OSU’s Tressel visits Parkersburg

Coach makes bid to recruit Jenkins

By STEVE HEMMELGARN
PARKERSBURG — The man in the gray sweater vest came to town Thursday, but he wasn’t a tourist out sightseeing.

Jim Tressel knew exactly where he was going — and it’s where the riches were, athletically speaking that is — as Ohio State’s head football coach headed to Parkersburg High School to visit with Big Red All-American senior offensive lineman Josh Jenkins, the prize in a recruiting duel that has apparently been narrowed down to between the Buckeyes and home state West Virginia University.

Since Tressel couldn’t discuss any specific recruits OSU was after, even though the Buckeye grid boss was obviously at PHS to see Jenkins and later at the Jenkins home talking to Josh’s mother, he talked about a variety of other topics relating to Ohio State football.

On a surprising 11-2 season that unfortunately ended with a second straight loss in the BCS national-championship game: ‘‘We’re real proud of the way our younger kids progressed this season, especially since we lost 18 fifth-year seniors plus three juniors to the NFL (from 2006). So we knew a lot of folks really needed to step up — and they did just that and did what they needed to do. Fortunately, we stayed healthy, except for defensive end Lawrence Wilson, who we lost for the year (with a broken leg) in the first game.’’

On losing just one junior, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in end Vernon Gholston, to the NFL draft after a number of others expressed possible interest in leaving OSU early: ‘‘It was a little nerve-racking for us, in that I know a couple of them (Butkus Award-winning linebacker James Laurinaitis and second-team All-American cornerback Malcolm Jenkins in particular) could have gone and done very, very well for themselves in the NFL draft.

But it just shows you how much they love their experience at Ohio State. To them, the value was being with their teammates and being at Ohio State and getting their degree. And that was more valuable to them than those millions of dollars. Their hopes are that the NFL will still be there for them a year from now.’’

On returning all but a handful of 2007 starters — Gholston and five seniors (right tackle Kirk Barton, outside linebacker Larry Grant and the fullback-sharing trio of Dionte Johnson, Tyler Whaley and Trever Robinson): ‘‘That’s a plus and something to build on. So as long as we progress and — since, you know, the game is played in the mind — as long as we have our mind right and our kids will train hard, we have a chance to be good.’’

On another loss in the BCS title game: ‘‘It’s obviously not disappointing that we got there two times in a row because, you know, that’s pretty difficult to do. But LSU’s a good team. We tip our cap to them; they earned the victory. We had our chances, but lost the momentum a couple of different times — and you can’t do that when you’re basically in someone’s home stadium (Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans).’’

On WVU’s Rich Rodriguez taking over at Michigan: ‘‘He has a certain style of offense that he’s been able to replicate wherever he’s been. He should be a good addition to the Big Ten, and make the league tougher. You can’t question his record; He’s done a great job.’’

On key games on next season’s schedule: ‘‘Other than every league game, including the greatest rivalry in college football — Ohio State versus Michigan, early in our non-conference schedule, we play at USC, who I’m sure will be ranked pre-season in the top three. To travel across the country and play one of the best teams in the nation at their place will be a great challenge.’’

Contact Steve Hemmelgarn at shemmelgarn@newsandsentinel.com