I would hope that we don't place too much emphasis on "northeastern Ohio" ties. Tressel grew up in Berea, Heacock in Beloit, Wolford in Brookfield, Pelini in Boardman. Obviously, only Tressel worked out.
This is still a fantastic opportunity for an ambitious, talented young coach. The Watts, a big time weight room (not my opinion...ask the 49er's,) excellent (and compliant) media coverage, enough regional talent (not like the old days but still sufficient.) And the precedent to go directly to OSU from here. Great place for a rising coach to give us 3-4 years of winning and reach the big time.
I think we also need a coach with a little bit of an ego. If I was looking at a coaching job that was could be leveraged into a multimillion dollar payout, YSU would not be at the tip of my list. Most coaches get one chance as a HC before they are branded as a perpetual assistant. The reasons why I would not take the job have to do with 2-things:
1. We dont pay well enough to hire a competent staff that has elite recruiting and are great D1 coaches.
2. We play in the MVFC and the elephant in the room is that you need to recruit 85 elite D1 athletes with 63 scholarships. The reason is that is the only way to make it through the conference with enough healthy players to make the playoffs and then make a run. NDSU is doing this and they are winning for a reason.
Finally, we are in the most competitive conference at any level of football in the country. The conference loaded with great coaching. If you piece all of that together, it tells me that we need a person that is a great coach that can build and execute a strategy with less, and has the ego to believe he can win under those constraints. Lift one of the constraints and the pool widens.
