NCAA: The new OSU staff has a feel of Bruce

With just a few hires left to make as of right now, Jim Tressel's first OSU football staff is beginning to take shape. Tressel's selection of coaches will go a long way toward 1) telling us about Jim Tressel and 2) determining if he will be successful at OSU.

Tressel has said that he will be a hands-off head coach to the extent that he will not function as a position coach as well as the head coach. At Youngstown State, where his staff was smaller and the demands on the head coach were fewer, Tressel functioned as the quarterback coach as well as the head coach. That will not be true at OSU. He will assume only the head coaching duties. His assistant coaches, therefore, will be very, very important to the success of the football program.

Thus far, the coaches Tressel has hired have some common traits. First, they all have an Ohio background. They are either from Ohio or played football in Ohio or coached in Ohio. All of the coaches he has hired have either served with him in the past or are former members of John Cooper's OSU staff.

One interesting trend that seems to be developing in Tressel's hiring pattern is the Earle Bruce (EB) connection. Including Tressel himself, there will be ten coaches and one administrator on the OSU staff. At least five of them will have a connection of some sort to Earle Bruce. As an ex-coach, and more importantly, as an ex-OSU head coach, Bruce would have an unusual insight on this coaching staff and how it might shape up.

Bruce is now retired from coaching but does broadcast work for a radio station in Columbus. He lives in Bonita Springs, Florida now, where he spends his afternoons playing golf and enjoying the warm climate. Come fall, however, he heads north to Columbus for the football season to follow his still-beloved Buckeyes.