Jim Tressel says he isn’t thinking about running for Ohio governor — but he isn’t ruling it out

CLEVELAND — Jim Tressel, a former college football coach and Ohio’s soon-to-be lieutenant governor, said Thursday that he never envisioned accepting such a position — and that, despite heightened speculation, he has not thought about running for governor in 2026.

But Tressel, speaking by telephone with NBC News, acknowledged that he also never thought he would be the head coach of a Big Ten football program or president of a state university. And he notably did not rule out seeking another job once seen as beyond his reach and limits.

“I haven’t weighed that at all,” Tressel, most recently the president of Youngstown State University, said when asked about a bid for governor next year when Gov. Mike DeWine, the Republican who this week nominated him to be his new deputy, is term-limited.

“I’ve really prided myself throughout my professional life to focus on the moment, focus where I am, have faith that where I am and what I do there might lead to the next thing,” Tressel continued. “And believe me, I had no idea I would ever be the head coach at Ohio State, and I didn’t think about it. I had no idea I would ever be the president at Youngstown State, and I never gave it any thought prior. And I had no idea I would ever be a lieutenant governor of a great state like Ohio, and I never gave it a moment’s thought until it arose. So I’m going to work hard to stay in the moment, and you never know what path is out there for you.”

Ohio’s Legislature, dominated by Republicans, confirmed Tressel’s nomination Thursday with bipartisan support. Tressel, 72, will officially be sworn into office Friday morning.

His arrival to government and politics — long anticipated by those who followed his championship-laden coaching career at Youngstown State and Ohio State, including some who nicknamed him “Senator” — has set the political gossip mill in motion in the Buckeye State. 

Vivek Ramaswamy, a young biotech entrepreneur with high name-recognition thanks to his unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign and close ties to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, is seen as the front-runner in the GOP gubernatorial primary, which also includes Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. DeWine had long pictured Jon Husted, his previous lieutenant governor, as his successor, but DeWine instead appointed him to succeed Vance in the Senate. 

A half-dozen GOP operatives in the state confirmed to NBC News that Tressel buzz is building, but they were not aware of any concrete plans in place to capitalize on his political options. Both DeWine and Tressel have insisted that they have had no conversations about 2026.

Nevertheless, it is well-known in the state capital that DeWine is lukewarm at best on Ramaswamy. His decision to elevate Tressel, a bona fide celebrity with voter familiarity that rivals or exceeds Ramaswamy’s, immediately stoked speculation that DeWine was creating a situation in which Tressel could throw together a potentially race-shifting campaign for governor. 

One Republican strategist in the state, granted anonymity to offer a developing theory shared by others, noted that DeWine could have elevated a lower-key member of his Cabinet or a state lawmaker — someone with more conventional experience — to finish the term.

“Instead,” this person added, “he went big, with somebody who has as big a profile and personality and viability as a gubernatorial candidate. Somebody who can use this perch and decide, ‘You know what, I kind of like doing this, I’m going to go run for governor.’”

That template would fit Tressel’s past, which includes several examples of him winning jobs for which many thought he was unqualified and unprepared — and then succeeding.

After guiding the lower-division Youngstown State Penguins to four college football national championships in the 1990s, he jumped to the Big Ten and won a national championship with the Ohio State Buckeyes in his second year as head coach there. After a memorabilia scandal involving his players chased him from Ohio State, Tressel moved into an administrative role at the University of Akron. And when Youngstown State needed a new president in 2014, the job went to Tressel.

Despite doubts about his lack of experience in higher education administration, he held the job for nearly a decade, leaving in 2023.

Tressel said Thursday that he expects to focus on education and workforce development as lieutenant governor. Much like he did in his coaching career at Ohio State, when he would remind his players and the media precisely how many days there were until the annual game with rival Michigan, Tressel knew how many days he will have as lieutenant governor.

“Quite honestly, the big challenge I have now is that I’ve got to make sure that I get up to speed on the things outside of my expertise,” Tressel said. “So it’s been like a crash course. They keep handing me all this reading, but then I get interrupted because I do all these media calls. So I need to get some quiet and listen and learn and see where I can help for the next 696 days.”

Tressel’s political beliefs have rarely been at the forefront of his public persona, though his lean to the right was evident in the candidates and causes he supported.

He helped raise money for former Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, a star wide receiver for Tressel at Ohio State. He joined with another former college football coach, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to headline a fundraiser last year for Republican Bernie Moreno’s successful Senate campaign in Ohio.

“Coach Tuberville and I traveled all around the world together in 2009,” said Tressel, who added that had not yet sought advice from the senator but looked forward to doing so. “We were both still coaching, and we went and visited troops in 10 different air force bases all over the world, and I could see then his passion for America. Little did either of us know that, fast forward, however many years — 16 years later — we both would be serving in different ways.” 

Tressel said that he considers himself to be a conservative Republican.

“I wasn’t a history major. I wasn’t a political science major. So I don’t pretend to be able to give an exposé on the differences in philosophies or whatever,” Tressel added. “The thing that I always believed is that every single person on our team was important, every single person on our coaching staff was important — and that we would have a strong group if we had a group who had an array of backgrounds, an array of beliefs, an array of philosophies.”

Though some Democrats in the state legislature opposed Tressel’s nomination for lieutenant governor, they offered minimal objections. Katie Seewer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party, which strenuously criticizes Republicans like Husted, Moreno and Yost, did not mention Tressel directly in response to a question about the possibility he could run for governor. Dr. Amy Acton, a former state health director under DeWine, has announced a campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

“No matter who the nominee is,” Seewer wrote in an email, “voters will be ready for a change.”