COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jim Tressel hired Mel Tucker in 2001 with one mission: lock down Ohio. Especially Northeast Ohio. Those in-state high school football stars who got away and went to Michigan? If Tressel was going to turn the tide in The Game, it was going to start in recruiting. So the new coach of the Buckeyes hired an assistant who was a Cleveland native, who knew the Big Ten, and who had played at Wisconsin for Barry Alvarez and coached at Michigan State under Nick Saban. And he gave him a mission. Get the best Cleveland high school football players to Ohio State. Keep them out of Michigan. Done. “I can honestly say, in my four years at Ohio State, no one ever got out of there that we wanted,” Tucker told me. “Between Coach Tressel and I, we were able to partner up and get it done. I…
Continue Reading: Mel Tucker once locked down Ohio recruiting for Ohio State; now new Michigan State coach will battle Buckeyes
