Tressel Gives Buckeyes a Kick in the Grass

By Michael B. Sisak 3d
mike.sisak@collegeblitz.com

Last week the messenger from Pennsylvania Dutch country delivered questions in a shrill about Penn State. This week the messenger from Buckeye Nation was short and bitter with the questions.

"What was Jim Tressel thinking? Why pooch a kickoff before halftime and give Texas good field position and allow it to gain momentum and get back into the game? Why have a freshman try a 50-yard field goal, which is like kicking from Canton? Didn't Joe Paterno teach Jim Tressel not to kick field goals from near midfield with the lead? How could Ohio State let Texas win after its defense had totally confounded Vince Young into 17 yards on 10 possessions after his early dancing to a 10-0 lead?

The messenger from Buckeye Nation was asking about Ohio State's 25-22 loss to Texas, and he had no answers on the night Ohio State remembered that Woody Hayes once coached there, and hung a banner in his memory. What took Ohio State so long to remember a coach who won three national championships and 10 Big Ten titles? A road sign outside the stadium is not a banner for 105,000 to see near midfield.

The banner for Jim Tressel became tattered after he made some abysmal coaching decisions: 1) the pooch kick that allowed Texas to nibble its way to a 37-yard field goal two seconds before halftime and cut a 16-10 deficit to 16-13; 2) the missed 50-yard field goal that gave Texas possession on its 33 instead of inside its 20 on a punt; and 3) the substitution of quarterbacks Justin Zwick and Troy Smith that led to the less swift Zwick getting stripped of the ball before Texas built a 23-22 lead to 25-22.

Will this loss create the malaise Minnesota inflicted on a 9-0 Penn State team in 1999? That was the start of a downfall that has lasted into this season. Paterno tried a field goal from the 40, as Tressel did to build a lead, instead of pinning down Minnesota with a punt, and then saw the Gophers scurry to a heartbreaking touchdown.

Tressel was trying to build the lead to six points because he trusted his defense would not allow Texas to get more than a field goal. That strategy backfired, and Texas hit a third-and-six touchdown pass from the 24 to end Ohio State's national title dream with 2 minutes 37 seconds to play. Jack Nicklaus watched and must have thought it was like a long putt beating him for a Grand Slam.

The Ohio State defense should sue. A fine group of senior linebackers kept Ohio State in the game as it rallied from a 0-10 deficit to tie at 10-10 and lead by 16-10 and by 16-13 and by 22-13 and by 22-16.

The game was the first between the two football programs, which have won the national title 10 times and the Heisman Trophy eight times. Saturday night Ohio State lost because of bad-coaching decisions to a team that overcame bad-coaching decisions.

On the Texas side was Darryl Royal, the coach who last won national titles at Texas in 1969, thanks to a seconding speech by Dick Nixon that infuriated Paterno ("How could Nixon know so much about college football and nothing about Watergate?) and in 1970. One memorable expression Royal blurted came before the 1972 Cotton Bowl, while Paterno poormouthed his Penn State team. "Joe, you're peeing on my leg," Royal said as the news media laughed.

He was right, and it was more than a trickle. Franco Harris, a few months before his Immaculate Reception, and Lydell Mitchell rallied Penn State from a 6-3 deficit to a 30-6 oil strike.

Tressel could not strike oil. "Our defense fought like crazy and came up with things that we needed, like the turnovers," Tressel said. "We just needed more touchdowns."

And better coaching.

Which Notre Dame is getting and Michigan needs against its nemesis Notre Dame.

Charlie Weis became the first Notre Dame coach since Knute Rockne to open a season with two victories on the road. Notre Dame is THE college football story of the season. How was Michigan in the top 4? What did Lloyd Carr do when he lost sleep all week? Panic? Michigan quarterback Chad Henne had not had a turnover since the one against Notre Dame when he dropped Paterno for Carr.

And what's with Pitt? Can Dave Wannstedt coach? Frank Solich and Ohio beat him? Frank Solich, a decent man who became a persona non grata when the wheels came off at Penn State in 2000 for Nebraska. Nebraska? That is next for Pitt. At Lincoln. Where's Pop Warner or Jock Sutherland when Pitt needs them?