Big Ten awards = joke
Right: Ohio State running back Brandon Saine was a Second Team, All-Big Ten selection by the media and the coaches.
(Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel has been at the helm of the Buckeyes for nine seasons now and has compiled a overall record of 93-21 and his teams have gone 59-13 in Big Ten conference play during that span.
Tressel has also won one national championship, went to two other national title games, has taken OSU to seven BCS bowl games, and has won six Big Ten titles including five straight. But how many Dave McClain Big Ten Coach of the Year awards has he won?
Zero.
After his national championship season of 2002, Tressel won the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award, the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award, the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award, the Pigskin Club of Washington D.C. National Coach of the Year award, and the Touchdown Club of Columbus National Coach of the Year award.
But yet he’s never won one from his own conference.
Since Tressel was hired before the start of the 2001 season, two coaches who won the Big Ten Coach of the Year award have been fired (Ron Turner and John L. Smith), one will likely be fired in the near future (Ron Zook), while Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema has won it once and Penn State’s Joe Paterno has received the award on two separate occasions.
But this year’s winner has already won it TWICE before. And the 2009 Big Ten Coach of the Year is Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.
Coach Ferentz seems like a decent enough guy. And sure, his team had to run past some major hurdles with all of the injuries this season in order to even have a chance to win a Big Ten title. But he hasn’t had nearly the success Tressel has had. Plus, I don’t buy into the notion that just because you are suppose to win (and Ohio State was picked as the preseason favorite) that you don’t earn it by coaching your team during the season.
After Ohio State’s collapse at Purdue, it look like the Buckeyes chances to win a fifth straight Big Ten title was out of reach. Then Tressel righted the ship with big wins over Penn State and Iowa to not only win the league crown, but won it outright.
Among the player awards, only one Buckeye earned the distinction of being a First Team, All-Big Ten selection by both the media and coaches, and that went to senior strong safety Kurt Coleman. Junior offensive guard Justin Boren was named First Team, All-Big Ten by the media, and was placed on the Second Team by the coaches.
Still, with arguably the best defense in the Big Ten and only one player made it on the First Team?
Running back Brandon Saine, who finished sixth in the conference in rushing was tabbed a Second Team, All-Big Ten selection by the media and coaches. On the defensive side of the ball, linemen Cameron Heyward and Thaddeus Gibson along with linebacker Ross Homan were named Second Team, All-Big Ten by both the media and coaches, as well.
