Ohio State Football: 5 Ways the Buckeyes Can Move on from the Jim Tressel Era

Although the Ohio State scandal is still fresh in the minds of college football fans across the country, Buckeye fans are ready to look toward the future. Although it will take a long time for the bitterness from the scandal to wear off, Buckeye fans should remain optimistic as the team moves into a new era in its football program.

Here are 5 ways that the Ohio State Buckeyes can move on from the Jim Tressel era and start a new one in the years to come.

1. Make Luke Fickell the Permanent Head Coach

After former head coach Jim Tressel resigned from Ohio State, the school named assistant head coach Luke Fickell to the interim head coaching position. However, in order to move on from the Tressel era, the school should hire Fickell as the permanent head coach if he has a successful first season.

It was a smart move by Ohio State to not immediately hire a new permanent head coach. The school is in the middle of a lot of turmoil, and it is unlikely that a big name head coach would have joined the program at such a time anyhow.

A lot of fans want the Buckeyes to hire a coach like Urban Meyer, a well-known guy who has had success running a top-flight program in the past. However, this may not be the smartest move for the school.

In Luke Fickell, the Buckeyes have a former Ohio State player who has been around the program a long time and is well-liked by the players. If they hire him as the permanent head coach, then the Buckeyes have a chance to rebuild their reputation in college sports without the media attention that an Urban Meyer-type coach would attract.

With all the media attention that was focused on the school because of the scandal, that ability to start a new era of football under the radar may be just what the doctor ordered.

2. Focus on Recruiting Locally

All too often, top local high school football players choose schools other than Ohio State. In the post-Tressel era, the Buckeyes should put more effort into getting these local players to suit up in the scarlet and gray.

A school should be able to attract the talent from its own state. Ohio State has not done the best job of this in recent years. There has been a trend of the school targeting players from the southern states for their speed, something which the Buckeyes sorely lacked on both sides of the ball. That effort to recruit southern players led to the school neglecting local recruits, which in turn led to some of those local players choosing other schools.

Now that Ohio State is ushering in a new era of its storied football program, it is time for the team to once again be filled with the many talented players that Ohio and the surrounding states produce. If Ohio State can be successful in its bid to attract the most talented local players, that would go a long way towards turning the Buckeyes into a perennial powerhouse in the Big Ten once again.

3. Return to a Run-Focused Offense

For the past several seasons, while playing with a quarterback with the ability to run, the Ohio State Buckeyes got away from the power running game that so many Big Ten teams rely upon in the cold northern states. They were able to stay successful because of the talent of the quarterback and his wide receivers.

Many of Ohio State's most venerated running backs had the ability to run over defensive players when they had the ball. Players like Archie Griffin, Eddie George, and Chris "Beanie" Wells, just to name a few. Returning to a run-focused offense would help separate the current Buckeyes from the Tressel era.

A power running offense is also extremely effective in the climate where many Big Ten games are played. Nobody wants to tackle a bruising running back in freezing weather, especially teams that are not used to playing in such conditions.

With the talented offensive line that Ohio State usually has, it only makes sense for them to utilize it by handing the ball off to the running back first and looking to throw the ball second.

4. Beat Michigan

To many Ohio State fans, the yearly Michigan game is the biggest game of the year, even bigger than any bowl game except perhaps a National Championship game. To some fans, it is even bigger than that. Some especially diehard fans will go as far as to say that as long as the Buckeyes beat Michigan, then that season was a success, even if they didn't win another game the entire season.

Therefore, the post-Tressel Buckeyes need to keep playing the Wolverines as well as they did when Tressel was still coach. The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is one of the fiercest in any sport. In fact, that rivalry is often one of the reasons why high school players dream of playing for the Buckeyes.

Under Tressel, the Buckeyes rarely lost to Michigan. Tressel was one of the most successful Ohio State coaches in games against the Wolverines. If that success can continue without Tressel, then the new era of Buckeye football will be off to a great start.

5. Get to a Championship Game and Win It

Although former coach Jim Tressel led the Ohio State Buckeyes to three National Championship games, he was only able to win one of those games. That lone National Championship victory came in 2002 against the Miami Hurricanes. The Buckeyes went undefeated that season and put themselves back into the national spotlight.

That National Championship led to Ohio State being ranked as one of the top teams in the country for many seasons after the win. However, despite playing in two more National Championship games, the Buckeyes were unable to clinch another victory in either of those games.

If the post-Tressel Buckeyes were to make it to a National Championship game and win it decisively, then the stigma of being unable to win big games that was cultivated during the Tressel regime would begin to fade away. Winning it all would go a long way towards allowing the new era Ohio State Buckeyes to separate themselves from the Tressel era.