MANSFIELD — Ohio State football fans wanted a head coach with Ohio and OSU ties to replace John Cooper.

They wanted a guy who knows how to beat his archrival. They wanted someone who can crank it up a notch in the postseason, a guy who knows how to finish. They wanted a guy who graduates his players.

They got him.

All Jim Tressel had to do is prove those things at the Division I-A level. After the 2002 national championship, mission accomplished.

In 15 years at Youngstown State, Tressel compiled a 135-57-2 record, including a 23-6 mark in 10 I-AA postseason appearances. He was also the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year in 1994.

Tressel was 48 when he took the OSU job on Jan. 18, 2001. He signed a five-year contract paying him around $1 million a year on average.

He was the winner of athletics director Andy Geiger’s lengthy search, which began when Cooper’s 13-year reign ended Jan. 2, 2001. Cooper was fired after Ohio State lost to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl. He was 111-43-4, shared three Big Ten titles and put the Buckeyes in 11 bowl games. But Cooper was only 3-8 in those post-season affairs and just 2-10-1 against arch-rival Michigan.

Tressel, in stark contrast, won four national championships at Youngstown State (1991, 1993, 1994, 1997) , played in six title games, posted 12 winning seasons and went 7-2-1 against neighboring archrival Akron. That included a 5-2-1 mark after Akron made the jump to I-A and before the Mid-American Conference asked league affiliate Akron to discontinue the series in the mid-90s.

Tressel is also a born Buckeye who idolized Paul Brown and Woody Hayes. He lived and breathed Ohio State football growing up in the Cleveland suburb of Berea.

“When I was small (Ohio State) was all I cared about,” Tressel said at his first news conference. “I had to know what Rex Kern was doing. Rex Kern was on the cover of the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer holding his Rose Bowl MVP ball and his Bible. I said maybe I ought to be reading the Bible because if Rex Kern is reading the Bible, that’s what I ought to do. That’s the way I felt about Ohio State and Woody Hayes and Rex Kern.”

At Youngstown State, Tressel shifted his game against archrival Akron to Friday night because it was originally scheduled for the same day as Ohio State vs. Michigan.

He also made headlines with a bold promise at halftime of the Ohio State-Michigan basketball game just hours after his first news conference in Columbus. Speaking to a crowd of more than 18,000 at the Schottenstein Center, Tressel took the microphone, strolled to midcourt and said: “I promise you’ll be proud of our young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field.”
The audience went bananas.

They were even happier 310 days later when Ohio State upset Michigan 26-20. It was the program’s first win at Ann Arbor since 1987.

"He’ll do a great job because he’s a great recruiter and his teams are always well-coached, very prepared and highly motivated,” said Akron coach Lee Owens, who coached against Tressel. “There will be some hurdles, but he has Division I-A experience and he’s been to the top in I-AA.”

Tressel served as Ohio State’s quarterbacks coach under Earle Bruce from 1983-85, boosting teams that went to the Rose, Fiesta and Cotton Bowls. That background helped him survive a protracted search that saw at least five coaches withdraw their names from consideration and three others formally interview for the job.

Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden joined Oregon’s Mike Bellotti in dropping out of contention, following in the footsteps of Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Stanford’s Tyrone Willingham and Pittsburgh’s Walt Harris. Ohio State assistant head coach Fred Pagac and former OSU and NFL linebacker Chris Spielman interviewed for the job, but neither received a call-back.

In the end, it came down to Tressel and Minnesota head coach Glen Mason, who played for Ohio State and served on the OSU staff at the same time as Tressel.

“The thing that stands out about him is his dedication to his players,” said Paul Conn, one of Tressel’s former players at Youngstown State and a Mansfield Senior graduate. “It may take him a year or two to get the program where they want it academically, but once people see that he’s committed to his players as students, they’ll be pleased with his decision.”

According to figures, at the time of Tressel’s hiring, Ohio State graduated a Big Ten-low 28 percent of its players. By comparison, Tressel graduated 54 percent of his players at Youngstown State.

Tressel’s father Lee was a coaching legend at Baldwin-Wallace. Lee Tressel, who died of lung cancer at 56 in 1981, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996. Ironically, Lee Tressel was an offensive pioneer, in stark contrast to his son.

“Lee’s run-and-shoot offense and his veer, split-back option attack were ahead of their time,” said Ashland University football coach Fred Martinelli, also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Lee Tressel was 155-52-6 in 23 years on the northeast Ohio campus and led the Yellow Jackets to the 1978 Division III national title.

He was as well-known for his trademark bow tie and crew cut as his innovative style of play. Jim Tressel played quarterback for his father, was a four-year letter winner at B-W (1971-74) and was a co-captain and all-conference as a senior.

“Jim was really smart; that was his strength,” said Dan Gorbett, one of Tressel’s teammates. “Some quarterbacks are great athletes, some have rocket arms, but Jim was just your typical coach’s son who didn’t make any mistakes.”

Tressel still maintains a keen interest in coaching the position he played as a collegian.

At his OSU unveiling Tressel pointed out that he won his four Division I-AA national championships at Youngstown State (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997) with four different quarterbacks and four different offensive systems.

But longtime YSU observers say Tressel, for the most part, was as conservative as his father’s choice of neckware, relying on solid defense, excellent special teams play and a ball-control, low-risk offense.

Lee and Jim are the only father-son combination to win National Coach of the Year honors and national championships in football. They have combined to win more than 400 games, second only to the Bowden family, which has more than 440 collegiate victories. In addition, Jim’s brother Dick (the former coach at Hamline (Minn.) University) was also a successful coach. All three Tressels can lay claim to at least 100 collegiate coaching victories, a feat no other football family can match.

“I’ve been blessed with a great background,” Jim Tressel said. “I got to watch a coach every day. My dad (a 1996 College Football Hall of Fame inductee) was one of the great coaches because he cared about every player. He knew the most important thing the player was concerned with was ‘Do you really care about me?’ ”

Not to be forgotten in this successful equation is Eloise Tressel, the family matriarch, director of athletic archives at the school and ‘’mom” to all of the athletes who played for her husband at B-W.

Although Eloise died just before Jim Tressel’s first game as the OSU head coach, her influence was immeasurable on her family. She was also a popular figure in the community, another trait Jim Tressel has inherited. Upon his hiring, Tressel encouraged his players to become active in the community, something he initiated in Youngstown.

That philosophy helped Tressel develop strong roots in northeast Ohio, a hotbed of football talent. His popularity with Ohio’s high school coaches should also help heal a wound that was created by his predecessor’s lack of interest or patience with the state’s prep coaches.

That relationship paid dividends in 2002, when Tressel landed the nation’s second-best recruiting class, made up largely of in-state players.

His first season was a mixed bag. Ohio State finished 7-5, third in the Big Ten. The huge win at Michigan helped many fans forget some tough losses (at Penn State, home to Illinois, and in the Outback Bowl to South Carolina for the second year in a row).

But Buckeye fans hope the 2001 season was only a stepping stone to future successes.