Jim Tressel

Head coach, Ohio State, 2001 to 2010

College career106-2294 official wins · 12 vacated

Titles1national

Program liftNo. 166tied · of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Bowls and playoffs: 6-4 · won 1 of 2 national title games

’01L’02W★’03W’04W’05W’06L’07L’08L’09W’10W

Show all 10 games

2001Outback BowlL 28-31

2002 ★Fiesta BowlW 31-24

2003Fiesta BowlW 35-28

2004Alamo BowlW 33-7

2005Fiesta BowlW 34-20

2006BCS title gameL 14-41

2007BCS title gameL 24-38

2008Fiesta BowlL 21-24

2009Rose BowlW 26-17

2010Sugar BowlW 31-26

Report card

Above the median offense — 69th percentile.

Ohio State, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.

Offense

of which —69th

efficiency — 69th percentile success rate, 2004–10

B66th

Standard-downs success

B69th

Passing-downs success

B+73rd

Trench push (line yards)

B61st

Red-zone scoring rate

B-59th

Power-success (short yardage)

B68th

Ball security (giveaways per game)

Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.

Stats

Big games

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

16-4 against his rivals. Just 1-3 against Barry Alvarez.

Rivalry record

16-4

80.0% · 2 rivals

One-score games

26-14

65.0% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

9-7

56.2%

Rivalry ledger

Penn State7-370%

Michigan9-190%

The toughest matchup

vs. Barry Alvarez1-3

4 meetings, 2001–2004

’01 L’02 W’03 L’04 L

25% win rate across a real, 4-meeting series — short of the bar this site uses before badging a series “Nemesis.” Shown here as the toughest matchup on record, not an algorithmic crown.

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

9-7 56.2%

Power Program

28-10 73.7%

National Program

29-3 90.6%

Regional Program

38-2 95.0%

Signature games

18-7 vs. AP top 25 · 3-4 vs. the top 10 · 2004– (no AP data before 2004)

AP-ranked regular-season opponents since 2004, by rank (#1 at top) and year

win loss · higher = higher-ranked opponent · dashed line = top 10

Signature wins

Miami · 2002

31-24

Quality opponentBowl/CFP stakes

Michigan · 2008

42-7

RivalQuality opponent

Penn State · 2010

38-14

RivalQuality opponent

Signature losses

Florida · 2006

14-41

National title game

LSU · 2007

24-38

Bowl/CFP stakes

Michigan · 2003

21-35

Rival

Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.

How he plays

more run-heavy than 93% of FBS coaches →

Run/pass mix, by field position

Called about what the situation called for.

4,240 run and pass snaps at Ohio State, 2004–2010, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points. Play-by-play starts in 2004, so his earlier seasons there aren’t in it.

backed upown territorymidfieldopp. territoryred zoneOC unrecorded2004–10−7−5−2−1−2

passed moreran morewithin noise (95% range includes 0)

Pass rate, stint by stint

Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.

Pass rate — share of offensive plays that were pass attemptsfirst covered seasonmost recent covered seasonfull season-to-season range (3+ covered seasons)

How much that is, against every other stint

Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.

Typical stint7.010.3 median14.8middle half of all stints

Ohio State8.4pt#286 of 449 · a typical amount

Building the roster

Three numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2Where he recruits
3The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

100%His own players

of his 2010 roster arrived on his watch — 123 of 123 players. Nobody is left from before he was hired.

This coach's entire tenure (2001-2010) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

Where he recruits

OHTop state

is his biggest recruiting state: 63 of 105 signees (60%) across his 2001–2010 tenure, drawn from 17 states in all. Next: FL (13).

Where his signees came from, 2001–2010 (105 high-school, JUCO and prep signees)

73% of his signees come from OH and its 5 border states (PA 9, IN 2, MI 2, KY 1).

Off this map: 6 signees to the west (CA 2, TX 2, others).

By region

Midwest

South

Northeast

West

Feeder school Glenville 8

Roster distance from campus (Ohio Stadium, OH)

median hometown distance: 124 mi
within 100 mi: 33%
within 500 mi: 88%
beyond 1,000 mi: 2%

120 of 123 roster players with a known hometown (98% coverage)

The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.

The NFL pipeline

66Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here. 14 went in the first round.

0 roster-verified · 66 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
2011	R1.31	Cameron Heyward	Defensive End	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
2011	R4.16	Chimdi Chekwa	Cornerback	Oakland Raiders	Estimated
2011	R5.27	Jermale Hines	Safety	St. Louis Rams	Estimated
2011	R6.28	Brian Rolle	Outside Linebacker	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated
2011	R6.35	Ross Homan	Outside Linebacker	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
2010	R4.18	Thaddeus Gibson	Outside Linebacker	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
2010	R7.35	Doug Worthington	Defensive End	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
2010	R7.37	Kurt Coleman	Safety	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
2010	R7.45	Austin Spitler	Outside Linebacker	Miami Dolphins	Estimated
2009	R1.14	Malcolm Jenkins	Cornerback	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2009	R1.31	Chris Wells	Running Back	Arizona Cardinals	Estimated
2009	R2.03	James Laurinaitis	Inside Linebacker	St. Louis Rams	Estimated
2009	R2.04	Brian Robiskie	Wide Receiver	Cleveland Browns	Estimated
2009	R4.02	Donald Washington	Cornerback	Kansas City Chiefs	Estimated
2009	R4.08	Brian Hartline	Wide Receiver	Miami Dolphins	Estimated
2009	R5.18	Marcus Freeman	Outside Linebacker	Chicago Bears	Estimated
2008	R1.06	Vernon Gholston	Defensive End	New York Jets	Estimated
2008	R7.07	Larry Grant	Outside Linebacker	San Francisco 49ers	Estimated
2008	R7.40	Kirk Barton	Offensive Tackle	Chicago Bears	Estimated
2007	R1.09	Ted Ginn, Jr.	Wide Receiver	Miami Dolphins	Estimated
2007	R1.32	Anthony Gonzalez	Wide Receiver	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2007	R3.34	Quinn Pitcock	Defensive Tackle	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2007	R4.08	Antonio Pittman	Running Back	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2007	R5.01	Jay Richardson	Defensive End	Oakland Raiders	Estimated
2007	R5.32	Roy Hall	Wide Receiver	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2007	R5.37	Troy Smith	Quarterback	Baltimore Ravens	Estimated
2007	R6.24	Doug Datish	Center	Atlanta Falcons	Estimated
2006	R1.05	A.J. Hawk	Linebacker	Green Bay Packers	Estimated
2006	R1.08	Donte' Whitner	Defensive Back	Buffalo Bills	Estimated
2006	R1.18	Bobby Carpenter	Linebacker	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
2006	R1.25	Santonio Holmes	Wide Receiver	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
2006	R1.29	Nick Mangold	Center	New York Jets	Estimated
2006	R3.06	Ashton Youboty	Defensive Back	Buffalo Bills	Estimated
2006	R3.12	Anthony Schlegel	Linebacker	New York Jets	Estimated
2006	R4.24	Nate Salley	Defensive Back	Carolina Panthers	Estimated
2006	R4.31	Rob Sims	Offensive Guard	Seattle Seahawks	Estimated
2005	R2.15	Mike Nugent	Place Kicker	New York Jets	Estimated
2005	R3.16	Dustin Fox	Defensive Back	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
2005	R3.37	Maurice Clarett	Running Back	Denver Broncos	Estimated
2004	R1.18	Will Smith	Defensive End	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2004	R1.28	Chris Gamble	Defensive Back	Carolina Panthers	Estimated
2004	R1.29	Michael Jenkins	Wide Receiver	Atlanta Falcons	Estimated
2004	R3.05	Ben Hartsock	Tight End	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2004	R3.11	Tim Anderson	Defensive Tackle	Buffalo Bills	Estimated
2004	R3.24	B.J. Sander	Punter	Green Bay Packers	Estimated
2004	R3.25	Darrion Scott	Defensive End	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
2004	R4.04	Alex Stepanovich	Center	Arizona Cardinals	Estimated
2004	R4.15	Will Allen	Defensive Back	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Estimated
2004	R5.16	Craig Krenzel	Quarterback	Chicago Bears	Estimated
2004	R5.31	Drew Carter	Wide Receiver	Carolina Panthers	Estimated
2004	R5.33	Robert Reynolds	Linebacker	Tennessee Titans	Estimated
2004	R7.08	Shane Olivea	Offensive Tackle	San Diego Chargers	Estimated
2004	R7.26	Adrien Clarke	Offensive Guard	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated
2003	R2.26	Mike Doss	Defensive Back	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2003	R3.15	Kenny Peterson	Defensive End	Green Bay Packers	Estimated
2003	R3.22	Cie Grant	Linebacker	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2003	R4.15	Matt Wilhelm	Linebacker	San Diego Chargers	Estimated
2003	R5.19	Donnie Nickey	Defensive Back	Tennessee Titans	Estimated
2002	R2.12	LeCharles Bentley	Center	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2002	R3.10	Derek Ross	Defensive Back	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
2002	R4.01	Jonathan Wells	Running Back	Houston Texans	Estimated
2002	R4.24	Darnell Sanders	Tight End	Cleveland Browns	Estimated
2002	R4.31	Jamar Martin	Running Back	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
2002	R5.32	Courtland Bullard	Linebacker	St. Louis Rams	Estimated
2002	R6.07	Tyson Walter	Offensive Tackle	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
2002	R6.33	Steve Bellisari	Defensive Back	St. Louis Rams	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.

Career

Coaching career

1 national title

See Ohio State’s full coaching history →

The arc of his career is on Now.

Transformer raised the program into the sport's top tier, or higher within it

2001–2010

Ohio State Transformer≈

Power Program I → Blue Blood

Closest comparable run: Joe Novak’s Northern Illinois run (1996–2007)

Jim Tressel took Ohio State from Power Program I to Blue Blood.

+12.3 pts over 10 seasons · top 48% of 10+-season tenures (202 in sample)

2nd-best Ohio State tenure of 12 by the numbers.

Followed John Cooper (1988–2000) · succeeded by Luke Fickell (2011).

System Shift, on departure

Season	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Record & result
Record	7-5	14-0	11-2	8-4	10-2	12-1	11-2	10-3	11-2	12-1
Postseason	L bowl	W bowl	W bowl	W bowl	W bowl	Title game L	L bowl	L bowl	W bowl	W bowl
Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile
Offense	—	—	—	31	89	84	68	75	47	87
Defense	—	—	—	85	91	82	93	55	94	95
Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script
1st-down pass%	—	—	—	32.3	32.5	38.7	32.1	28.9	32.5	37.6
Red-zone pass%	—	—	—	30.2	31.4	38.9	37.8	27.8	32.7	38.7
4th-down go%opp. territory	—	—	—	18.5	6.1	18.5	20.6	12.8	13.6	13.2

Where the roster comes from, by position

Grows Tight end from high school

100%

#164 of 188 stints

Grows Edge from high school

100%

#191 of 208 stints

Postseason detail2001: Lost to South Carolina 28-31 Bowl2002: Beat Miami 31-24 At Tempe Az2003: Beat Kansas State 35-28 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl2004: Beat Oklahoma State 33-7 Bowl2005: Beat Notre Dame 34-20 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl2006: Lost to Florida 14-41 Bcs National Championship At Glendale Az2007: Lost to LSU 24-38 Bowl2008: Lost to Texas 21-24 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl2009: Beat Oregon 26-17 Rose Bowl Game Presented By Citi2010: Beat Arkansas 31-26 Allstate Sugar Bowl

106-22

All-time wins

Wins at programs this site tracks, 1936–present — one consistent count for every coach, not each program’s own historically reported total.

3rd all-time at Ohio State

Was he good?

Only one of the usual three angles is measurable for this era — raised the program.

Raised the program

+12.3 pts at Ohio State · #166 of 1290 · top quarter