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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 30, 2001
TAMPA -- Sometimes while on the sideline at Youngstown State, coach Jim Tressel said he could hear individual voices in the stands when there were just a few thousand in attendance.
Needless to say, there are a few more people in the seats now that he's at Ohio State, but outside that the first-year Buckeyes coach said the differences with Division I-AA are not as great as people may think.
"I haven't found a whole bunch of differences," Tressel said. "Believe it or not, all our guys at Youngstown State thought they were going to the NFL. I think we all have similar goals and passions."
Considering Tressel's previous job, where he spent 15 years and won four national titles via playoffs, he is frequently asked his opinions about a similar system in Division I.
"I would be in favor if somehow we could keep the integrity of our tremendous bowl situation and somehow integrate an eight-team playoff," Tressel said. "(But) if there were a playoff of the top eight teams, we'd be out recruiting right now."
LEARNING FROM LOU: Though the Outback Bowl will be Tressel's first on-field meeting with Lou Holtz, he said he has been learning from the Gamecocks coach for years.
When he was an assistant at Ohio State under Earle Bruce, Tressel was sent to Arkansas to study Holtz's Razorbacks team. Tressel's father Lee, a longtime coach at Division III Baldwin-Wallace in Berea, Ohio, studied Holtz at N.C. State.
"They play hard, they play low, they play fast," Tressel said. "They play every phase of the game; there's not anywhere it appears that it's casually coached. (It's from) his training with Woody Hayes (as an assistant at Ohio State in 1968), he left no stone unturned, no detail ignored."