The last time Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer graced the same football field, Mother Nature opened her skies and dumped sheets of rain on the Ohio Stadium turf like a madwoman hoping to deter an old friend.
Congrats @JimTressel5 @NFFNetwork #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/SOxW2pUXR2
— Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) September 19, 2015
Tressel last coached on that turf during the 2011 spring game, weeks before he announced his resignation amid an NCAA investigation into the memorabilia for tattoos scandal that rocked the program. He said goodbye May 30, 2011, only to have college football's governing body slam him with a five-year show cause penalty that sits active until Dec. 19, 2016.
Tressel can't coach an NCAA program again until that date, unless a prospective university "shows cause" for why it wouldn't be penalized for hiring him. The head coach of Ohio State's 2002 BCS national championship team left Columbus and took a consultant job with the Indianapolis Colts that fall, but is now president of Youngstown State University, the place he received his first head coaching gig in 1986.
On that odd day in September, Tressel's former employer brought him on the field to celebrate his enshrinement to both the College Football and Ohio State Hall of Fame. It quit raining nearly as soon as he left the gridiron with the Buckeyes in an unexpected dogfight against the Northern Illinois Huskies. He waved goodbye to the "TresselVest" crew, a host of students in the crowd wearing threads and body paint that paid homage to their former coach's game day attire.
Thank you, Ohio! pic.twitter.com/MnFnLUojBf
— Jim Tressel (@JimTressel5) September 19, 2015
Roughly two hours later, Darron Lee and the Buckeye defense bailed out a struggling offense with an interception returned for a touchdown to lead No. 1 Ohio State to its third win of 2015, 20-13. The Huskies finished the season 8-6, while the Buckeyes went 12-1 and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
In a way, the game was a perfectly scripted Tressel victory. Urban Meyer's team beat Northern Illinois with outstanding defense and special teams. The Buckeyes turned the ball over five times, but held the Huskies to 190 yards of offense and a meager 10 first downs. Finally, they won the game after the defense stood tall one final time late in the fourth.
Sound familiar?
Now, Meyer is set to host Tressel and others with ties to the Ohio State program as part of his annual football clinic from April 14-16 at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. The headliner, however, is the man Meyer roasted in the 2007 BCS national championship game, 41-14, while the head coach at the University of Florida.
"Last year, we made a tribute to the state of Ohio and invited two NFL coaches, now we’re inviting Coach (Fred) Pagac who was a Buckeye player and a coach, Super Bowl champ," Meyer said Tuesday. "We have Cris Carter, Hall of Fame wide receiver coming back and it was my idea to bring back three legendary coaches."
Tressel and Meyer haven't done much as a pair since the former left Ohio State, ultimately leading to Ohio State's current head coach's return home. Luke Fickell trudged the program through a forgetful 6-7 campaign in 2011, then Meyer took over and has only lost four times since.
Tressel returned to Ohio Stadium in Meyer's first season with his 2002 team, when the school honored the 10-year anniversary of the national championship at halftime of the Michigan game. Then came his induction into the Hall of Fame, a decision made by Varsity O — former Buckeye letterwinners, not administration.
“I think Coach Tressel, what a great opportunity to address his colleagues, high school coaches in the state. Very proud to have those guys coming back.”– Urban Meyer
But now it is Meyer extending an arm to the man who led the football program for a decade, even if the NCAA chooses not to recognize his final season as penance for knowingly using ineligible players like quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
"I think Coach Tressel, what a great opportunity to address his colleagues, high school coaches in the state," Meyer said. "Very proud to have those guys coming back."
Pagac and Carter are Buckeye legends in their own right, and current members of the Ohio State football staff Mickey Marotti, Kerry Coombs, Greg Schiano and Greg Studrawa are scheduled to speak at the clinic. But it was Meyer's idea to extend an invitation to Tressel, a man still beloved by Ohio State fans but remains under the dark cloud of the NCAA and someone the school had to distance itself from after Tattoo-gate.
"Frankly, the way he left, which was unfortunate, he did leave (the program) in great shape. Academically we were on an unbelievable trajectory and we were winning," Ohio State Vice President and Director of Athletics Gene Smith said in September during Tressel's Hall of Fame induction. "We had gone to more BCS bowl games than anybody else. Circumstances under which he left was not obviously what we wanted or what he wanted, but he did leave the program in good shape."
Tressel called the 2011 season "an aberration" that night. He said he was proud with what Meyer did with the talent he brought to Columbus but had to leave behind. Key players like Braxton Miller, Philly Brown, Curtis Grant, Ryan Shazier, Devin Smith and others all became essential cogs in the wheel for the 2014 title season. Tressel also graced the field at AT&T Stadium Jan. 12 before Ohio State whipped Oregon, 42-20.
"Everyone always talks about legacy. I always felt that part of your legacy inevitably will do after you left. What shape did you leave it in?" Tressel said in September. "That's why it's been fun to watch what's been going on over the past three or four years."
Nearly five years after he resigned from the final head coaching gig of his career — he's said he doesn't want to coach again — Tressel returns home at Meyer's invitation. It is another step in the school welcoming back the man who built its football program to what it is today.
"I thought this was one of the most interesting places where you have three legendary coaches: two in town and one that’s still very close to Ohio State," Meyer said. "I just thought it would be great to have those guys back."
