Report: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Interested in Jim Tressel

Sports by Brooks is confirming (I don't know who originally reported this) that 3 teams are interested in Jim Tressel: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Until this season Tressel was the head coach at Ohio State, serving in that capacity since 2001. He has a career 94-22 record with Ohio State, and has won 5 bowl games during that time: 3 Fiesta Bowls, one Rose Bowl and one Alamo Bowl. Including his time at Youngstown State the experienced college coach has won five national championship: four NCAA Division I-AA championships at Youngstown State, and one National Championship at Ohio State.

Tressel's background is as an offensive coach, spending time as quarterbacks, wide receiver and running backs coach in college. He has no real NFL experience, outside of serving as a consultant for the Indianapolis Colts this season after leaving Ohio State.

Tressel left Ohio State this past offseason after NCAA violations came to light, and it became clear that Tressel had lied to NCAA investigators in the matter. This came months after Tressel had blackmailed players into staying at Ohio State, by threatening to sit them out of the 2011 Sugar Bowl (which was eventually vacated) if they declared for the 2011 NFL Draft.

Despite his massive success as a head coach in college, I am not a fan of Jim Tressel. I am mostly not a fan of him because of what he did at the end of his tenure. Essentially blackmailing your players to keep them on the team - that does not sit well with me.