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Stay in the now, one play at a time, one day at a time. That's the core of Jim Tressel's philosophy.
It's one reason he is one win short of 100 since he took over at Ohio State in 2001. He will become the third-fastest Big Ten coach to reach that milestone if his No.2 Buckeyes defeat Indiana.
"I'd rather have a sixth (win this season) than a hundred; I guess you can't have one without the other, so I guess it would be neat," Tressel said. "But we would reflect on that for about three minutes and be getting ready for the next game."
There was a time, though, when quick accumulation of victories seemed quite important to him, he said. His first three years as a head coach at Youngstown State, 1986 to '88, were a roller-coaster ride.
"We were always so concerned with, 'How are we gonna be?' as opposed to 'What are we doing this play?' " Tressel said. "That's when we started talking about one day at a time, one play at a time, and all that. And it just became part of our soul, I guess.
"Now, is it easy? No. ... Everyone thinks about what's beyond compared to what's right there. You have to keep reminding yourself."
The record book puts it right out there. Including his 15 seasons at YSU, Tressel, 57, is the second-winningest active NCAA Division I coach with 234 career victories, though well shy of the 397 of Penn State's Joe Paterno, 83. Since joining the Big Ten, Tressel has gone 99-21. Only Fielding Yost and Bo Schembechler got off to quicker starts, each gaining his 100th win in 119 games at Michigan.
Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward doesn't expect Tressel to bring up anything other than one play at a time, one day at a time.
"Definitely ... he stresses that so much. Nothing is ever guaranteed to you," Heyward said.
Winning, he said, is merely the residue of the Tressel approach.
"I think it's that he cares about so much more than football," Heyward said. "He prepares guys for life. He's just focused on trying to help his guys, get the most out of them, and helping them succeed off the field as well as on the field."
Tressel's father, the late Lee Tressel, was a winner as the longtime head coach at Baldwin-Wallace College back in the 1960s and '70s. So he also hit some milestones, not that anyone could tell by his reaction.
"He didn't make a big deal out of anything," Jim Tressel said.
But others took note.
"It's funny. I remember his 50th win at Baldwin-Wallace vividly because my brother (Dick Tressel, now the running backs coach at OSU) was playing in it, and I had to miss seventh-grade basketball practice on a Saturday to go to Ohio Northern ... and it turned out that was his 50th win," Jim Tressel said. "I remember his 100th win significantly because I played in it, and that was kind of neat. Now, did he make a big deal of it? I don't even know that he knew."
tmay@dispatch.com
