Big Ten Media Days: Jim Tressel Is Boring

The Fanhouse is live, sort of, from Chicago and the Big Ten Media days. These coach interviews actually went down yesterday but posting ten of them seemed a little much. There's a main page with the rest of 'em.

Jim Tressel says an it's an exciting time for coaches, and there are seniors who have had growth and experience. They've experienced a lot of things, a lot of great things and some things that they wish didn't happen. I really wish there had been a "football" somewhere in there... "we're excited about our football team." kthx.

A Columbus-based reporter goes right for the good stuff: Tressel is 6-1 against Michigan (yay) versus 2-10 for the previous guy. Why? "Good players." OH MY GOD TRESSEL IS SO BORING. He does call it a "tremendous rivalry."

Tressel has heard about the Carson Palmer thing, and thinks he's "excited that Ohio State will play his alma mater." He is crushing my will to live.

Some guy from Bleacher Report asks a question about Pryor, who loves to compete and has great ability. Bleacher Report is here? WTF? Bleacher Report is a website that any random ten year old can post a top ten list on.

Look... what am I supposed to do here?

"I think our guys love to compete."
"I hope they've learned lessons."
"There are some guys who need to start from square one also."
"Hopefully we'll make it new enough and challenging enough that we can take them to the next level."

I'm dying.

Okay, something of note.. USC question yielded this downright Lloyd-ian passage: "How difficult is the challenge? Tremendously difficult. ... They have tremendous fundamentals. ... It's a tremendous challenge." It's like the Big Ten has a yearly contract with the word and has to use it a minimum number of times.

The Columbus Dis-paaaatch guy actually calls Ohio State "we". The media environment around Michigan's program: slightly different.

Boeckman has experience, can take charge, be in command. The Philly Inquirer guy is asking about Joe Paterno again. The question is "can you imagine Penn State without Joe?"

Yes. Yes, I can, because I am a human and I can model things. This is my answer, not Tressel's. Obviously. Oooh: "if I were a betting man, I would wager he would be there in 2009." That was slightly interesting, but then he goes right back and says that he can't pick out a potential Big Ten darkhorse. Pffffft.

BCS bowl perception etc. question gets a standard response, then Tressel's asked if a BCS title loss would be a disappointing season. Big Ten Champs would be something to be proud of, but he would like to win the game.

Tressel's now done, leaving just one coach between the media and a half-hour break: half the room leaves. The other half has been stunned into catatonia.

GENERAL IMPRESSION: What year is it? Who's president? How long was I out?

MEDIA FRUSTRATION LEVEL: Zero. Jim Tressel could turn any question into vanilla pudding, so what's the point of asking something interesting?