View Full Version : How close is Jim Tressel to Woody Hayes' stature?
DTF955
11-28-2006, 11:29 AM
A conversation my dad and I were having even before the OSU-Michigan game concerned Woody Hayes, and how close our current coach is to him, in fans' estimation. My dad thought he was there already, that fans think him as great as Hayes now. What do you think? If not, when would he get there?
football junkie
11-28-2006, 09:18 PM
Woody Hayes is a legend. And we all know that our current coaches and players can never live up to the legacies our legends -- although our current coaches and players will become the legends of tomorrow.
This is precisely what is great about sports.
As a sidenote, I'm not much of a Ohio State fan. I'm more of a Penn State Nittany Lions fan myself. But I never did like the way Jim Tressell handled the Maurice Clarett situation. Seems like he just dumped all the blame for everything on the kid and tried to absolve himself of everything.
efin98
11-29-2006, 04:46 AM
Tressel has a national championship and is on his way to at least a share of another one, three Big 10 championships, and a 5-1 record against Michigan so far.
But that's only in six seasons as head coach, he still has a long time to go before he can live up to Hayes' stature. Ask this in another decade and you will have your answer- if he has another two national championships and at least four more Big 10 titles then I'll give him the nod as being on parr with Woody Hayes but not before then...it is simply too early to make that comparison.
Tressel has a national championship and is on his way to at least a share of another one, three Big 10 championships, and a 5-1 record against Michigan so far.
But that's only in six seasons as head coach, he still has a long time to go before he can live up to Hayes' stature. Ask this in another decade and you will have your answer- if he has another two national championships and at least four more Big 10 titles then I'll give him the nod as being on parr with Woody Hayes but not before then...it is simply too early to make that comparison.
I have to concur. Hayes is one of the legends of college coaching. Tressel has had a great run, easily the best since Hayes left OSU as he did. But Woody's legend goes beyond victories. His demeanor, as well as all the future coaches who learned under him, including one Glenn Bo Schembechler, mean even if Tressel gets another national title or two, he's got a lot more to do. There's Hayes, there's Paul Brown, and the rest of Ohio-based football coaches. And that's no slight to Tressel.
efin98
11-29-2006, 09:32 PM
There's Hayes, there's Paul Brown, and the rest of Ohio-based football coaches. And that's no slight to Tressel.
Tressel is one of the best coaches in Ohio history already, he is a legend from his days at Youngstown State(and the reason he's in the Hall of Fame).
DTF955
11-30-2006, 06:07 AM
Tressel is one of the best coaches in Ohio history already, he is a legend from his days at Youngstown State(and the reason he's in the Hall of Fame).
Which is one reason for the question - I don't think many people would be talking about him being close to hayes if he'd been a coordinator somewhere and moved up to head coach. I know I wouldn't, though he'd definitely be a great one.
As for Clarett, considering the problems he's had since, I really can't say how I'd have handled it, or whether it was right or not. It's really hard to know how much responsibility you can give a young man, or how much Clarett was capable of taking for himself. So, I really don't feel in a place to judge that part.
efin98
12-01-2006, 05:03 AM
Which is one reason for the question - I don't think many people would be talking about him being close to hayes if he'd been a coordinator somewhere and moved up to head coach. I know I wouldn't, though he'd definitely be a great one.
If you are considering his past as a whole, I'd go with Tressel due to him being on track to break Hayes' wins mark in another four years or so and in less seasons(Woody took 33 to reach it, Tressel takes 25).
Those eight seasons more may be downplayed due to extra games Tressel's teams play, but those only add to the toughness it takes to continue onto national titles and major bowls...
I'll also say this- Tressel actually has won more than one national title, five in fact. His Youngstown State teams won the '91, '93, '94, and '97 Division 1AA National Championships, Division 1AA didn't exist until the last year of Coach Hayes' tenure at OSU so adding those in are a valid comparison there. Tressel should get a bigger nod than he has gotten due to his teams' success on all levels.
Tressel is one of the best coaches in Ohio history already, he is a legend from his days at Youngstown State(and the reason he's in the Hall of Fame).
I live in Ohio so I am well aware of Tressel's accomplisments. Living in Ohio also lets me see the reverence firsthand that Hayes has. It takes more than winning a couple titles, or just glancing at a name in a record book, to reach the status Hayes has.
redlegsfan21
12-05-2006, 08:46 PM
I've been kinda avoiding posting in this thread but I must say this. I was not alive when Hayes coached. But I truely believe that Tressel has mean as much to me as Hayes meant to someone who was alive when Hayes coached.
Clifton native Woody Hayes has one huge thing going for him that Tressel doesn't, and that is that he is no longer an active coach, so he has a legacy that cannot be tarnished. He was also a lot more colorful than Jim will ever be (unless Tress can learn to put up his dukes).
from bucknuts.com (http://www.bucknuts.com/osuhistory/coaches.htm):
W. W. (Woody) Hayes (1951-1978) 205 Wins, 61 Losses, 10 Ties, .761 Winning Pct.
As assistant coach Esco Sarkkinen once put it, "You don't describe Woody Hayes in one word, one sentence, or one paragraph. You describe him with chapter after chapter."
See this link (http://www.bucknuts.com/osuhistory/coachhayes.htm) for the Bucknuts' Woody Hayes page.
Hayes was the face of OSU football just as Bobby Knight was to Indiana basketball. Or for that matter, to most of the nation, Ohio and Indiana, respectively.
I agree that Hayes is currently in a league of his own, and Brown (who brought OSU their first national championship) is somewhere behind, but Jim Tressel will one day be a member of this pantheon. His legacy will be restoring pride in a program that --regardless of whatever else they did or did not do, and why cast aspersions on John Cooper who increased graduation rates and ran a good clean program?-- could not beat Michigan. In Ohio, that's the only game that matters. We have Woody and Bo to thank for that.