By: Dave Curtis (SportingNews.com) —
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The sun was shining, the fans were tailgating, and there wasn’t a significant injury in sight. Saturday was a good day for Ohio State football, at least until the spring game ended. That’s when Jim Tressel tried to be a funny man at his postgame press conference. He bombed.

Asked why quarterback Terrelle Pryor skipped the fourth quarter, a move that veered from the scrimmage’s script, Tressel said he ejected the mild-mannered sophomore. “Tossed him,” the coach said. “Tired of his stuff.” A few giggles followed.
Any more question, folks? Tressel’s got more jokes. He jabbed at Marcus Williams getting hauled down after a 75-yard run. “We told Marcus he would have scored before he was married,” he said. He picked on receiver Taurian Washington’s accessories. “Those little wristbands that he had on top of his calves. We’ve got to straighten that out,” he said.

Sorry, Coach. Crickets every time.

When Tressel is done at Ohio State, done with Saturday afternoon debriefings from behind a microphone, no one will remember the comedy. They will recall his head coaching, all 23-plus years of it to date. And they’ll see that he compares favorably to almost anyone who has worn a whistle in major college football.

College sports has a funky tradition of inducting active coaches into its football and basketball halls of fame. The College Basketball Hall of Fame includes Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams. In college football, Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno still roam the sidelines despite their enshrinement in South Bend, Ind. And soon — very soon — Tressel should join them.

The rules say it can’t happen. Until a few years ago, only retired coaches could get in. The policy now allows active coaches older than 75 into the Hall — it was changed so Bowden and Paterno could be enshrined. The number seems a little arbitrary. So why not punt the “must-be-retired” part altogether?

This year’s College Football Hall nominees include Billy Jack Murphy, Wayne Hardin and Dick MacPherson. Yet it’s no dice for Tressel, a guy with five national championships (four at Youngstown State) and 218 victories in 296 tries.

Tressel belongs with the greats in coaching. He deserves a place next to Bowden and Paterno and his father, Lee Tressel, who won 155 games in 23 seasons at Division III Baldwin-Wallace. Put him with Woody Hayes, Earle Bruce and (gulp) John Cooper, his predecessors at OSU. Given his accomplishments, there’s no need to wait longer.

Need more than the wins and the championships at two levels? The guy has taken the Midwest’s flagship program to four straight BCS bowl games, the second-longest active streak in America. He’s 83-19 with the Buckeyes, including 7-1 against archrival Michigan. And despite brushes with players-taking-cash scandals at Youngstown State and Ohio State, it seems Tressel boasts 100 advocates for every critic.

“He’s a man of integrity,” senior defensive lineman Doug Worthington said. “He teaches you about football and about how to be a man. What you see pharmacy whithout prescription is what you get.”

Tressel, like all his peers, has some warts on his resume. His team’s recent flameouts in high-profile games have kept him behind Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll on the list of top active coaches. If you need a coach to win a single game with everything on the line, pass on Gentleman Jim.

But the body of work says if you need a strong season, or a strong decade, Tressel might be your guy. Sure, Frank Beamer and Bill Snyder had to build their programs to achieve success. Meyer, Carroll and Nick Saban have won more championships. All of those men someday should gain enshrinement. But Tressel has enjoyed more sustained success than any other active D-I coach who’s not in the Hall of Fame.

So let’s reward him for it with no further delay. Let’s add him to a fraternity that includes Terry Donahue, Pat Dye, Lou Holtz and Don James, to name a few. Would you hire any of those guys at their best over Tressel? Let’s recognize Tressel for his Hall of Fame achievements rather than his current calling card — his sweater vest.

That brings us back to the funny man. His last attempt at humor late Saturday afternoon was trying to link his red Hawaiian shirt to the NCAA-record spring-game crowd of 95,722. “We appealed to a whole other audience,” he said. Not even a murmur from the press-conference audience.

After that reaction, he dispensed his best advice of the spring. “I better go on that one,” he said, and he slinked away like a first-timer at Caroline’s.

Tressel’s departure from his profession will be much more graceful. By then, it should be a send-off worthy of a Hall of Famer. And that’s no joke.

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