularly at wide receiver.
"I think at Ohio State it's because they graduated 14 some guys, they set a record for guys drafted," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "When you lose a lot of great players, older guys, veteran guys, it's tough to go out and replace then in a week or two and I think that's a huge factor."
Upon further review...
Just past the midway point of the season for most Big Ten teams, the reaction to the instant replay experiment has been very much favorable to the coaches in the conference.
The consensus among the Big Ten coaching fraternity is that instant replay has been a positive change and that they think it can be improved upon or tweaked in the offseason.
"I think there are some things we certainly will want to discuss as coaches," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "But what I like about it personally is when there is a play that bears reviewing, we have that opportunity. As a coach, it's a good feeling to know there is another view of what happened. I think as we sit here today, I'm much more comfortable with it than I thought I would be."
Nearly every coach in the conference mentioned that the matter would be discussed later on what can be improved.
Illinois coach Ron Turner has said he would like to see a more NFL-style challenge system that gave power to the coaches.
The main issue, however, is how a shift toward the NFL method would affect the speed of the game.
"I'd probably think about it, yes," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said. "But to be frank and blunt, I'm not interested in extending the length of the game in any way."
BCS getting badgered
The first Bowl Championship Series rankings came out this week and current Big Ten co-leader Wisconsin is currently No. 6, despite a 7-0 start and a win over previously undefeated Purdue last week.
Despite strong showings so far, Purdue is ranked 12 and Michigan is at No. 13. Why the low rankings? Tiller gave this philosophical gem for pondering.
"The computers don't know that they don't know," Tiller said, presumably referring to the computers' inability to gauge public perception of teams and the Big Ten in general.
As one might expect, Badgers coach Barry Alvarez downplayed any national title talk and insisted on "just focusing on the next game."
