Jim Tressel
James Patrick Tressel is an American politician and retired college football coach who has served as the 67th lieutenant governor of Ohio since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Tressel previously was the president of Youngstown State University from 2014 to 2023. Before entering higher education administration and public office, Tressel was the head football coach of the Youngstown State Penguins and later the Ohio State Buckeyes from 1986 to 2010. His teams won five national championships, earning him multiple Coach of the Year accolades and induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Tressel was born in Painesville, Ohio, and attended Baldwin–Wallace College, where he played football as quarterback under his father, Lee Tressel. He became Youngstown State's fourth head football coach in 1986 and remained there until 2000, before succeeding John Cooper as head coach at Ohio State in 2001. During his tenure as Ohio State's 22nd head football coach, Tressel's teams competed in three BCS National Championship Games, and his 2002 squad won a national title, achieving the first 14–0 season record in major college football since the 1897 Penn Quakers.
Tressel resigned from Ohio State in May 2011 amid an NCAA investigation into improper benefits involving players during the 2010 season, which resulted in the university vacating victories from that year, including the 2011 Sugar Bowl. He later served as a consultant for the Indianapolis Colts from 2011 to 2012 and as vice president of strategic engagement at the University of Akron from 2012 to 2014, before becoming president of Youngstown State University. On February 10, 2025, Governor Mike DeWine nominated Tressel as Ohio lieutenant governor; he was confirmed on February 12 and sworn in on February 14.
Early life
Tressel was born on December 5, 1952, in Painesville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He grew up in nearby Mentor, Ohio, where his father, Lee Tressel, was the football coach at Mentor High School. After a 34-game winning streak at Mentor, Lee coached at Massillon Washington High School for two seasons before being named the head football coach for Baldwin–Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Tressel attended many of his father's games and practices, and developed a friendship with his neighbor and former Cleveland Browns player Lou Groza. Tressel's mother, Eloise Tressel, worked as the athletic historian at Baldwin–Wallace while his father was the head coach.After graduating from Berea High School in 1971, Tressel played quarterback under his father at Baldwin–Wallace College. As quarterback, he earned four varsity letters and won all-conference honors as a senior in 1974. Tressel also joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. In 1975, Tressel graduated from Baldwin–Wallace with a bachelor's degree in education.
Coaching career
Early positions
After graduating from Baldwin–Wallace, Tressel became a graduate assistant at the University of Akron. He coached the quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs, while earning a master's degree in education. In 1978, he left to become quarterbacks and receivers coach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. By 1981, he had left to become the quarterbacks coach at Syracuse. In 1983, he was hired at Ohio State to be the quarterbacks and receivers coach. That year, OSU had a 9–3 record, including a 28–23 victory over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl; a 39-yard pass from quarterback Mike Tomczak to wide receiver Thad Jemison clinched the win with 39 seconds remaining in the game. In 1984, he was given the added responsibility of coaching the running backs. That year, the team became Big Ten champs, played in the Rose Bowl, and tailback Keith Byars finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting. In 1985, OSU defeated BYU in the Citrus Bowl.Youngstown State
At the end of the 1985 season, Jim Tressel left his position as assistant head coach at Ohio State to become head coach at Youngstown State University. In Tressel's first season as coach, Youngstown State finished with a 2–9 record. In his second season, Youngstown State finished the season with an 8–4 record and won the Ohio Valley Conference championship. From 1991 to 1994, Youngstown State played in the Division I-AA National Championship game four times. In 1991, Tressel won his first national championship, defeating Marshall; the victory made him and his father the only father-son duo to win national championships in college football at that time.Youngstown State won two more national championships in the following three years: against Marshall in 1993 and Boise State in 1994. 1997 brought Tressel his fourth national championship with a 10–9 victory against McNeese State. He earned his 100th win against Indiana State. 1999 marked Tressel's ninth visit to the Division I-AA playoffs, but the team lost to a Paul Johnson coached Georgia Southern in the title game. 2000 presented Tressel with more success, leading Youngstown State to a 9–3 season and its 10th playoff appearance. During the 1990s, Youngstown State had a record of 103–27–2, the most wins by any Division I-AA team and fourth most of both Division I-A and I-AA combined. Tressel's overall record at Youngstown was 135–57–2. He was also named Division I-AA Coach of the Year in '91, '93, '94, and '97.
In 1998, Tressel's reputation was blemished when it emerged that Ray Isaac, quarterback on his first national championship team, admitted to accepting massive benefits from Mickey Monus, the founder of Phar-Mor and former chairman of the Youngstown State board of trustees. The NCAA had been tipped off about the violations in 1994, but dropped its inquiry after a cursory internal investigation by Youngstown State. The nature of the violations only came to light when Isaac admitted to tampering with a juror in Monus' first corporate fraud trial. It later emerged that Tressel had never met with Isaac during the initial 1994 investigation. Monus subsequently testified that when Isaac initially came to Youngstown State in 1988, Tressel called Monus and asked him to work out a job for Isaac. Youngstown State subsequently admitted to a lack of institutional control and docked itself scholarships. The NCAA ultimately faulted Tressel and Youngstown State for their cursory 1994 investigation, but did not cite them for wrongdoing. Youngstown State was also allowed to keep its 1991 title since the NCAA's statute of limitations had expired.
On July 9, 2007, Jim and Ellen Tressel, along with Frank and Norma Watson, donated $1 million to Youngstown State University for the building of an indoor athletics facility named the Watson and Tressel Training Site. The facility opened for use in the fall of 2011. This was the second major donation the Tressels and Watsons made to YSU. In 2003, they donated a combined $250,000 to the campaign for the Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center, which opened in 2005.
Ohio State
When John Cooper was dismissed as Ohio State's head football coach following a loss to unranked South Carolina in the 2001 Outback Bowl, Tressel returned to Ohio State as Cooper's successor. While addressing Buckeye fans during halftime of a basketball game just after being hired as head coach, Tressel declared, "I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field."Tressel coached the Buckeyes to two 19-game winning streaks, one which spanned the 2002 and 2003 seasons and the other which spanned the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Tressel's winning percentage at Ohio State of 81.0% is tied with John B. Eckstorm for the second best in school history, behind only Carroll Widdoes' 16–2 mark in the 1944–1945 seasons.
Most importantly to many Buckeyes fans and former players, Tressel was 9-1 versus Michigan.
As Ohio State's head coach, Tressel was known for a conservative style of play calling, winning games with just enough scoring, strong defense, and "playing field position." Tressel often referred to the punt as the most important play in football. He is sometimes referred to as "The Senator", because of his composure on the sidelines during play and his diplomatic way of interacting with representatives from the media. He is also referred to as "The Vest" for his penchant for wearing a sweater vest on the sidelines.
Until his retirement, Tressel was one of only two active coaches with five or more national championships in any division. He is the third Tressel to reach 100 wins, joining his father and his older brother, Dick, who coached at Hamline University. As a family, with Jim's 229 wins: Lee, Jim and Dick have won 508 games.
During Tressel's first year, Ohio State had a 7–5 record. Ohio State returned to the Outback Bowl, where the Buckeyes once again fell to South Carolina. Although the Buckeyes lost on a last-minute field goal, the team battled back to tie the game at 28–28 after being down 28–0. Despite a second consecutive bowl loss and a 5-loss season, Tressel had coached the Buckeyes to a 26–20 upset victory over Michigan, fulfilling the promise he had made 10 months earlier.
The following year Tressel and the Buckeyes became the first team in college football history to finish 14–0, defeating the heavily favored University of Miami Hurricanes in double overtime to win the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and the 2002 National Championship. It was Ohio State's first national championship in 32 years. That success made him the first coach in NCAA history to win the AFCA's Coach of the Year award while at different schools; he is also the first to win the award in two different divisions.
They were able to earn the national championship through close wins on a defensive-minded scheme that relied on field position. With a combination of senior leadership with Michael Doss and freshman Maurice Clarett, Tressel was able to pull out many close games during the season. Seven of their 14 victories were within 7 points including one overtime game against Illinois, and a double overtime game coming in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl.
Coming off the national title season, the Buckeyes earned an 11–2 record in 2003, but the team lost to Michigan in the 100th meeting between the two teams 35–21. The Buckeyes finished the 2003 season with a 35–28 victory over Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl on January 2, 2004.
In 2004, the team finished 8–4, closing out the season with a 33–7 victory against Oklahoma State at the Alamo Bowl and upsetting Michigan in the annual rivalry game. Ohio State was unranked and Michigan was ranked 7th and the final score was 37 to 21.
During 2005, the Buckeyes had a 10–2 record which featured an early season loss to eventual BCS National Champion Texas and another in Happy Valley versus Penn State, who finished the season ranked third in the BCS. However, the season ended with the Buckeyes defeating Notre Dame 34–20 in the Fiesta Bowl.
The 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes football team went undefeated in the regular season—including a 42–39 victory over Michigan which saw the first ever meeting between the two teams ranking numbers 1 and 2, respectively, in the national polls. Ohio State finished second in the final AP and Coaches polls after losing the 2007 BCS National Championship Game to the University of Florida, 41–14.
In the 2007 season Jim Tressel led the 11–1 Buckeyes to a third consecutive Big Ten Championship and second consecutive National Championship berth, played January 7, 2008, against the LSU Tigers, in the Superdome. However OSU was beaten 38–24 by LSU, becoming only the second team to lose two consecutive BCS title games.
In 2008 Ohio State won their fourth straight Big Ten title. However, they lost the conference's automatic BCS berth and trip to the Rose Bowl on the head to head tiebreaker with a 13–6 loss to Penn State at home on October 26. The Buckeyes played Texas in the Fiesta Bowl, coming back from an 11-point second half deficit to take the lead with just over 2 minutes to play, only to lose when Texas scored with 16 seconds remaining.
The 2009 team won its fifth straight conference title and earned a berth in the Rose Bowl against Oregon, winning the game 26–17.
The 2010 OSU football season finished with the team posting a 12–1 record after beating Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl, 31-26. However, all of the wins were later vacated due to Tressel knowingly using ineligible players, leaving the team's "official" record for the campaign as 0–1.
The Tressel family continued the tradition of supporting the campus where Jim coached. As co-chairs on the contribution campaign, Coach Tressel and wife Ellen made a sizeable donation toward the renovation of Ohio State's $109 million William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library. The fourth-floor outdoor Tressel Terrace honors them for their contribution. Tressel also promised continuing donations to the library through royalties from his book, "The Winners Manual." The Tressel family also teamed with Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute by establishing, promoting and donating to the Tressel Family Fund for Cancer Prevention Research. Both of Jim Tressel's parents died of cancer. Further, the Tressels donated a monument titled "Traditions," erected in 2011 in a park near OSU's ROTC center. Remembrance park honors more than a thousand Ohio State alumni who, as military personnel, lost their lives in service to the United States.