Jim Tressel's Has To Beat USC Or Be Fired Forever!

For those of you participating, don't forget to set your lineups for this week's NFL Yahoo fantasy football games and also make your picks for the College Football Pick 'Em before Saturday at noon. I had a brutal week last week but I feel myself bouncing back this week and actually picking 50% of the games right.

Also, for those that go to Mike and the Mad Blog everyday you may already know they have shut the site down. Fortunately AwesomeSean has formed a spin-off site to Mike and the Mad Blog and I have linked that as well in the BlogRoll. It should be a good site to visit so I encourage everyone to go to it frequently. The site is http://sportstalkbash.blogspot.com/.

You may notice I put a small bit of text to the right side of this here blog that says "Bengoodfella-Peter King-Bill Simmons NFL Pick 'Em Challenge Results." I got the bright idea yesterday to join Peter King's FanNation NFL Pick 'Em Challenge and join Bill Simmons' Pick 'Em Challenge on ESPN. After I had done so I realized it was pretty pointless because I didn't really care to join a Pick 'Em with a bunch of people I don't know. So I decided to make me care more about my picks, I would put the results of the epic showdown between Peter King, Bill Simmons, and me up on BotB. So that's what I have done. The font looks like ass and I think it is ugly with the way I designed, but otherwise the little numbers displayed will show the results for each week, aesthetics be damned.

The reason there will be a difference in the results for each Pick 'Em is because for the Simmons challenge we are picking against the spread and with Peter King's we are just picking the winner of each game. By the end of the year, I will have attained public victory over Peter King and Bill Simmons at the art of guessing who will win NFL football games. I feel confident I will be able to publicly shame them with the results by the end of the year and they will not be able to show their face in public because I am better at guessing than they are.

On to today's article, a gentleman named Bruce Hooley has written an article about the upcoming USC-Ohio State game. More specifically he has written about Jim Tressel and how this is a "must win" game for him. I don't know Bruce Hooley and I am pretty sure I have never read anything he has written before, so maybe this article doesn't reflect his usual standard...but I didn't like the words contained in the article. It was very dramatic and quite honestly a little contradicting. Apparently Bruce Hooley has covered the Big 10 for 18 years now, so he seems to be quite an expert on the conference, which I didn't necessarily see here.

The article on FoxSports has this sentence below the link to the article: "Jim Tressel has always had the support Buckeyes fans, but that could change if OSU can't beat USC, says Bruce Hooley."

Bruce Hooley, I believe is wrong. I am not an Ohio State fan so I can't speak for the entire fan base but I am assuming they like the coach who was led the Buckeyes to a 84-19 record, 3 National Championship Game appearances, 5 Big 10 Conference Titles, and a National Championship since 2001.

There's a very good reason he's never devoted so much as one idle thought to the pursuit of his own popularity.

Why worry about something that's always been as certain as the sunrise?

It's different now for Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.

Way different.

Forget the two National Championship appearances over the past 3 years, he must beat USC this weekend or he is going to be on the hot seat? Is that what is being said here? I don't get how it is WAY different now. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I am a fan of a program that has high standards for it's football team. I was once for the firing of a coach who had ten wins in a season because I thought the team could do better...and the school actually fired him. Oh how stupid was I to agree with this decision (nodding head sadly)...

Hopefully Ohio State knows they have a good coach and look to hold onto him.

After 105 games, just into his ninth season, the man who's always had the majority of OSU fans in his corner suddenly seems backed into that very spot.

He is 84-19 at Ohio State and 52-12 in the Big 10 conference and has beaten Michigan 7 out of 8 times he has played them with Ohio State. I don't know what corner he has been backed into, but pretty much every college football coach in America wouldn't mind being in the same corner.

But the clear vibe in Columbus these days is that if he doesn't win Saturday against the Trojans, Tressel will — for the first time — inspire more grumbling than confidence among Buckeye Nation.

I understand Bruce Hooley knows more about Big 10 football than I do, but is Buckeye Nation going to start grumbling to get rid of Jim Tressel as coach? That's certainly what is sounds like, in which case I couldn't agree less. There may be grumbling but I don't think Tressel's job security will be, or should be, in question.

Tressel certainly won't be fired for losing this game, nor is he in any danger of being forced out any time soon — if ever.

And apparrently Bruce Hooley doesn't think Jim Tressel's job security will be in danger either. Here's the contradiction. The title of the article seems to indicate Jim Tressel needs to beat USC to keep the fans happy and continue being supported by the Buckeye faithful, but now Hooley tells us Tressel is not in danger of being fired or forced out anytime soon, or maybe ever...but he is going to continue typing like the Ohio State fans are not happy with Tressel's performance.

So what's the grumbling about in Buckeye Nation? Indigestion?

If Buckeye Nation starts grumbling then that infers Tressel is going to not necessarily be on the hot seat, but he is going to be looked at closely in the near future by the alumni who aren't exactly thrilled with his performance. You can't write an article stating the Ohio State fans will lose support for Tressel with a USC loss and then also say Tressel may never be fired. It can't work both ways. Either this USC game is a big win for him to continue getting the support of Ohio State fans or they will start grumbling about his performance in big games, which doesn't infer his job security is 100% if the trend continues. Both ways you can not have it.

He has the unquestioned support of Ohio State's administration, which loves the Senatorial image he projects, his philanthropy toward the school and the fact he'll never go Lane Kiffin on an opposing coach or school.

The fans, though, covet more fire than the Buckeyes have shown since Roy Hall jumped on Ted Ginn's ankle to celebrate the opening kickoff of the 2006 BCS national championship game.

So the Ohio State administration loves him, which is why he will never be fired, but the fans don't always love him? Are there no administration or really important alumni who are also fans of the team? I don't see how these two ideas as being mutually exclusive. Eventually the opinion of the fans trickles into the administration's thinking.

What is happening here is Hooley is trying to argue the administration loves Tressel so he will never be fired but the fans may not support him, so he may lose support among them, but it doesn't matter because they don't have any power. Unfortunately, the problem lies in the fact that if Hooley is correct, which I don't think he is, the Buckeye faithful will start grumbling if he loses to USC this weekend eventually the administration will start to notice as well, which could change Tressel's job security.

I don't believe the fans of OSU are fed up in any fashion with Jim Tressel, he is a great coach and they are smart enough to realize that. Somehow Bruce Hooley is trying to further the idea if the fans of OSU aren't completely happy with Tressel's job performance, the administration will continue to completely support him, which isn't going to always be true.

The Gators, LSU in the subsequent BCS title game and USC last year at the Coliseum have hammered OSU by a collective margin of 114-41 since then.

It's not like Florida and LSU weren't loaded those two years and USC is always loaded. The bottom line is these three teams had athletes on those teams that Ohio State just did not have or at least couldn't match up well against in those particular games.

Throw in close losses to Penn State at home last season and Texas in the Fiesta Bowl in January, and Tressel is winless in his last five games against top-five teams.

So my question, which is not answered in this column, is whether Tressel's job will ever be in danger? Bruce Hooley is certainly talking like it would be, but then he comes out and says Tressel's job is safe because he has the support of the administration.

Even after losing back-to-back BCS title games in 2006 and 2007, Tressel remained unwaveringly popular among the masses in Columbus, who instead turned their anger on the Southeastern Conference infidels who inflicted that embarrassment.

So the entire premise of this article is wrong? Tressel doesn't have to beat USC and the fans will always support him? That's certainly what it sounds like what is being said.

Beating arch-rival Michigan, winning the conference championship and getting to a BCS bowl aren't enough any more because he's done it so often it's routine.

I completely disagree. Not that Ohio State fans are always going to love Jim Tressel but he has the school in the running for a National Championship nearly every single year, which I believe is enough for the Ohio State fans. No coach could live in this day and age where a coach like Pete Carroll with a winning percentage over .800 is considered to have "underachieved." I think sportswriters hold these coaches to a higher standard than the fans sometimes do.

After three consecutive BCS bowl game losses, there's a palpable uneasiness among the legions who follow Ohio State and reap much of their self image from how the Buckeyes fare on game day.

So again, back to my main question...if the Buckeye fans are uneasy and may lose support for Jim Tressel if the loses to USC, which is what this entire article is about, how the heck does he have eternal job support from the administration and may never be in danger of getting fired? The administration of Ohio State are also fans of the football program, so if Johnny Warren in Section 301 Seat 4 is pissed off about losing at home to USC, won't the administration feel a similar way potentially?

I think I am going insane. I don't think Jim Tressel's job is in danger and I don't think it should be in danger. It seems like Bruce Hooley agrees with me, yet he writes an entire article insinuating what he agrees with me upon is not true.

Another loss of that sort, and Tressel will find himself swimming against an unfamiliar current — not that he'd ever acknowledge it.

Yes, because coaches often come out and says, "if lose this game my job security is going to go in the shitter." That happens all the time because a coach is always looking to set unreal expectations for his program that could lead to him being fired. Tressel understands the big picture, so he doesn't care to acknowledge OSU's struggles in big games of late. He is winning games, competing for National Championships, and beating Michigan so he is doing a good job. That's the big picture.

"...And at the end of the game, if we're successful, all of a sudden the world isn't perfect because we're still going to have to grade the film and come in and get ready to do it again. And if we're not successful, chances are, as long as there's no tragedies, the world won't end."

Just the world of unfettered favor he's known for nine years.

I don't think so. I can't speak for Ohio State fans, but the few I know are pretty happy with Tressel's job performance. You can't really have it both ways. Either Tressel is starting to make fans unhappy and hence his job may eventually be in danger at some point if he loses to USC, or his job will be safe regardless of whether he beats USC or not.

I think Jim Tressel's job should be, and is, safe. I don't know what Bruce Hooley thinks because he starts this article starts off with the premise Tressel needs to win the USC game this weekend to keep the fans happy and continue getting their support, then writes in the article he will have support from the administration of Ohio State no matter what...like there is a massive disconnect between what the fans and the administration think about Tressel's performance in big games, which I don't believe there is true.

-How dare this man perpetrate any negativity on The Jeter! Unfortunately he is exactly correct. This is from the Big Lead.

On Sportscenter today, Tim Kurkjian assessed Jeter’s ranking among the greatest Yankees of all-time. Him needing to explain Jeter not being in the top five indicates the misperception of this record.

Hits have meaning. You have to be good to accumulate them, but they tell nothing beyond that.

Thank you. Hits are great but Derek Jeter is in no way near the top 5 Yankees of all-time.

You want my list? Fine.

Mantle
Gehrig
Ruth
DiMaggio
Ford
Berra
Rivera

Whoops, that was 7.

I don't want to copy the entire article from the Big Lead but yes, this man is right.

Hits alone are useless for assessing greatness. Pete Rose is not the greatest hitter of all time. Morgan and Bench were better on his own team. The greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams, never had 200 hits in a season.

Ted Williams never had 200 hits? If there has ever been an indictment of why hits are slightly overrated, the fact Ted Willliams never had 200 hits should really, really help to support it.