The following article was written by Mark Hasty and appears on Fanhouse.com.Jim Tressel has never been proclaimed as Big Ten Coach of the Year. Perhaps that isn't such a big deal when you consider that both John L. Smith and Ron Zook have won that particular honor, but still, it surprises me that the man whose team has dominated the conference for the better part of a decade has never been anointed as its most outstanding coach.
Tressel would probably tell you Kirk Ferentz totally deserved this year's award, which puts the trophy count at Ferentz 3, Tressel 0. No offense, coach, but you're wrong.
Five Big Ten teams finished the season with at least eight wins overall. Ohio State was one of them. It beat three of the other four (Iowa, Penn State, and Wisconsin) but didn't play the fifth, Northwestern. This happened in a year when Tressel's team was significantly less experienced and arguably less talented than usual. For most of the season Terrelle Pryor was the Buckeyes' only offensive playmaker, for instance.
That still wasn't enough to get Tressel over the hump. Maybe he has to pay for all the BCS disasters. Maybe his string of ten-win seasons is nothing more than what we all expect Ohio State to do every year. Maybe he just isn't flashy enough to draw attention to himself, though that hardly explains why the equally mellow Ferentz has won it three times. And maybe the writers who vote on these things are just bored by and with the Buckeyes. Who knows?
All I know is, if ever there was a season when Tressel should have won the award, this is it. What else does the guy have to do?
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