By: DANA CALDWELL (NaplesNews.com) —
BONITA SPRINGS — For several years, Naples High football coach Bill Kramer recruited Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, a close friend, to speak to the Southwest Florida chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Two years ago, Kramer booked him, and on Monday night at the Hyatt Regency at Coconut Point, Tressel, who has been involved with FCA for 40 years, spoke during the “Play to Win” fund-raising campaign.

Tressel recently got something from Kramer, too — 6-foot-1, 230 pound Naples High running back Carlos Hyde, who rushed for 1,653 yards and 16 touchdowns last season signed with Ohio State. The Daily News Broxson Award winner helped lead the Golden Eagles to the 2007 state title and last season’s regional final.

Tressel, 56, laughed at the insinuation that Hyde, who Generic cilais whithout prescription has family in Cincinnati, was a trade-off for his speech.

“Not sure that had much to do with it, but we’re excited about Carlos Hyde, that’s for sure,” Tressel said.

Tressel, who led the Buckeyes to the 2002 national title and 2006 and 2007 national championship games and is 83-19 with OSU, loves big, bruising backs like Beanie Wells, who went 31st in last weekend’s NFL draft. Hyde fits the mold.

“We always love to have the big guy in the arsenal, and that’s why we began recruiting Carlos,” said Tressel, noting he wants all his freshmen coming in ready to play, although about half will redshirt.

Ohio State has another Southwest Florida product in rising junior linebacker Brian Rolle of Immokalee. The former Broxson Award winner has played a big role on special teams his first two seasons, and last season got more snaps on defense while tallying 21 tackles and intercepting a pass. Rolle led the Buckeyes in tackles (11) and had a sack during Saturday’s spring game that drew a national record 95,722 fans.

“He’s looked real good in the spring, flying around and playing well,” Tressel said. “We graduated two outstanding linebackers, James Laurinaitis went to the Rams (second round) and Marcus Freeman to the Bears (fifth round). So this, theoretically, would be the year that you’d count on B-Rolle to step up and make a difference. He has been a great help on the special teams for two years.”

Tressel said 65 percent of his players “come from within a couple hundred miles of our campus” and that Florida “is probably the state we recruit the hardest after that. Great football here, great coaching, great talent. So every year we’re going to be down here trying to have some of those young men choose to go to Ohio State. We’ve had good fortune with our Ohio State-Florida connection.”

Ohio State was 10-3 last year and the No. 10 Buckeyes lost, 24-21, against No. 3 Texas in the Fiesta Bowl. The Buckeyes lost 28 seniors and three juniors, seven who were drafted.

“We lost some great kids,” Tressel said. “We’re going to be younger. I like our kids. They’ve worked hard and I think we have some ability. We’re going to have to get good fast because we open up with Navy at home, and we’ve never had an academy, and they run that option offense. And then we have USC coming in.”

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