Can Brady Hoke Break ThroughThe Great Wall Of Tressel ?

Around 221 B.C., China’s emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the building of a wall to defend against northern invaders.  Jim Tressel has done something similar at Ohio State.

It is no secret that Tressel has been highly successful against Michigan.  Ever since he took over the head coaching position at OSU, Michigan has been in his sights.  From his first public speech as head coach in 2001 where he proclaimed that people would be proud of the OSU football team in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan,  to the 100-24 shellacking of Rich Rodriguez’s UM teams the last three years, Tressel has assaulted UM. 

How has Tressel done this?  The first thing Tressel has done is cut off the supply chain.  In war, one strategy is to cut off the enemy’s ability to reload so once the supply chain is cut the enemy will lose resources and eventually be defeated.  This can be employed not only in war and politics but college football.  Ronald Reagan  out spent the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Soviets could not keep up with Reagan’s military buildup, one of the many causes of the Soviet Union falling.

Tressel is employing similar tactics against Michigan.  In an article by B.J Bethel of the Dayton Daily News titled “Opinion: Michigan’s future rests on Hoke’s ties to Ohio” argues that for Michigan to get back to prominence, they must be able to mine the fertile recruiting grounds of Ohio like they did in the past. 

Bethel writes “There is one reason why Michigan has been Ohio State coach Jim Tressel’s plaything for the last 10 years, and another reason why Rich Rodriguez couldn’t win against the better teams in the conference. Tressel has locked Michigan — and everyone else — out of Ohio.” He goes on to write “Go through the rosters of the great Michigan teams of the ’80s and ’90s and those teams were loaded with the best Ohioans the resident high school football factories had to offer — think an Elvis Grbac here, a Charles Woodson there.”

Think also Desmond Howard—Cleveland, Ohio, Ricky Powers—Akron, Ohio, Mario Manningham: Warren—Ohio, Shawn Crable—Massillon, Ohio, John Kolesar—Westlake, Ohio to name a few.

The 2010 UM roster had 16 players from Ohio but most of them were not offered scholarships by Ohio State. 

Bethel goes on to write, “worse for Michigan, while they are locked out of Ohio, the Buckeyes are expanding into Western Pennsylvania.” Bethel should have also added that Ohio State has expanded into Michigan as well and is consistently battling UM and Michigan State for  top players.  The 2010 Ohio State roster had 5 players from Michigan, all top players in the state.  

Not only has Tressel cut of the supply chain in Ohio by creating a wall around it, he has also entered into Michigan’s most fertile grounds and has begun to deplete it as well.  Everyone knows Brady Hoke will need to recruit well to have any chance at competing for the Big Ten titles.

If he is not able to restore the supply chain from Ohio and Tressel continually gets most of the top players from Ohio, Michigan will have a difficult time regaining its eminence in the Big Ten.  Hoke will have to break through the Great Wall of Tressel in order to bring Michigan back.