Former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel drops some recruiting truth that every coach in college football needs to hear
Former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel dropped some recruiting truth this week that every coach in college football could benefit from hearing. While speaking with USF head coach Alex Golesh on the It's All About The Team podcast, Tressel spoke about the importance of culture fit when it comes to recruiting. (Golesh was […]
Former Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel dropped some recruiting truth this week that every coach in college football could benefit from hearing.
While speaking with USF head coach Alex Golesh on the It's All About The Team podcast, Tressel spoke about the importance of culture fit when it comes to recruiting.
(Golesh was an Ohio State student assistant under Tressel in 2004 and 2005.)
Tressel explained that while talent is important, culture fit is the most important factor when it comes to landing the right recruits or hiring the right assistant coaches.
"One of the things I talk to all of you (former Ohio State assistants) about is if you think culture and team-building was important 20 years ago, it's even more important today," explained Tressel. "Because it's harder. And we're going to have to find that as this world has changed and continued to change, how do you find those guys (that are good culture fits)?
"My phrase to my [coaching] staff, whether it was about hiring a new coach, or recruiting a player, I said, 'guys, all I want is people [who are] dying to be here'. I know this guy might be a little faster than that guy, but just promise me that they're dying to be here. As a coach, that to me is going to be the key (to success)….the key is going to be can we get a building full of people who are dying to be here. That's what I always appreciated about my staff, who they brought us, or who they recommended to replace so-and-so on the staff. They were going to bring the right guys. Certainly they have to have capable talents. But if we were going to err, we were going to err on the talent side and we weren't going to err on the side of do they really want to be here."
Every program, obviously, wants the best of both worlds, right? You want the most talented players who are "dying" to play for you. But it doesn't always work out that way. And if the culture part isn't right, it doesn't matter how much talent you have — it simply isn't going to work.
We kind of saw that with Ohio State in 2024. The Buckeyes team that cruised through every round of the 12-team College Football Playoff is the same team that lost at home to a not-very-good Michigan team.
The only difference is that the Ohio State team we saw in the playoff was a roster full of coaches and players who were all pulling in the same exact same direction. That wasn't necessarily the case in the Michigan game.
Tressel is a Hall of Fame coach for a reason. Everyone in college football would be wise to listen to his advice about recruiting and coaching staff hires.
Talented players and coaches don't do a program much good if they aren't "dying to be there".
