Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel to serve as lieutenant governor

Former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel will be Ohio’s next lieutenant governor, according to Governor Mike DeWine.

“Former Ohio State national championship-winning football coach Jim Tressel, who also was the president of Youngstown State and a VP at University of Akron, will be Ohio’s next lieutenant governor, as announced by Gov. Mike DeWine,” Karen Kasler wrote on Twitter.

This is new era for Tressel, who served as the President of Youngstown State from May 9, 2014 to February 1, 2023. Perhaps political offices were squarely in his sights.

But, he won’t be leaving the state anytime soon it seems.

A former national championship winning head coach, Tressel’s name echoes throughout the state of Ohio.

He went, 229-79-2 with Youngstown State and Ohio State in his career. He won the BCS National Championship in 2002 and also won the Big Ten five additional times in his career.

Jim Tressel has new political position

Despite the politics, Tressel still had his eyes on the Buckeyes, who just won the national title this season, a first for Ryan Day.

Tressel explained following the game that in his experience, while winning a national championship is great, it also doesn’t necessarily change a coach’s life to win.

“You know what, it doesn’t,” Tressel said. “It doesn’t because he’ll wake up tomorrow and start thinking about how can we get better. There’ll be a lot of guys like you asking him soon, can he repeat? So, it really doesn’t change.”

Day has faced an immense amount of criticism, despite all of his success, as the coach at Ohio State. That’s because he has struggled in the postseason and lost four straight games to Michigan. So, with the national championship, it appears that the narrative around his career will shift more positively.