Jim Tressel and Ohio State Football: Why the Buckeyes Will Weather the Storm

Jim Tressel has some work to do in Columbus, but he has time to do it.

Terrelle Pryor and the rest of the Sporting Goods Gang may or may not be back for the 2011 Ohio State football season.

What Tressel and Buckeye Nation need to do is go back in time and listen to what Dick Vermeil had to say once when things looked particularly bleak.

The year was 1999, and the St. Louis Rams' season appeared to be ready to go as far as starting quarterback Trent Green would take them.

In an August exhibition game, Green went down with a torn MCL, and the season looked to be in jeopardy. Winning hopes grew dim.

Then Vermeil stared into the cameras and declared these fateful words:

"We will rally around Kurt Warner, and we will play good football."

Kurt who? Yes, that Kurt Warner, the guy no one knew about before Green tore up that knee of his. The rest is history, isn't it? They didn't play good football; they played great football.

Now Ohio State will need to rally around those strong recruiting classes. This isn't some mediocre program—this is THE Ohio State University with THOSE highly-ranked recruiting classes.

As for Pryor, the common thought is that it's not worth his time to return and sit out those five games. He may well head into the NFL draft in April.

If that's the case, the Buckeyes need to rally around Joe Bauserman or Kenny Guiton or Taylor Graham or the new hotshot recruit named Braxton Miller, who is said to be a can't-miss star in Columbus.

One of those guys will have to step up and become Tressel's Kurt Warner.

It's not like Ohio State doesn't have talent all over its roster. There have been more 4-star recruits than 2-star recruits on the Columbus menu the past few years.

If the new guys are slow starters, then the Buckeyes have a 2011 schedule that is made for crawlers rather than sprinters.

The first two games are Akron and Toledo, both at home. The Vest should be able to manage those opponents if Mickey Rooney was his quarterback.

Then there's the road game at rebuilding Miami followed by Colorado, a program in turmoil, and then finally someone to worry about—Michigan State.

By then, things should work themselves out in Columbus.

Ohio State will be competitive. It's a strong program, and two or three players will not cause the Roman Empire of the Midwest to crumble overnight.

Tressel has spring football and then summer camp to figure all of this out.

Ohio State will weather this storm.

After all, it is THE Ohio State University, is it not?