AKRON, Ohio - He does not have a Ph.D. or the traditional university president's background.
Jim Tressel does have the ability command a room, and in the public forum portion of his official visit to the University of Akron on Thursday, that much was evident.
Two years to the day after he started the next chapter of his professional career at Akron -- then in a created-for-him role as director of strategic engagement -- Tressel stood in front of the student union theater as the third of three finalists in this week for the president's office that officially opens in June with the retirement of Dr. Luis Proenza.
Signs pointed to Tressel being the man for the job even before his Q&A session before a room of about 300 on Thursday afternoon, but he's also among the three finalists for the president's job at Youngstown State University, where he was head football coach from 1986-2000 and also served as athletic director. There's no known timeline for filling either job.
He'll do an open forum at Youngstown State on Monday, and his first at Akron at very least served as good practice.
"In my mind, the No. 1 mission we have here at the University of Akron is student success," Tressel said in his opening remarks. "We could all agree that just about [every] dollar we spend here was invested by a student or the taxpayers of the state of Ohio. We have quite a responsibility. We have a responsibility to make sure that the students here are successful."
Told he'd have 10 minutes for his opening statement before taking questions, Tressel jokingly told the moderator that "with my ego, I can't even say hello in 10 minutes."
He never ran out of words.
The questions ranged from budgets to housing, from scholarships to the importance of the most qualified professors to teach women's studies. He sounded prepared. The first one was about his background in athletics and how he'd keep from being biased, and later a student took the mic not to ask a specific question but to thank Tressel for helping him after he'd sent Tressel an email weeks earlier seeking assistance.
This is a big job he's seeking.
"We owe it to our students...that they're ready to compete in the world," Tressel said. "We want this experience, the Akron experience, to be one (in which) they become all they can be and can't wait to come back to campus."
Tressel, who coached at Ohio State for 10 years and won a national championship before being forced out in the wake of a memorabilia scandal, said that if anything, he'd be harder and keep a closer on on athletics and athletic budgets if he's granted the president's office. This time around, he seems to be more aware than ever that lots of people are watching.
Long an open-enrollment campus, Tressel said Akron's enrollment is 96 percent Ohio students. As someone who's as well known in the Buckeye State as anyone and has been promoted three times in two years on the job, Tressel makes sense for the job.
Time ran out on the Q&A forum before it could be asked why he wanted the job. Instead, he talked like an old pro on budgetary issues -- "we can't afford to seek the excellence we want to have. We can't afford it," he said -- and said he wants to surround himself with "great people...with great experiences" in helping Akron tackle "the most difficult time in the history of higher education, and as difficult a time as there has been in University of Akron history."
That comes down to making dollars and putting them in the right places to make them make sense, and Tressel is a proven fundraiser. He's a proven leader, too, and that was evident in his Thursday session.
"We need to recruit and attract talent to our campus," he said, sounding like a coach while telling stories of writing personal letters to top potential students. "Retention is the No. 1 financial lever that we have. We have so many financial discussions that are real.
"We want to make sure that (our students) make progress and stay."
Tressel knows Akron and knows the challenges. The presidential office officially comes open next month, and in that regard he sounds like he wants to be a head coach again.
"Any of us...we're insignificant without those around us," he said.
He's proven he can build a team, and we'll likely soon see one Northeast Ohio school put him in a seat that requires big decisions on more than just Saturday afternoons.
