Tressel projects a groomed blandness - the gray man with the gray hair in the gray sweater vest who represents integrity, loyalty, humility, self-control, academic probity.
Among the Buckeye faithful, Tressel's rectitude is punctuated as emphatically as the "i" in the marching band's famous script Ohio routine.
Adulation on campus has approached deification with signs like "God Wears Sweater Vests" and "In Tressel We Trust." He talks of sharing a parent's responsibility for his players and seems to symbolize, in his shirt-and-tie righteousness, a bygone era when football spoke to expectations of manhood.
In Columbus, it seems impossible to overstate the good will that Tressel has accrued from his 5-1 record against the Buckeye's fiercest rival, Michigan.
In a much-told story, Tressel greeted an Ohio State basketball crowd shortly after being hired in January 2001 with these words: "I can assure you that you'll be proud of our young people, in the classroom, in the community and especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan." He was the son of a renowned coach, and an Ohio native, and with one sentence Tressel demonstrated that he understood what Ohioans held dear.
Yet Tressel also has detractors who dispute the authenticity of his image, mock him on Internet message boards as CheatyPants SweaterVest and note that he has been touched by scandal both at Ohio State and Youngstown State, where he previously won four Division I-AA national championships.
At both colleges, his top quarterback took money from boosters in violation of N.C.A.A. rules. Maurice Clarett, the running back who played a vital role in Ohio State's national championship in 2002, sits in prison after a sad descent. A number of other Ohio State players has encountered legal or disciplinary problems since Tressel became head coach in 2001, and his academic record, while improving, remains mixed.