The Jim Tressel Era at Ohio State was flush with success including countless manhood strippings of Michigan and an undefeated season yielding a national championship. In the process of achieving such legendary results, however, Tressel wasn't above varied levels of criticism during his tenure largely due to an offense, dubbed Tresselball, that was often painfully conservative and boring.
Conversely, Urban Meyer's arrival at Ohio State has brought similar owning of Michigan and a national title while rewriting large sections of the school's offensive record book.
With that in mind, during the throes of the offseason, it's easy to wonder how some of Tressel's stars might have fared in Meyer's uptempo, blitzkrieg of an offensive system. In particular, I present the four Tressel guys I would most like to have seen perform in Urban's system.
MICHAEL JENKINS
An eventual NFL 1st round pick, Michael Jenkins was indeed a stud in Tressel's offense. In the 2002 championship season, Jenkins hauled 61 receptions, good for the sixth-best single-season in school history and in 2003, he became one of just four Buckeyes to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards in a single-season with 1,076.
As such, you might question why he's on the list but imagine the numbers Jenkins could have racked up, in not just a single-season but for his career, if he had played with better passing quarterbacks and in an aggressive, uptempo offense.
In 2001, Jenkins was saddled with a decidedly meh Steve Bellisari and in 2002 and 2003, whether you consider it blasphemy or not, he caught passes thrown from the clutch but not awe-inspiring passer in Craig Krenzel.
For context, even in the championship season, Krenzel completed only 59% of his throws for an average of 151 yards per game with 12 touchdowns against seven interceptions in 14 games, posting a 140.9 efficiency rating. Last year, redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett completed 65% of his tosses with 34 touchdowns against 10 interceptions in 12 games, good for a 169.8 efficiency mark. Alongside Barrett, former third-stringer Cardale Jones completed 61% of his passes with seven touchdowns against two picks to post a 160.2 efficiency rating largely against the likes of Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon.
Looking at the offenses as a whole, the 2002 unit completed 173 passes in 280 tries whereas the 2014 squad connected on 260 passes in 409 attempts. With all that extra emphasis on throwing the ball and more accurate passers under center, Jenkins could have made a run at David Boston's school record of 1,435 receiving yards set during the 1998 season.
TROY SMITH
Troy was lucky to have played in a particular window when Tressel was far more aggressive than we had seen in the years leading up to his arrival. Still, even though Troy won the Heisman Trophy it's hard not to wonder what kind of numbers he might have put up in Meyer's system.
During that incredible 2006 season in which Troy earned the Stiff Arm, he completed 203 of 311 passes (65%!) for 2,542 yards generating 30 touchdowns against a mere six interceptions in 13 games. On the ground, Smith carried it 72 times for 204 yards bringing his total offense numbers to 2,746 yards which converts to an average of about 211 yards of total offense per game (195.5 passing, 15.7 rushing).
Again looking at last year, two lesser experienced quarterbacks than Troy as he entered his Heisman season combined to average 246.3 yards passing per game with another 107.8 yards on the ground bringing their total offense per game total to a ridiculous 354.1 yards per game.
Troy circa 2006 would've set the OSU record book on fire if he was under center a year ago.
TED GINN JR.
Teddy was as electric a player as we've ever seen in the scarlet and gray. Despite his world class speed and talent that eventually saw him selected by the Miami Dolphins with the 9th pick of the 2007 NFL Draft, his collegiate stats as a wide receiver aren't all that dazzling.
In 2005, Ginn Jr. racked up 51 receptions for 803 yards with four touchdowns while adding 12 rushes for 83 yards and a score. In 2006, he improved to 59 grabs but for less yards, 781, while carrying the ball three times for 17 yards.
Focusing on the passing game, his 59 catches in 2006 rank 12th all-time in school history while his 803 receiving yards in 2005 are good for just the 19th-best season by a Buckeye.
Those are hardly glorious numbers considering his speed and NFL Draft stock and it only gets more head-scratching when you consider he carried the ball just 15 times for 100 yards combined during 2005 and 2006.
What kind of numbers would Teddy have produced in last season's offense? We'll never know but if nothing else, I think it's safe to assume he'd have saw some major action on jet sweeps and bubble screens with the intent of getting his speed to the edge.
TERRELLE PRYOR
Pryor's 2010 season was his best in Columbus as he tallied 210 completions on 323 attempts (65%!) for 2,772 yards with 27 touchdowns against 11 interceptions with another 754 yards on the ground with four scores.
His total offense of 3,546 yards with 31 touchdowns equated to 271.2 yards per game as he led the Buckeyes to a co-B1G championship and a victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.
While those are indeed impressive numbers, they are still well short of what Barrett and Jones were able to amass last year leaving me to wonder how much damage he could've done not only in Meyer's offense. Further, what might his development have looked like if afforded the luxury of learning under Urban and Tom Herman instead of a worthy Tressel augmented by the very much unworthy Jim Bollman and Nick Siciliano.
