Military trip has special connection for Tressel

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg
Jim Tressel grew up watching Bob Hope's USO shows and remembers Woody Hayes visiting troops in Vietnam.
But possibly the biggest reason why Tressel accepted an invitation to visit troops in the Middle East late this spring hits a little closer to home. The Ohio State head coach will join colleagues Mack Brown, Rick Neuheisel, Houston Nutt and…
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Robinson an excellent choice for Wolverines

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

Here's something for Michigan fans to remember as they welcome defensive coordinator Greg Robinson to their program. 

Just because someone didn't succeed as a head coach doesn't mean they can't do what they do best. 

And for Robinson, his best work is coaching defense. 

Despite a miserable run as Syracuse's head coach, Robinson brings an outstanding résumé to Ann Arbor. He helped coach teams that won four Rose Bowls and two Super Bowls, and compiled an 8-0 mark in bowl games. He also served as defensive coordinator with three NFL teams (Broncos, Chiefs and Jets).

"Greg's a high energy, creative, hard-working guy who has had success at both the NFL and collegiate levels," said Texas head coach Mack Brown, who had Robinson as his defensive coordinator in 2004.

"He's a veteran coach with a wealth of knowledge who the players really respond to. His season here in 2004 produced one of the best defenses in Texas history and helped set the stage for our national championship season in 2005." 

Robinson is now the most accomplished assistant on Rodriguez's staff, and he'll be a voice that Rodriguez will respect in meetings. Michigan's defense comes off one of its worst seasons ever and must replace three starting defensive linemen. Though Rodriguez's offense must improve markedly for the team to make any real progress, Robinson can provide a major boost on the other side of the ball. 

The hiring ends a lengthy search by Rodriguez, who parted ways with Scott Shafer after only one season. 

"Greg brings a wealth of experience as a defensive coordinator, both at the collegiate and professional level," Rodriguez said in a statement. "We are excited to have Greg, Laura and their entire family, join our Michigan family. I know that Greg will work well with our defensive staff, entire football staff and players."

Michigan fans shouldn't worry about Robinson's 10-37 record at Syracuse. Robinson is back to doing what he does best, coaching defense, and the Wolverines will be the beneficiaries. 

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Texas makes case for title despite close win

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Roy Miller sounded like an Ohio State Infomercial. 

Minutes after No. 3 Texas posted a dramatic Fiesta Bowl win, Miller began talking up the team his Longhorns had just beaten. 

“Great team, great players, Terrelle Pryor, [Chris "Beanie" Wells] is healthy,” said Miller, the Longhorns senior nose tackle who was named Defensive Player of the Game. “You’ve got award winners on that side. You’ve got future Heisman candidates, you’ve got a running back that’ll probably be the top pick in the draft, an offensive line as big as any, a defense that’s played as well as any defense. 

“When you look at those things and you look that this team had an opportunity to scout us for a month and a half, I really feel like we deserve that top spot.”

It will be a tough sell, but the Longhorns began campaigning for the No. 1 ranking immediately after their 24-21 win. Head coach Mack Brown said on the victory podium that he planned to vote Texas at No. 1 regardless of what happens in the BCS title game Thursday night.

But there’s a force working against Texas, the same force that worked in favor of Oklahoma and Florida.

The Longhorns won by only three points Monday. They showed tremendous fortitude, made key plays and rallied past an Ohio State team that finally began to play to its potential. Yet a 3-point win against the runner-up from the beleaguered Big Ten Conference won’t convince many that Texas should be at the top. Neither will an offense that produced well below its season averages. 

“Style points, I don’t care about scoring 80 points and them scoring seven,” Longhorns defensive end Brian Orakpo said. “If it’s a battle between two great teams, it makes football even more fun to play. It’s very unfortunate because nowadays it’s all style points and who can keep their starters in the longest and keep running up the score.

“Style points shouldn’t matter.”

Orakpo makes an excellent point, but one that likely will fall on deaf ears when the final polls come out. Texas entered the game as a 9-point favorite, and after impressive BCS wins by both USC and Utah, the Longhorns likely needed to trounce Ohio State to open the door for a split national title.

Though Texas certainly has the best case of any team not spending the week in Miami, the Longhorns were seconds away from a loss. USC thumped a Penn State team that beat Ohio State on Oct. 25, and Utah also posted a two-touchdown victory.

“Things weren’t easy tonight,” Brown said. 

“You can throw [margin of victory] out the window,” Orakpo said. 

Unfortunately for Orakpo, the voters don’t.

Texas’ best argument for the No. 1 spot in the polls had nothing to do with what happened at University of Phoenix Stadium.

“It’s called the Red River Shootout, and 45-35 was that final score,” Miller said, referring to Texas’ win against Oklahoma on Oct. 11. “We have an opportunity to win the votes over, hopefully, and possibly get a national championship with the votes.”

Miller spoke last week about losing confidence in the voters toward the end of the regular season, as Oklahoma moved past Texas, thanks in large part to style points. History is not on the Longhorns’ side.

But after Monday’s win, Miller is beginning to feel more hopeful.

“I’m optimistic,” he said. “I’m hoping that since our team played so strong and showed so much heart, I’m hoping those things can come through transparent, everybody can see ‘em. Especially if Oklahoma wins [Thursday night]. We beat Oklahoma. We felt like we should have been in Florida. We felt like we should have had that opportunity.

“If they beat Florida, we feel we should be No. 1.” 

Miller doesn’t plan to sit around and fret over the final polls. But he hopes the voters will do the right thing. 

“Anything can happen,” he said. “We know it, and we just hope we can win a couple votes. I’m proud of my team. Being a part of this team and knowing the things that we’ve been through, the teams that we’ve beat and the situations we’ve been in, I personally feel this team can play with anybody in the country.” 

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Will Mack Brown get another cold sore during the game?

You know he got one last time we played, right?

It happened DURING the game.  Thats what stress does…..

Story By The Buckeye Battle Cry

Fiesta Bowl teams share similar profiles

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Ohio State and Texas will attempt to beat one another into the sod tonight, but the two storied programs have found common ground throughout the week leading up to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Fox, 8 p.m. ET). 

Since the teams’ first meeting in 2005, head coaches Jim Tressel and Mack Brown have discussed the similarities between the programs and universities, starting with location. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Columbus, Ohio, is ranked 15th nationally in population (711,470), one spot ahead of Austin, Texas (656,562). 

“We did feel like being in the capital, being like a pro team in town, the jobs were different and construed differently than some others in our league and some others that we played again,” Brown said. “But at the same time, they are very unique and a lot of fun.”

There are also plenty of parallels on the field. Here’s a closer look:

Ohio State, Texas By the Numbers   Ohio State Texas All-time record 808-306-53 831-317-33 Bowl record 18-21 24-21-2 National championships 4 7 Wins since 2002 76 76 Home losses since 2003 4 4 Seniors’ record 43-7 44-7 Current NFL players 37 35 BCS bowl record 4-2 2-0

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Texas’ Brown in top form as countdown begins

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mack Brown still gets nervous, even if he doesn’t show it. 

When Brown met the media this morning, the Texas head coach recalled a conversation he had with coaching legend Darrell K. Royal about managing anxiety before games. 

	Joe Robbins/Getty Images
	Mack Brown doesn’t see a playoff system coming to college football anytime soon.

“I asked coach Royal once, ‘Did you have trouble sleeping the night before a big game?’” Brown said. “And at Texas they are all big. If you lose one, it gets real big. He said that unless you gag before you brush your teeth on Saturday morning, you are not ready to play.

“I gagged this morning. So I think I’m fine.”

Brown will coach in a BCS bowl for the first time since guiding Texas to the national championship when his team takes the field Monday against No. 10 Ohio State in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Fox, 8 p.m. ET). Despite his nerves in front of the bathroom sink, Brown showed none in front of reporters as he discussed Texas’ final preparations for the game. 

Here are some highlights:

• Brown doesn’t see a playoff system coming to college football, but he acknowledged that the impressive wins by USC and Utah strengthen the argument for one. A Texas blowout of Ohio State certainly would add to the playoff push, which Brown certainly advocates. With many coaches supporting a playoff, Brown encouraged media members to continue the fight. And while he covets a playoff, Brown doesn’t want the bowl system to suffer.

“I played at Vanderbilt for two years, and when I saw Vanderbilt kick a last-second field goal to win their first Bowl game since 1955, there will be no team or coaching staff any happier than that Vanderbilt staff was,” Brown said. “We do not need to take that away from college football. It is an exciting time. I see 7-5 teams throwing Gatorade on their coach. At Texas, if we were 7-5, they’d be throwing something on me but it wouldn’t be Gatorade.”

• The Big 12 has been average at best during the bowl season, with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State losing, and a heavily favored Missouri team struggling mightily against Northwestern. But Brown thinks a conference and its teams shouldn’t be evaluated solely on one game, especially a game that might bring lukewarm enthusiasm. 

“We’ve had some teams that weren’t as excited about their game because they didn’t get the draw they wanted and they got disappointed at the end of the year,” Brown said. “That’s the biggest thing in the bowl games: Who has the edge? Who is motivated? Who wants to be there? … If you look at the games and see who wants to be there and who is motivated because none of us have played for a month, I think that usually tells you the story more than anything else.”

• Brown recounted the process of telling his players that they didn’t reach the Big 12 championship game and likely wouldn’t be heading to the national championship in Miami. His first directive was to refrain from commenting publicly about the snub and instead let him do the talking. Rather than allowing the players to learn their fate on TV, Brown and his staff sent text messages minutes before the announcement and then scheduled a team meeting several hours later. In the meeting, Brown explained why Texas was left out (the computer rankings weigh road wins more than neutral-site ones), reiterated that the system is flawed and told players not to start throwing a pity party.

“Some people like it,” Brown said. “It is better than what we had 10 years ago. But in this case, it didn’t work out for you. But one year it didn’t work out for [USC]. One year it didn’t work out for Auburn. In 2004 it worked out for you when you went to the Rose Bowl to play Michigan. Don’t say ‘Oh, poor me’ and don’t say the system was poor to you just this time. It has been poor to a lot of people. This year it was good to Oklahoma instead of us.”

• Texas has tried to strike a balance between fun and serious preparation this week in Arizona. Players were given an 11 p.m. curfew most nights, and Texas hasn’t had any disciplinary infractions. Director of player development Ken Rucker gave the players an added incentive not to mess up.

“[Rucker] said if he smelled any alcohol on them, he would kiss them,” Brown said. “That took care of that. As far as I know, nobody has been kissed by coach Rucker before they went to bed. If you see coach Rucker, only [his wife] Nancy wants to kiss coach Rucker. It is not a group of guys.”

• Like Ohio State’s 28 seniors, Texas’ seniors have made a unique impact on the program and the coaches. Longhorns All-American defensive end Brian Orakpo said Thursday that the team might be closer than the 2005 squad that won a national title. They built that foundation as juniors before the 2007 Holiday Bowl, when they spoke up about helping the coaches maintain the right focus.

“A lot of people say this team will be great next year, and that’s not necessarily true because when you lose some ingredients, like Orakpo and his leadership and what he has meant to this program or Roy Miller,” Brown said. “My experience has been you don’t wave the wand and say we have a lot of good players coming back so it works again. For whatever reason it didn’t work as well for 2006 and [2007], and it’s has worked this year.”

• Brown on the prospect of Ohio State using quarterbacks Terrelle Pryor and Todd Boeckman on the field together: “We hope it works as well as ours. I think ours had five plays for minus-12 yards.”

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Tressel, Buckeyes feeling loose before bowl

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The term “loose” doesn’t seem to fit a guy whose trademark outfit is a sweater vest, but Ohio State’s Jim Tressel might be the more relaxed head coach come Monday night.

His Texas counterpart, Mack Brown, thinks so.

	Matthew Emmons/US Presswire
	Jim Tressel says there is something special about this group of Ohio State seniors.

Brown admitted this morning that Texas has more pressure heading into Monday’s matchup in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Fox, 8 p.m.). The Longhorns are heavy favorites who can strengthen their argument for a national championship with a win against the Buckeyes, a team most are counting out.

“You’ll see a loose Jim Tressel who’s going to go for it,” Brown said.

Tressel sounded fine with that assessment.

“Oh, I’m loose,” Tressel said. “I think about the opportunity, especially for our 28 years, you do want to let it all hang out. You’re not going to hold anything in reserve.”

Compared to the charismatic Brown, Tressel was fairly reserved during his pre-bowl news conference. Here are some of the highlights:

• Buckeyes freshman defensive end Nathan Williams will face some playing-time penalties after being charged with shoplifting last month. Williams pleaded not guilty Dec. 16 and faces a pretrial hearing March 16. Tressel also responded to a question about whether starting wide receiver Brian Hartline would face any discipline for a possible team rules violation during the week in Arizona. “We may have some discussions as we go,” Tressel said, “but for the moment, Brian Hartline is going to have a great part of this football game.”
• Running back Chris “Beanie” Wells appeared to leave the door open for a return in 2009, but Tressel, who has said Wells is ready for the NFL, maintained that stance. “He is feeling as if he doesn’t want to do anything to distract from this moment, because it’s a special moment,” Tressel said. “I have felt all along that with his talent and the position he plays and those kinds of thing, that [going pro] may end up being the best thing, that he move along. But we haven’t had that discussion.” Translation: It would be shocking if Wells stayed in school.
• Third-string running back Brandon Saine hasn’t done much in pre-bowl practice because of an injury and likely won’t play against Texas. He will dress for the game. Freshman reserve tackle J.B. Shugarts has practiced and will be available Monday before likely undergoing postseason surgery.
• Like Brown, Tressel emphasized the importance of special teams in Monday’s matchup. Ohio State has been excellent on punt and kickoff coverage and ranks 14th nationally in punt returns (12.9 YPR), while Texas ranks third nationally in net punting and has blocked six kicks, four by freshman cornerback Aaron Williams. Return men Ray Small (Ohio State) and Jordan Shipley (Texas) are both capable of going to the house. “When you have depth like they have on defense, you’re going to have great speed in your special units,” Tressel said.
• Tressel doesn’t seem concerned that Ohio State’s recent big-game losses will place an added burden on his team, but he acknowledges he’s more excited about this bowl than he has been in a while. The team’s 28 seniors have something to do with it. “Why is this one? Why do I feel that way? There has been something awfully special about this group of kids,” Tressel said. “Maybe it is because it is today, I don’t know. They have been very unselfish. They have prepared extremely hard. They care about one another. They have fun with one another.”

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Brown, Tressel coach in shadows of legends

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — They are polar opposites in public and represent two very different regions of the country, but Texas’ Mack Brown and Ohio State’s Jim Tressel have forged a common bond the last few seasons. 

Both men oversee big-time programs with big-time fan bases and big-time expectations. Both recruit at an extremely high level. And both coach in the shadow of legends, Texas’ Darrell K. Royal and Ohio State’s Woody Hayes. 

Despite two impressive head-coaching résumés, both of which include national championships, Brown and Tressel, whose teams meet Monday in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, recognize they’ll likely never measure up to icons like Royal and Hayes. 

“These are two men that he and I idolized growing up,” Brown said. “It’s not like we’re sitting around thinking, ‘I’m going to be Darrell Royal.’ Even [Royal] said one day, ‘I hope you break all my records.’

“I said, ‘Coach, I’m not going to be alive long enough to break all your records, so don’t worry about it.’”

Brown is 114-26 in 11 seasons at Texas, a winning percentage of .814, while Tressel boasts an 83-18 mark at Ohio State (.822). Two outstanding records for sure, but not quite at the level of Royal and Hayes, who combined to win eight national championships. 

“We both believe that the game is bigger than us,” Tressel said of himself and Brown. “We both believe that the schools we’re at filled the stands long before we came and we’ll never be the Woody Hayeses of the place, but we are the people that have the responsibility to try and maintain that type of excellence.”

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College game comes easy for prep prodigy Pryor

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — More than once after a game this season, Terrelle Pryor noted how college football isn’t all that different from the Pennsylvania high school scene he dominated as the nation’s No. 1 recruit. 

After helping Ohio State stomp Michigan State 45-7 on Oct. 18, Pryor told reporters, “It’s just like high school.” The line became Pryor’s trademark this fall as he won Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors and led Ohio State to another BCS bowl appearance as the starting quarterback. 

“Liar,” Buckeyes senior tight end Rory Nicol said. “But Terrelle’s from PA [Pennsylvania], I’m from PA, too, so I’m allowed to say that. He’s a good athlete, man.”

Such a good athlete that Pryor’s transition from high school to college has been smoother than many had expected, even for a freshman who came to Ohio State with unparalleled hype. Pryor has had his growing pains, but he led the Big Ten in pass efficiency (152.1) and posted an 8-1 mark as the starter.

With small-forward size and a smooth, seemingly effortless running style, Pryor at times looked like the best player on the field, just like he was at Jeannette Senior High School. 

Could it really be that easy?

“You can’t really argue with him,” senior cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said. “He was just in high school last year, so he comes in, he’s doing amazing things as a freshman. It kind of is just like high school.”

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College Postseason: The Miseducation Of Lisa Horne

Lisa Horne wrote an article expressing that the dominant conferences were weaker than the Big XII Conference. Then people wanted to know what she was basing this off of. Was it because they didn’t have enough BCS NC possible teams in the show? Was it in regards to the Heisman? Or is it because there wasn’t as much controversy in those conferences as there is in the Big XII Conference?

After watching her try to defend her defense of the Big XII Conference, I wanted to let the B/R Nation decide. But I did some quick research on this season’s bowl games and found something interesting.

ACC: 10 Postseason Representatives

• Wake Forest (Eagle Bank Bowl vs. Navy)
• North Carolina (Meineke Car Care Bowl vs. West Virginia)
• Florida State (Champs Sports Bowl vs. Wisconsin)
• Miami (Emerald Bowl vs. Cal)
• NC State (PapaJohns.com Bowl vs. Rutgers)
• Maryland (Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl vs. Nevada)
• Boston College (Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl vs. Vanderbilt)
• Georgia Tech (Chick-Fil-A Bowl vs. LSU)
• Clemson (Konica Minolta Gator Bowl vs. Nebraska)
• Virginia Tech (Orange Bowl vs. Cincinnati)

SEC: 8 Postseason Representatives

• Vanderbilt (Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl vs. Boston College)
• LSU (Chick-Fil-A Bowl vs. Georgia Tech)
• South Carolina (Outback Bowl vs. Iowa)
• Georgia (Capital One Bowl vs. Michigan State)
• Ole Miss (AT&T Cotton Bowl vs. Texas Tech)
• Kentucky (AutoZone Liberty Bowl vs. East Carolina)
• Alabama (Sugar Bowl vs. Utah)
• Florida (BCS National Championship vs. Oklahoma)

Big XII: 7 Postseason Representatives

• Missouri (Valero Alamo vs. Northwestern)
• Oklahoma State (Pacific Life Holiday Bowl vs. Oregon)
• Kansas (Insight Bowl vs. Minnesota)
• Nebraska (Konica Minolta Gator Bowl vs. Clemson)
• Texas Tech (AT&T Cotton Bowl vs. Ole Miss)
• Texas (Fiesta Bowl vs. Ohio State)
• Oklahoma (BCS National Championship vs. Florida)

Big Ten: 7 Postseason Representatives

• Wisconsin (Champs Sports Bowl vs. Florida State)
• Northwestern (Valero Alamo Bowl vs. Missouri)
• Minnesota (Insight Bowl vs. Kansas)
• Iowa (Outback Bowl vs. South Carolina)
• Michigan State (Capitol One Bowl vs. Georgia)
• Penn State (Rose Bowl vs. USC)
• Ohio State (Fiesta Bowl vs. Texas)

Big East: 6 Postseason Representatives

• South Florida (St. Petersburg Bowl vs. Memphis)
• West Virginia (Meineke Car Care Bowl vs. North Carolina)
• Rutgers (PapaJohns.com Bowl vs. N.C. State)
• Pitt (Brut Sun Bowl vs. Oregon State)
• UConn (International Bowl vs. Buffalo)
• Cincinnati (Orange Bowl vs. Virginia Tech)

Pac 10: 5 Postseason Representatives

• Arizona (Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl vs. BYU)
• Cal (Emerald Bowl vs. Miami (FL))
• Oregon (Pacific Life Holiday Bowl vs. Oklahoma State)
• Oregon State (Brut Sun Bowl vs. Pitt)
• USC (Rose Bowl vs. Penn State)

And this is just the main conferences. How do you think the smaller conferences did this seaason?

Mountain West: 5 Postseason Representatives

• Colorado State (New Mexico Bowl vs. Fresno State)
• BYU (Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl vs. Arizona)
• TCU (SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl vs. Boise State)
• Air Force (Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl vs. Houston) 
• Utah (Sugar Bowl vs. Alabama)

WAC: 5 Postseason Representatives 

• Fresno State (New Mexico Bowl vs. Colorado State) 
• Hawaii (Sheraton Hawaii Bowl vs. Notre Dame)
• Louisiana Tech (Independence Bowl vs. Northern Illinois)
• Nevada (Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl vs. Maryland)
• Boise State (SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl vs. TCU)

So when you do the simple mathematics of who is in the bowl games, the Big XII is not as dominating as Lisa wants them to be. She gave so much credit to Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell (who royally got the shaft in the Heisman) but none to Mack Brown, Mike Leach or Bob Stoops. It’s always good to be the quarterback, but you can’t be a great QB without a great coach to teach you the fundamental basics.

But it was a team effort that got a majority of these teams into their respective bowl games. But to just single out one player or position as the reason of their success is downright dumb. In regards to the SEC being dominant, I’m surprised no one threw former Tennessee Quarterback Peyton Manning’s name in the mix if you’re going to do name dropping.

Regardless, the Big XII is in as much trouble this bowl season as everyone else. And even though no one has flat out said that Oklahoma will slaughter Florida or vice versa, you have to know that someone wants to start the fireworks.

It’s good that you know stats and everything, Lisa, but the facts do not support your main argument. You called the SEC weak this season, but really didn’t give a reason to their weakness. You just went on about how great the quarterbacks of the Big XII look in their uniforms. But the numbers aren’t the only thing that people look at. They look at who has proven themselves to be a leader.

In all honesty, all four quarterbacks involved in the Heisman Chase have proven themselves to be leaders. But after tonight, only one will hold up the Heisman…and Tebow would much rather have a National Championship. And we all know about the Heisman Curse.

So here’s a better poll question: Who has been the stronger conference and who has been the weaker conference this year?

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