Below The Beltway

Stewart Mandel profiles the Ohio State Coach on the eve of his second trip to the National Championship Game, and it’s clear that the key to his success isn’t just a bunch of lucky breaks:

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Sitting in the front row of stands at University of Phoenix Stadium on Friday, Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman was engaged in a conversation about his boss and colleague of 13 years, Jim Tressel, when he let out a chuckle.

“The media makes such a big deal out of how we’ve changed the offense [during Tressel's Ohio State tenure]. All four national championships they won at Youngstown, their offense from one to another was completely different” said Bollman, who was Tressel’s offensive coordinator there for five years. “Heck, the first year they won it, in 1991, they ran the option.”

As Tressel’s Buckeyes prepare to face Florida on Monday for a shot at their second national championship in five years, it’s become abundantly clear that the college football world got a wrong first impression of the man in the sweater vest. Back in 2002 and ‘03, when Ohio State was winning all those 10-6 and 13-7 games and its most valuable player was its field-goal kicker, it became popular to refer to those Buckeyes as the “Luckeyes.”

It’s hard to chalk up a six-year record of 62-13, a 19-game winning streak or 8-2 record against Top 10 teams to luck. The Buckeyes, it turns out, are simply the nation’s best-prepared team.

Instead of just luck, Mandel credits Tressel’s success to three key elements:

1) The concept of the team as family. Certainly Tressel isn’t the first coach to talk about his team as a family — and it often sounds cheesy when they do — but spend enough time listening to his players speak and you’ll realize that this is clearly a case where every member of the roster is on the same exact wavelength. Never have I heard a group of players whose statements so eerily mirror the message that of their head coach. “He has a system he wants to impose both on and off the field,” said senior center Doug Datish. “He has this unique ability to mold guys into the system.”

Although seldom mentioned in the press, Tressel is involved with an organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and it’s been fairly clear that he’s tried to bring his players into that fold as well.

2) An emphasis on fundamentals. Again, there’s hardly a coach in the country who doesn’t profess to hammering home fundamentals, but unlike some elite teams that win in spite of their shortcomings, with Tressel’s teams, the proof is in the pudding — they simply don’t make mistakes. Rarely will you see an OSU defender blow a coverage or a receiver run the wrong route. And as for the most tangible mistakes of all — turnovers — Ohio State tied for the eighth fewest in the country this season (16), seventh during their 2002 title season (17).

You can’t argue with that one, now can you ?

3) An inordinate attention to detail. There’s a reason the Buckeyes have been so well prepared since Tressel’s arrival — it’s in his blood to leave no stone unturned. “With our dad, everything was covered,” said OSU running backs coach Dick Tressel, Jim’s older brother. Their father, the late Lee Tressel, was a national-championship coach at Division III Baldwin-Wallace. “I think where Jim took from Dad is, every little thing is critical. Every last guy on that team is important.

For OSU, that attention to detail shows up most obviously on special teams, where the Buckeyes routinely excel, as well as their game-planning. In discussing the special-teams area, Dick Tressel mentioned that Florida has five different punt formations. This would seem to indicate that the coaches have watched tape of every single Gators punt this season. It seems like such a minor detail, yet it’s true that one blocked punt or long punt return could make all the difference in Monday night’s game.

Jim Tressel has already immortalized himself among the list of Ohio State coaches with a near perfect record against Michigan. Winning a second National Championship in five years would only cement the deal.