By Mark Pszonak
Jim Tressel was a winning head coach at Ohio State, who saw his career earn him induction into the College Hall of Fame in 2015. Nowadays he hosts a podcast, It’s All About the Team, which recently involved South Florida head coach Alex Golesh, who coached under Tressel in 2004 and 2005. During the interview, Tressel shared his thoughts on recruiting in 2025
While recruiting in 2025 is much different than it was ten and twenty years ago due to NIL, there is still plenty that holds true.
“My phrase to my staff, whether it was about hiring a new coach, or recruiting a player, I said, ‘guys, all I want is people dying to be here’. I know this guy might be a little faster than that guy, but just promise me that they’re dying to be here. As a coach, that to me is going to be the key ….the key is going to be can we get a building full of people who are dying to be here. That’s what I always appreciated about my staff, who they brought us, or who they recommended to replace so-and-so on the staff. They were going to bring the right guys. Certainly, they have to have capable talents. But if we were going to err, we were going to err on the talent side and we weren’t going to err on the side of do they really want to be here.”
That may be easier said than done at many programs, but at a winning program like Ohio State, it makes sense. But developing a culture is important in every locker room, no matter what year or school it is.
“One of the things I talk to all of you about is if you think culture and team building was important 20 years ago, it’s even more important today,” said Tressel. “Because it’s harder. And we’re going to have to find that as this world has changed and continued to change, how do you find those guys?”
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Times are quickly changing, but some aspects of recruiting continue to hold true.
