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OHIO STATE FOOTBALL
Tressel is 'master motivator'
Seventh-year coach showed players a boxing match with a Buckeye faithful for game prep.
Monday, October 29, 2007
To get his players ready for a showdown Saturday night, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel had them learn about a Penn State mauling and watch a Buckeye fan do a little brawling.
Former OSU quarterback Bobby Hoying gave a first-hand account of the Nittany Lions' 63-14 victory in 1994, warning the current team to brace for a constant din in Beaver Stadium.
Extras
Tressel also showed a snippet of boxer Kelly Pavlic's grueling middleweight fight against champion Jermain Taylor last month. Pavlic, a Youngstown native, entered the ring in a scarlet sweatshirt and wore gray trunks adorned with an OSU block "O" during his seven-round TKO.
"We watch a round of his fight every week — we're really proud of him," senior tackle Kirk Barton said. "He showed resiliency. The second round, he had a rough round. But in the third round, he took it to Taylor.
"Tress is the master motivator. He has us watching something every week."
The seventh-year coach certainly pushed all the right buttons in a 37-17 win over the Nittany Lions, who had won 19 of their previous 20 games at home.
As they've done all season, the Buckeyes stretched the defense with a vertical passing attack and pounded away with a power running game. Junior Todd Boeckman was 19-of-26 passing for a career-high 253 yards with three TDs and one interception, while tailback Chris Wells rushed 25 times for 133 yards, leaving the Nittany Lions flummoxed.
"We couldn't stop them," coach Joe Paterno said.
Tressel has called for more deep passes than at any time in his career, and that's likely to continue as long as foes keep crowding the line of scrimmage to slow Wells.
"We just happen to think Todd has a good knack for that," Tressel said, "and people are forced with our running situation to get an extra hat in the box. That means one less hat back there to cover, and we think that's a good combination."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or at dharris@coxohio.com.
