The latter might sound like the ultimate goal of every collegian partying at the beach, but Reese is driven by a more serious pursuit. He dreams of becoming a Navy SEAL.

Reese, a 23-year-old from Olmsted Falls, wants to push his body and mind past its limits as he tries to re-create the 120 hours of continuous physical labor the SEALs call Hell Week.

Reese vows to do it with a self-imposed ban on caffeine and energy supplements.

“I’m going to fight as hard as I can to not sleep, but I might sneak in a half-hour power nap here and there,” Reese said during a campus interview Wednesday. “It’s a little warm-up/tryout to get ready for the real thing, although it’s not even going to be close to what the real thing has to offer.”

SEAL candidates go through 21 weeks of basic underwater demolition and SEAL (BUD/S) training in Coronado, Calif., and Hell Week doesn’t come until week four of Phase One, which claims an average dropout rate of 70 percent, according to the Navy News Service. Graduating from the first day of boot camp to a SEAL team assignment takes at least 1 ½ years.

Reese hasn’t even signed his enlistment papers, which he expects to do by early March.

But 12 credit hours from a May graduation, Reese, a walk-on football player, is anxious to begin the next chapter of his life.

Hardworking mentality

He’s always been an underdog who succeeded, arriving at Kent State as a high school center who was projected as a tight end and was switched to defense after his freshman year. He played special teams for two years, then earned a starting job at linebacker and was voted a co-captain as a fifth-year senior.

“My father has always been into politics and taught me what freedom actually meant,” Reese said of Tom Reese, a retired UPS employee who now has his own business. “My interest in the military started to pick up during high school. I’ve always wanted to be part of preserving freedom for the citizens of this country.

“About three years ago, I decided the SEALs would be the right branch for me. They’re a tightknit brotherhood, and I want everything to be a part of that.”

His mother, Diane, doesn’t know where Reese got his drive, but she believes nothing will stop him.

“He jumps in and shoots for the stars, and most of the time, he’s up on a star,” said Diane, a nurse.

A military family

The Reeses will soon have three sons in the Navy. Ryan, 27, is a reservist on active duty as a funeral director in Akron. Joining as an aircraft mechanic two years ago, Ryan handles funerals for veterans and those killed in combat. Evan, 20, is at boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill., beginning five years of service as an electrician.

“My husband and I are very proud. We’re not sure how all this came about,” Diane said.

Tom’s father served in the Army during World War II and two of his brothers were in the Air Force, but Tom was granted a medical exemption during the Vietnam era because of an ulcerated stomach lining.

Diane said Evan’s interest was sparked by his best friend, who lives two doors down and joined the Army. Diane said Kyle began focusing on the SEALs after counterterrorism came up in classes for his major in justice studies.

“I eventually want to get into the FBI or CIA and do counterterrorism work,” Reese said. “If I am fortunate enough to make the SEALs, I’ve heard if you have that on your resume, that’s like a fast track into those two departments.”

Physical preparation

What Reese seeks from the SEALs is the adrenaline rush.

“The SEALs throw you right in the face of danger. But that’s something I need. I can’t imagine myself sitting behind a desk all day,” he said.

“I think that’s why I enjoy sports so much, I enjoy competing, anything that has to do with physical fitness. There really is no better feeling than an adrenaline rush. Playing in football games, that’s all it was.”

After Reese signs his Navy papers, he can’t be shipped out for six months. But two weeks to a month after he enlists, he’ll take the first SEAL fitness test, which includes pull-ups, sit-ups and push-ups, a 500-yard swim and a 1.5-mile run in boots and pants. All the categories have minimums and suggested target numbers; all but the pull-ups have a time limit.

What worries Reese most is the swimming, which must be done using the combat side stroke or breaststroke. The combat side stroke will take a long time for him to master, and he’s open to help from anyone in the area.

“You’re laying on your side and you can only use one arm to propel yourself forward,” Reese said. “The other one has to stay straight to guide, and it’s like a scissor kick.”

Reese has been training for six weeks with Kent State assistant strength and conditioning coach Ryan Gearheart and hasn’t missed a workout. Reese has modified his diet and given up eating at Chipotle, which he frequented four or five days a week. He’s down to 203 pounds from his playing weight of 220 and is shooting for 190. When he hits that, he’ll begin SEALFIT workouts and increase his caloric-load to Michael Phelps’ proportions.

Gearheart has no doubt that Reese will succeed, even with his Hell Week plan.

“Kyle is putting his heart and soul into it,” Gearheart said. “He’s an amazing kid. If he puts his mind to it, he will achieve it.”

Reese works out five or six days a week, and Gearheart trains with him for two of those. To add a competitive element, they’ve entered a Tough Mudder event April 15 in Amherst. Designed by British Special Forces, the 12-mile race includes 25 obstacles and incorporates running, swimming, climbing, being shocked by 10,000 volts and crossing through barbed wire and creeks. Reese and Gearheart have formed a five-man team that includes former Kent State linebacker Howard Bowens.

“We’re going in with the mindset we want to win the whole thing,” Gearheart said.

Arriving at KSU in August, Gearheart was impressed by Reese during camp, when the seniors gave presentations on what they had learned at Kent State. Gearheart said Reese used PowerPoint to relate football to how SEAL teams work.

“That’s where I knew Kyle was a special guy,” Gearheart said. “You can tell he’s very confident. He’ll look you straight in the eye.”

Kent State linebackers coach Marcus Freeman learned much about Reese during the captains’ vote before Reese became a starter.

“A walk-on voted a team captain, that means you’ve got the respect of your teammates,” Freeman said. “You don’t see him hanging out with tons of guys, so it wasn’t a popularity vote. He was probably one of the best leaders I’ve been around.

“If I could pick one person on this team who could be a Navy SEAL, it would be Kyle Reese. He has the mindset, and that’s half the battle. I told Kyle, ‘Physically, I think you’ll be able to do it. But mentally you’re going to be challenged way more than you’ve ever been challenged.’ That’s the part you don’t know, you never know, mentally can you pass the test.”

Reese knows the tests that lie ahead. He’s spoken to former SEALs and will follow a training program posted on the Internet daily by one of them. He’s read books and articles. He knows all about SEAL Team 6’s raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound in May and the January rescue of two aid workers in Somalia. Last week he and Ryan went with their father to a screening of the movie Act of Valor, which opens Friday and stars eight active SEALs.

“It’s a real intense movie and very sad at the end,” Tom Reese said. “After the movie, I’m all tensed up and I asked Kyle, ‘Are you sure this is what you want to do?’ He said, ‘More so than ever.’ ”

When his friends see the torture he’s experiencing in the KSU field house and fail to understand, Reese clings to his determination to preserve freedom and doggedly pushes through.

“The football guys will look at my workout and say, ‘Why are you doing this? This is absolutely insane. This is absolute punishment,’ ” Reese said. “I set my goals high. My motto has always been, ‘Go big or go home.’ I want to be a part of the most elite fighting unit this world has to offer.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/.

In a meeting with five core players when they returned to campus following a nine-point loss to Akron on Jan. 21, Senderoff made a statement that could have come off as callous. He stuck to the bad-cop role he’d played during his time as an assistant under Geno Ford.

“I said, ‘You can blame the coach, which is fine, but the coach is going to be sitting in this office next year coaching somebody. You guys are not going to be sitting here because your season’s going to end. While you’re out there blaming somebody else or looking at somebody else, the clock is ticking,’ ” Senderoff said after practice Thursday at the M.A.C. Center.

Senderoff still doesn’t know if the words struck a cord. But three days before he spoke, the Golden Flashes had absorbed a 22-point thrashing at Ohio University, where he said they quit in the second half. Then they blew a nine-point lead with 13:21 to play against the archrival Zips.

It appeared a watershed moment was at hand for the two-time defending Mid-American Conference regular-season champions.

Senior forward Justin Greene, the reigning MAC Player of the Year, admitted Senderoff’s challenge did “sound kind of cruel.”

“But I know what he’s saying,” Greene said Thursday. “I know coach Sendy wants the best for every one of us. He wanted us to know time is running out.”

Since the disastrous second half against UA, Kent State (19-6, 9-3 in the MAC) has reeled off seven consecutive victories going into today’s BracketBuster game against visiting College of Charleston. During that streak, the Golden Flashes have improved their field-goal defense to 40 percent after allowing 49 percent in their first five league games. In the same span, they’ve improved their rebounding margin to minus-2.1 from minus-7.6.

But Kent State’s surge is not just about numbers. Team chemistry and accountability are also at play. And it all began the night they returned from Rhodes Arena.

Senderoff sat down his four seniors — Greene, Michael Porrini, Carlton Guyton and Justin Manns — and junior Randal Holt. He forced them to watch the final 13 minutes of the loss to UA again. They’d been in the game when the Zips turned a nine-point deficit into a 15-point lead in just under 10 minutes.

Senderoff knew that even if Kent State had played its best, it might not have been able to withstand that kind of offensive explosion. But he emphasized that instead of pointing fingers, the five had to change the way they were playing. He put the onus on them if their string of 13 consecutive seasons with at least 10 league victories was going to be snapped or if they failed to reach 20 victories for the 13th time in 14 seasons, a feat accomplished by just seven other schools.

Senderoff gave them Sunday off. On Monday, a senior-run players-only meeting was held. Greene said that cleared the air. They went around the room, every team member getting a chance to air his grievances. Some of the younger players said the seniors needed to step up.

Greene said even when criticism was harsh, no verbal sparring ensued.

“Everybody said exactly how they felt about each other, regardless if they thought, ‘He might not like me after this,’ ” Greene said.

Senderoff said they came out of that meeting and had their best practice since the season began.

“That whole week, losing to Ohio the way we did and losing to Akron, that’s probably the best thing that could have happened to us,” Greene said. “Early in the year after we beat West Virginia and got a lot of good wins, a lot of guys felt invincible. We got knocked back down to reality.”

From Brooklyn, N.Y., Greene said this edition of the Golden Flashes is the closest team he’s been on since his senior year at Lincoln High School. He said players hang out together after practice and the little cliques of his first two years are gone. Some of their bonding began with an offseason trip to Italy after Greene’s freshman year.

Greene had seen what could happen when a team didn’t connect. His freshman year in 2008-09 the Golden Flashes went 19-15 on the heels of a 28-7 season that ended with an NCAA Tournament loss to UNLV.

“A lot of new guys came in and felt their role should have been bigger than it was,” Greene remembered. “We had a lot of guys who didn’t really like each other. We had some selfish guys. It was good for me to watch how things can turn out when you’re on a team like that.”

Since the Golden Flashes have become closer, Greene said they don’t want to let each other down.

“As long as we keep playing for each other, we’ll be good. We’ll be real good,” Greene said. “I get tired of them sometimes, but we love each other.”

Senderoff knows love might not be enough. Four league games remain before the MAC Tournament, including two crucial ones at home — a Feb. 29 rematch against Ohio and a March 2 showdown against league-leading Akron that will be televised on ESPN2.

But no matter how the Golden Flashes finish, Senderoff is proud that his veterans saved them from a season of average basketball. And at KSU, average is considered mediocre.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

Then there’s a reward of a totally different sort that could be at stake Saturday afternoon, when the Zips visit Oral Roberts. A reward that needs no nickname because of the salacious envy it inspires.

An NCAA at-large bid.

The last time two MAC men’s basketball teams went to the NCAA was 1999, when tournament champion Kent State was joined by runner-up Miami. The conference placed two in the bracket three times in the 1990s, also in 1995 and ’98, and has achieved the feat six times overall.

Winning their Sears BracketBusters game against Summit League champion Oral Roberts (24-5) won’t assure the Zips (19-7) of a much-coveted spot in March Madness. They would likely need to win their remaining four regular-season MAC games and go deep in the tournament, which opens at campus sites March 5 and moves to Quicken Loans Arena March 7-10. This year, the top two seeds receive byes into the semifinals, a change designed to reward the elite and avoid burnout for those who advance. UA leads the East Division at 11-1, followed by Buffalo and Kent State at 9-3.

But with eight consecutive victories, including an 84-75 home triumph over rival Kent State on Jan. 21, such lofty goals for the Zips look much more attainable than when they stood 3-5.

“Can we get an at-large? We’re probably a long shot because nobody really understands Akron, right?” Dambrot said after the home victory Wednesday over Miami University. “And we had those losses early in the year. But if we win out, our RPI is going to be pretty high and our strength of schedule is pretty good.”

As of Thursday, UA’s Rating Percentage Index, used by the NCAA since 1981 for at-large selection and overall seeding purposes, stood at 62. Oral Roberts was at 47. A road victory over a team with a higher RPI would be a quality win in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee. The Zips already have one, that coming in the opener at Mississippi State, now 19-7 and 49th in the RPI.

This is a time when Dambrot considers the RPI of his remaining four MAC foes — Bowling Green (156), Ohio University (97), Buffalo (81) and Kent State (81). Records against top 50s and top 100s are also important categories. The Zips’ 2011-12 pedigree includes non-conference top-100 losses to the likes of Valparaiso, Duquesne, West Virginia, Middle Tennessee, Cleveland State and Virginia Commonwealth.

“Do we have enough, that’s going to be the question,” Dambrot said.

He wondered what five more victories in the regular season and a triumph in the MAC Tournament semifinals would bring. Such a surge could raise UA into the 40s. Even the 50s might be enough for the selection committee. Then the Zips could keep alive their ultimate dream — to reach the NCAA Final Four like recent Cinderellas George Mason, Butler and VCU.

Winning a BracketBuster game can springboard a team to success. In 2007-08, Kent State won at No. 23 St. Mary’s. The Golden Flashes lost the next time out at Bowling Green, but they followed with a five-game run, defeating Akron for the MAC Tournament title before falling to UNLV in the NCAA.

Dambrot worries that a door-opening road game like Oral Roberts could wear out his team for the stretch run. He remembered a February 2006 BracketBuster game at Nevada that took 21 hours of travel time on the front end. Not only were the Zips drilled by 17, but they also lost three of their final five regular-season games, were upset by Toledo in the MAC Tournament and ended up in the NIT.

“Not only did we get our brains beat in at Nevada, but we also lost the league championship,” Dambrot said.

To try to avoid that, the athletic department pulled some strings and secured a charter flight to Tulsa, Okla., that is cheaper than going commercial. A nine-hour trip each way to Oral Roberts has been reduced to a flight of no more than two hours, and the Zips will return after the game.

The charter route is not unheard of in the MAC. Kent State did the same for a 2007 trip to George Mason in Fairfax, Va.

Dambrot said the young players on his team don’t seem to be overwhelmed by pressure, that junior guard-forward Quincy Diggs seems to play better. But Dambrot seems torn on how much emphasis to place on the game at Oral Roberts, which brings heavy national exposure on ESPN2.

“You have to think big, so it’s a big game then, right?” he said. “Is it the biggest of the five left? Probably not.”

Diggs looks at it as “a good challenge” and a measuring stick because both UA and ORU are at the top of their leagues. Sophomore forward Demetrius Treadwell called it “a great opportunity to keep pushing to the automatic bid we’re trying to get.”

But Dambrot seeks the comfort of an at-large berth, even though the Zips have been to the MAC Tournament championship game five consecutive years.

That doesn’t seem unusual as the pressure mounts. Yet Dambrot’s other prize carries with it an unstated fear. Amid all the talk about BracketBusters and charter flights and RPI, he still seems to fear Kent State.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

But former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said last weekend that even in the midst of that personal competition with Penn State’s Joe Paterno, the two friends never discussed it.

“As much as he and I were together, and that’s every year, neither one of us ever mentioned it,” Bowden said.

Paterno died Jan. 22 at age 85 of complications from lung cancer. In the wake of a child sexual abuse scandal involving his former assistant, Jerry Sandusky, Paterno was fired on Nov. 9, less than two weeks after earning his 409th victory to surpass Grambling’s Eddie Robinson for first on the NCAA Division I list.

The late Robinson finished with 408. Bowden, the father of University of Akron football coach Terry Bowden, stands third with 377. Forced to retire by FSU after the 2009 season, Bobby Bowden lost 12 victories a year ago in NCAA sanctions.

“Joe and I, that went on for about 10 years,” Bowden remembered. “After I passed Bear Bryant [323], Joe had more wins than anybody, then it got in kind of a two-man race. I enjoyed it; I was competing. I caught him one time, then he caught me back.

“There was somebody behind us, but it was probably 20 years before somebody else can get as many.”

The two leading active coaches are Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, age 65, who has 257, and Texas’ Mack Brown, 60, with 227.

“If the university would have allowed me, I would have stayed and tried to catch up. They wouldn’t let me and I don’t know if I could,” Bowden said.

Bowden said he and Paterno became close from attending Nike conventions. Bowden said Nike paid for yearly trips to resorts in Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean for the 40 coaches of schools that used their athletic gear. Bowden’s wife, Ann, hit it off with Paterno’s wife, Sue. Bowden said he attended 28 Nike events and Paterno probably went to 30.

“Joe and I and Sue and Ann were pretty close because of our ages,” said Bowden, 82. “I used to love to talk to him because I could learn so much.”

During the season, though, they rarely spoke.

“Sometimes if I had a problem I’d call him and he might have a problem and call me. Or we might discuss a play or something like that,” Bowden said.

The two faced off twice in bowl games during Bowden’s 34 years at Florida State. The Seminoles prevailed 24-17 in the 1990 Blockbuster Bowl. The Nittany Lions won the 2006 Orange Bowl 26-23 in triple overtime.

Bowden is still upset by the scandal that brought down Paterno.

“You could hardly even have thought that up. I don’t understand it,” Bowden said. “Gol-lee, there’s a guy who didn’t do nothing. But not doing anything, it’s probably why this came up.

“I wrote an article for their school paper about 10 or 15 years ago and said, ‘Joe Paterno will go down as the greatest coach in American football history.’ He coached longer than anybody, won more games than anybody, graduated boys, had great morals. Then all of a sudden this dad-gum thing, I hated it for Joe. And then to die. And then to die … ”

Bowden said his last contact with Paterno came when he wrote Paterno a letter after the scandal broke. At a speaking engagement in Albany, Ga., Bowden was asked about the situation at Penn State.

“I said, ‘Well, I guess it’s kind of like he said, he wishes he’d have done more.’ So what do they quote me as? ‘Bobby said he should have done more,’ ” Bowden said.

“I wrote him and told him this is what I actually said. Those things happen all the time. That’s life.”

The passing of Paterno leaves Bowden as college football’s patriarch. It’s a label Bowden didn’t seem anxious to tout.

“The oldest,” he said, laughing.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

Grandson J.J. power-washed the carport. Six-year-old great-grandson Trey searched for a mid-afternoon snack. Wife Ann tried to reach Sue Paterno on the telephone.

The sun has shone outside the Bowdens’ home since 1976, but Bobby Bowden, the former Florida State football coach and father of new University of Akron football coach Terry Bowden, sat mesmerized by a program on the Military Channel. The sight of der Furher brought back a memory from a pre-9/11 trip to Germany, when he and Ann stood on a platform where the Nazi dictator had addressed his followers.

“It was all marble,” marveled Bowden.

Stricken with rheumatic fever at age 13, Bobby Bowden spent six months in the hospital and nearly 12 more confined to bed. Listening to World War II radio reports and envisioning the battlefields, he became captivated by the subject and strategy of war.

Now 82 and beginning his third year out of coaching, Bowden is retired in name only. He travels the country for speaking engagements, addressing a group in Lima, Ohio, on Thursday. He attends church regularly, sometimes going to the pulpit to talk about the deep-seeded faith that prompted the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to name its national citizenship award after him.

He and Ann try to keep up with their family — four sons (three are coaches), two daughters, 21 grandchildren and five great-grandchilden. That number includes grandson Bowden, who died at age 15 with his father John Madden in a 2004 car accident. Daughter Robyn is a teacher, Ginger an assistant state attorney who lives in Fort Walton Beach.

But when he gets the chance, Bobby Bowden indulges his passion for war through reading and cable television. So it was no wonder he merely muted the sound and did not turn off the set during an hour-long interview on Feb. 4.

The subject was son Terry, hired on Dec. 22 to revive a flagging Zips football program. Terry brought along his brother Jeff, a former offensive coordinator under Bobby at Florida State, longtime Seminoles assistant Chuck Amato and former FSU All-America cornerback Terrell Buckley.

Bobby said he never dreamed Terry would follow in his footsteps, especially when Terry got his law degree in 1982 while serving as a student assistant at Florida State.

“Terry was always the head of his class,” Bobby said. “He had the highest grade-point average (3.65) on his football team at West Virginia. He was president of this and president of that. When he played football in high school, he was all-state and the leader of the team. In middle school they had a group that was singing and he was the leader. He threw the stick way up in the air; it slipped out of his hand.

“I had no idea he was going to go into coaching. He came to Florida State and worked with me to get his law degree. He was offered a coaching job at Salem and that was the end of that law business. If they hadn’t offered him that job at Salem, I wonder what he would have done.”

Terry became the youngest college football head coach in the country when he went to Salem (W.Va.) at age 26. That’s a year older than Bobby was when he took over South Georgia Junior College. But even the struggles Terry saw his father endure didn’t scare him away from coaching.

“When my dad was at Samford and South Georgia, that was still so small, he was still the lifeguard in the summer and he still taught classes. You didn’t see him as a big deal,” Terry said in an interview last month. “When he went to Morgantown, he became the head coach at a major university, Tommy and I said, ‘I want to do that.’ We had plenty of choices, but me or Tommy or Jeff, we wanted no other choice.

“We traveled on the buses when we were younger; we played on the sidelines. But I don’t think until I got to West Virginia and I was in middle school that it finally hit me, the immensity of the job, also the excitement of it, too. You carried the weight of the state, at least of the fans, on your shoulders.”

That won’t happen for Terry at UA, although he will carry the weight of university expectations after it spent $61.6 million building InfoCision Stadium.

“That’s the advantage Tommy and Terry and Jeffrey had,” Bobby said. “They saw me hung in effigy. They’ve seen people clap me on the back. They’ve seen people booing me. They knew what they were getting into.”

Ann Bowden doesn’t believe Terry has been burdened by the legendary status of Bobby, forced to retire at Florida State in 2009 after winning two national championships. He now stands third on the all-time major college victory list with 377, 12 more vacated by the NCAA a year ago.

“I don’t think he was trying to get out from his shadow. He kind of wanted to mirror; he wanted to do what his dad did,” Ann Bowden said of Terry. “I don’t think he ever wanted to get away. They would have loved to have been together. I often said, ‘Why don’t y’all buy a pro club or something, scrape up enough and coach together?’ ”

The only one who wanted no part of it was Steve, who became a professor at Samford and co-authored one of Bobby’s books, The Bowden Way. Steve has managed his father’s business affairs for the past 20 years.

But when they’re coaching, Terry, Jeff and Tommy, a faith-based speaker and television analyst since he was forced out at Clemson in 2008, don’t consult Bobby on a daily or weekly basis. Bobby said they used to share successful offensive plays, but now when Terry calls, “it’s not about football.”

Bobby has been trying to carve out time for his children since they were young. When he was at West Virginia, Bobby took Steve, Tommy and Terry on weekend recruiting trips.

“It’s kind of like you’re watching everybody but your own boys,” Bobby said. “You’re out recruiting other kids. You don’t even get to see your son play. When Tommy and Terry were playing high school football in Morgantown, I bet I didn’t see over four games.”

Terry said he mainly seeks out his father for a second opinion or when he is making “a major professional decision.” When he went to work for ABC after being let go at Auburn in 1998, Terry acknowledged that he wasn’t the best coach in his own family. Bobby wondered if his son is still motivated by that.

“He’s trying to sneak up on us,” Bobby said, chuckling.

“I’m 55, I’m a grandfather now,” Terry said. “But funny when your dad’s Bobby Bowden, you’re always seen as his son.”

Bobby won national titles at FSU in 1993 and ’99, but Terry and Tommy topped their dad’s achievements in one regard.

“Terry won his first 20 ballgames, which was unheard of,” Bobby said of Terry’s stint at Auburn. “I was 60 before I was undefeated. Tommy and he were both undefeated before I was.”

Terry went 11-0 at Auburn in 1993, ahead of Tommy (11-0 at Tulane in 1998) and Bobby (12-0 at FSU in 1999).

These days, the Bowdens’ favorite moments together seem to come from trading barbs on the putting green during their annual Fourth of July family vacation or at the dinner table.

“Their nickname for me is ‘Fat Man,’ ” Bobby said. “We’ll be playing golf, ‘Hey, Fat Man, it’s your shot.’ ”

Bobby showed off a small statue with the moniker on it. In the past three months, he has lost 17 pounds and is down to 176 — “I’m probably 10 pounds from college weight,” he said — to keep his diabetes under control.

He and Ann worry about Terry’s weight gain, with Ann walking into the room with her favorite portrait of a thin Terry.

“He’s a compulsive eater when he gets stressed out or nervous,” Ann said.

But leave it to the Bowdens to make fun of their weight, even during Bobby’s lean victory year in 1974, when West Virginia went 4-7 and he was hung in effigy outside the library.

“Tommy tells the story of climbing the tree and a policeman comes by and says, ‘You can’t cut that down,’ ” Bobby said. “He said, ‘I wasn’t cutting it down, I was putting more stuffing in his stomach.’ ”

That’s just a slice of what happens when the Bowdens gather.

“Somebody will come up with some remark and everybody starts laughing and they’ll get him back,” Bobby said.

If they’re speaking at the same venue as Bobby, the sons have to edit themselves.

“Terry and Tommy know all of my jokes,” Bobby said. “They’ve got to be careful or they’ll get repeats.”

Hurt by investments in the struggling real estate market, Bowden relies on appearance fees to pay his bills.

“I’ve been to the Caribbean, to Hawaii twice, Israel; I’ve spoken all over the country,” Bobby said. “That’s what you do when you’ve been salaried all your life and all of a sudden you’re not making a penny.”

He plans to attend Terry’s coaching clinic at UA on April 13. He and Ann will get to as many Zips games as they can. Used to flying on private jets at FSU and driving all over the South, Bowden will schedule appearances around UA’s schedule, which includes a Sept. 8 game at Florida International in Miami and a Sept. 22 game at Tennessee.

“Tennessee has been struggling a little bit. He might be favored,” Bobby joked.

Although he thinks the 10 years Terry spent out of coaching was too long, Bobby seems content to watch Terry mainly from afar. He knows his son is a great communicator, meticulous in preparation and a natural leader and believes he’ll succeed if he can lure talent to UA.

“He’s like a new person,” Bobby said of Terry. “North Alabama was a nice little job, but they were limited. The facilities at Akron are so much better, you’ve got to feel good in there.”

The football talk over, Bobby unmuted the television and slipped back into the days of World War II.

“The American cemetery, wasn’t that beautiful?” he said of his trip to Normandy, France and the D-Day beaches. “How those guys got up that mountain, how they got across that beach, I don’t know.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

Varejao’s wait for the long-coveted honor will end at 7 p.m. Thursday, when the full roster for the Feb. 26 game at the Amway Center will be announced on TNT.

The Cavs center’s candidacy has grown steam, especially after his 20-20 performance Jan. 31 against the Boston Celtics.

Varejao was averaging 10.8 points, 11.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists going into Tuesday night’s road game against the Miami Heat.

Varejao, 29, has never been to an All-Star Game in his previous seven seasons. He was named to the NBA All-Defensive second team in 2009-10, when he also finished third in voting for the top sixth man.

Former teammate LeBron James and Heat star Dwyane Wade believe Varejao should join them in Orlando.

“I thought Andy was an All-Star in the past and he never got the nod,” James said Tuesday morning. “There’s not many players in the Eastern Conference playing good ball like he’s playing. If he does get an opportunity, it will be well-deserved. I know how hard he works.”

Wade said he believes this could be Varejao’s year.

“You have to game-plan for him. He’s not one of those guys you can say, ‘Just box him out.’ You’ve got to do other things,” Wade said. “That’s the kind of player you look for.

“I heard something about role-player slots in the All-Star Game. He would be high on the list.”

Scott said he receives packages from teams touting their players and once got an iPod that he gave to his son Thomas.

“I don’t make calls, I don’t send videos,” Scott said, believing Varejao’s body of work should sell him.

Varejao is flattered by the recent attention.

“It makes me feel good about myself, it makes me feel like I’ve been doing a good job helping this team,” he said. “If I’m there, I’m there. If I’m not there, what can I do? It’s a good motivation.”

Asked if he was anxious about the announcement, Varejao said, “I’m not going to say I’m not, but it’s not my priority. If it happens, I’ll be really happy.”

Gee gets nod

With a shortage of guards against the Heat, Scott started Alonzo Gee at shooting guard.

“That’s probably the best matchup we have for Dwyane Wade,” Scott said. “At least you’ve got your athleticism against athleticism.”

Gibson update

Scott didn’t seem overly alarmed about the soft tissue infection in guard Daniel Gibson’s neck that forced him to miss his fifth consecutive game.

After practice Monday, Gibson told the Cavs his neck was still “a little stiff,” Scott said, so the team elected to leave him home.

“We’re not real concerned right now,” Scott said. “After practice he felt a little discomfort, so we felt it wasn’t in his best interest to fly. Hopefully it was just a very minor setback.

“We’ve got a stretch of home games coming up, so we feel pretty comfortable he’s going to be able to play pretty soon.”

The Cavs were also without guard Anthony Parker (strained lower back) and rookie forward Tristan Thompson (sprained left ankle). Parker missed his fourth consecutive game, Thompson his third. Scott said Gibson could play tonight at home against the Los Angeles Clippers, but Scott doesn’t expect Parker or Thompson to be available.

Other stuff

The Cavs play nine consecutive home games and 11 of their next 13 in Quicken Loans Arena. … The NBA announced a change in format for the rookie-sophomore game that is part of the All-Star weekend. First- and second-year players will be combined on teams with a draft format. Cavs rookie Kyrie Irving said he would wait to be picked before commenting. … Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on former Cleveland State guard Norris Cole: “Norris is a bulldog coming in off the bench and changing the tempo of the game.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

They’d seen the Cavs’ upset of the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks and their victory at the Boston Celtics. They’d seen daily growth from rookie point guard Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao’s All-Star push and Antawn Jamison’s attempt to turn back the clock.

The Heat needed a monstrous fourth quarter from Chris Bosh to put away the first game against the Cavs on Jan. 24. On Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Cavs gave the star-laden Heat all they could handle for three quarters before going cold in the fourth and falling 107-91.

“The final score was not indicative of how competitive and how close that game was,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That team has improved, they play hard and they compete. They are a tough team to put away.”

The Heat (19-6) have put together the best 25-game start in franchise history. The Cavs (9-14) return to Quicken Loans Arena for nine consecutive games, starting tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers. That will match Clippers All-Star point guard Chris Paul and the rookie some think is his clone, Irving.

Coach Byron Scott hopes the Cavs can move on quickly. They made just 5-of-23 shots, 21.7 percent, in the final quarter. And that wasn’t the only sad stat he dredged up. Scott said the second unit shot 17 percent for the game.

“You’re not going to win a whole lot of games if you’re not getting any contributions,” Scott said.

The Cavs’ reserves mustered just 16 points, nine from Ramon Sessions, and he made just 2-of-8 field goals. Even worse were Luke Harangody (1-of-9) and Christian Eyenga (0-for-4).

Scott said he wrestled with playing his starters or resting them for the Clippers.

“It’s that double-edged sword,” Scott said. “I wanted to try to save them as much as possible, especially if it was close in the fourth quarter, to give ourselves a chance. But with a couple minutes left I knew it was ‘OK, let’s take everybody out and get ready for tomorrow.’ ”

Scott cited the Cavs’ injuries as a major factor against the Heat. He was without guards Daniel Gibson (neck infection) and Anthony Parker (lower back) and rookie forward Tristan Thompson (sprained left ankle). Gibson has missed the past five games, Parker four and Thompson three. Starting at shooting guard was second-year forward Alonzo Gee.

“A lot of it has to do with the injuries,” Scott said. “I’m not trying to make excuses. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They’re a very good basketball team. But as young as we are, you need those guys healthy for us to really, really compete. But energy-wise, I thought we played hard, and that’s all you can ask.”

Scott might have another to worry about. Forward Antawn Jamison, who led the Cavs with 25 points, 20 in the first half, said he tweaked his right Achilles two times in the first half. He made only 2-of-8 shots in the second half.

“Everything’s fine. It’s a little stiff,” Jamison said. “That’s what happens with old age. I’ll get it [massaged] tomorrow and get ready for the jumping jack.” He was referring to the Clippers’ Blake Griffin.

Scott was happy with 17 points from Gee, who led Palm Beach Dwyer High School to back-to-back Florida Class 5A titles in 2004 and ’05.

“We asked him to guard [Dwyane] Wade at times. The other half of the time he had to guard LeBron,” Scott said. “Overall on both ends of the floor, I thought he played pretty well.”

Asked about his defensive assignments as Wade led the Heat with 26 points and LeBron James contributed 24, Gee said, “They’re All-Stars, so it was tough. I was trying to do my best to contain them.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

So is his 3-point shooting percentage and defensive rebounds per game average.

On Sunday, his streak of 25 consecutive games with at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists was snapped. The only other player in NBA history to reach that triple in at least 25 in a row was Oscar Robertson, who did it three times.

But to hear LeBron James tell it, he’s not playing the best basketball of his life.

“Naw,” he said after practice Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena. “My senior year of high school was my best basketball ever.”

In case you’ve forgotten, that was 2002-03, when he led St. Vincent-St. Mary to its third state title in four years and the Irish captured the mythical national championship after playing a coast-to-coast schedule that included two nationally televised games.

That might be James’ gold standard, the stuff of which movies are (literally) made. But there could be a common thread in that special senior year and this season, when James appears headed for his third NBA Most Valuable Player award.

As a junior at St. V-M, James was knocked down, distraught over losing the state championship to Cincinnati Roger Bacon.

Last season, his first with the Miami Heat, James was ripped from start to finish. First for abandoning the Cavaliers with his ill-conceived “Decision,” then for choking in the clutch as the Heat fell to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.

“I beat myself up about that all the time. I got a lot of junk about that and I understand what this game is all about,” James said of the Finals failure. “That was the biggest stage and I didn’t produce for my teammates down the stretch. That hurt me more than anybody, to not be there for my teammates in a big moment. I learned from that and it’s made me a better player and a better person, as you see today.”

Love him or hate him, Northeast Ohioans might concede one thing about James: He comes back with a vengeance.

Going into tonight’s game against the Cavs in Miami, James has scored 30 or more points in 13 games for the Heat (18-6). Wednesday, he poured in a franchise-record 24 first-quarter points against the Milwaukee Bucks, an effort that tied the team mark for any quarter. He was named Eastern Conference player of the month for January as the Heat won a franchise-record 12 games.

“I think he’s the best player in basketball right now,” Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said.

“His numbers are outstanding if you simply look at it across the board, the efficiency and the all-around game, there really isn’t anybody that’s his peer in all the different dimensions. Even defensively, he’s a two-way player. He guards usually the best perimeter player and he has to guard four positions and sometimes five.”

Heat guard Dwyane Wade said James is having an “MVP-type season.” Wade is most amazed by James’ .552 field-goal percentage, fourth in the NBA going into Monday night. James’ previous best for a full season was .510 in 2010-11.

“It’s amazing,” Wade said. “This many games into the season, that’s not by accident. He’s taking high percentage shots, but you could tell he put a lot of his work into his game in the summertime.

“He’s a stat-stuffer. That 15-5-5, he walks into that. He’s the type of player that every year could be considered an MVP candidate because he’s going to make sure his team is good and he’s going to have the numbers.”

James said some of those numbers have to do with the fact that he’s more “free” and “happy” in Miami this season, partially because he’s not wearing the mantle of villain everywhere he goes. But it’s also a result of his work on his game, “mostly in the post and off the dribble.”

“My teammates are giving me an opportunity to do the things I know I’m capable of and I’m able to capitalize on it,” he said.

He’s also expanding into more of a leadership role with Spoelstra going to his “Big Five” in the fourth quarter of the previous two games. When James is joined by Wade, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, a lineup the Heat used last year in the playoffs, James becomes the point guard.

Asked if he goes into Robertson mode in that situation, James said: “I guess so. I like that.” But James said he isn’t concentrating on passing.

“I’m still myself. You go to the point guard, you just make sure everyone is in the right spot offensively,” he said. “You’ve got to get guys in the right space so they can benefit individually to help the team. I know I’m capable of doing that.”

James seemed appreciative of Spoelstra lauding him as the league’s best. But in James’ mind, he’s demanding the same effort from himself that he expected in high school.

“Any time fans leave the game, hopefully they say, ‘LeBron was the best player on the court tonight,’ ” he said. “I hold myself to that standard and I’m happy to be around other great players as well. It’s the drive and the passion I have and the goals that I have for myself individually.”

James hasn’t forgotten his critics, most recently those who say he can’t finish in the playoffs. Perhaps he knows he might never earn their praise. But as he raises his game to unprecedented heights, their silence might be satisfying.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour.

Nose tackle Dave Puzzuoli’s sack of Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway set up third-and-18 from the Cleveland 48 with 1:47 to go in the AFC Championship Game. The Broncos needed a touchdown to tie, and 79,915 delirious attendees dreamed of Pasadena, Calif. In fact, make that 79,916.

Then Elway finished off the shot to the heart known as “The Drive.”

I had covered the Super Bowl in 1981, when the Dayton Daily News sent me to Detroit with the Cincinnati Bengals. But I was not the Bengals’ beat writer, merely one of a contingent of at least five reporters.

Because the Bengals didn’t allow women in the locker room, I had followed their opponents in the playoffs. I received a menacing stare from San Diego Chargers running back Chuck Muncie after the “Freezer Bowl.” Because I worked for an afternoon newspaper and could stay until the last player departed, I found myself at the feet of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana after he was named MVP of Super Bowl XVI. I was close enough to touch Montana.

But it wasn’t the same as covering a team whose players and coaches know your name.

At least I guess it wasn’t. In my 36 years in journalism, the only real champions I’ve gotten to know came from Ohio State’s 2002 national title team.

Since I began covering the Browns in 1981, my winning percentage as an NFL beat writer/columnist has slipped to .391. That includes three seasons with the Bengals after Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore. It does not include the final seven games and one playoff contest in the Browns’ 1985 season or any of the 12-4 glory of 1986, save for the championship game, because the Dayton Daily News assigned me to an office position.

The breakdown of the road to .391 is dismal. It includes 95-113-1 with the Browns in 1981-95, 18-30 with the Bengals and 68-140 with the expansion Browns. I also added a 3-5 record with the Browns in playoff games and 2-1 with the Bengals. I missed the Browns’ only playoff appearance since 1999 because I was with the Buckeyes in Arizona. (Ironically, former OSU coach Jim Tressel once considered me a good luck charm.)

That’s a grand total of 186-289-1. I guess that makes me the Mistress of Mediocrity.

It also forces me to savor the memories of Super Bowls I attended but didn’t cover.

First on the list was Super Bowl XX in New Orleans with the Super Bowl Shuffle Bears. Julie, a friend from the Dayton Daily News, grew up in a Chicago suburb, and her uncle had a connection with NFL Properties. I can still hear my late mother asking why I would spend $75 on the ticket. (I still have it, tucked inside the game program.)

One night leading up to the game, I cornered Bob Costas in the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street and tried to persuade him to get me a job at NBC. To his credit, he tolerated me for a while.

We made a sign reading “Payton’s Place,” which was confiscated when we crossed the bridge from the Hyatt to the Superdome. After kickoff, Julie didn’t drink a beer, worried she might miss something important while in the restroom. When the New England Patriots took a 3-0 lead, it only heightened her resolve. She was right. As the Bears pulled away to a 46-10 victory, I probably did see more tile than turf.

The lowlight of the revelry came later, when we followed Jim Plunkett out of the Hyatt lobby hoping to get his autograph. When we reached the street, we realized that our rental car, which we hadn’t seen for days, had been towed that morning. The trip to the impound lot was a buzz kill, at least temporarily. After all, this was New Orleans.

I covered several Super Bowls for the Columbus Dispatch and attended a few more with friends in the business. The only other one when I sat in the stands — I think it was San Francisco’s 55-10 XXIV rout of Denver in New Orleans — was so boring, I became fascinated with a woman knitting nearby.

At XXXVI in New Orleans (any question why I have a Mardi Gras tree in my living room?), where New England defeated St. Louis 20-17 to start the Patriots’ run of three titles in four years, I waited after the game at the Sazerac Bar at the then-Fairmont hotel (now the Roosevelt). The Patriots were throwing a lavish party upstairs. Not long after my friend from the Rocky Mountain News arrived came Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who was meeting his old neighbors from Brecksville. I agonized for more than an hour over whether I should congratulate the former Browns coach, knowing the mere sight of me would draw a scowl. (During the “Bill Must Go” 1995 season, he spent an eternity ripping me over the phone for writing in the Dispatch that he lived in Brecksville.) A couple of Sazeracs later, I got up my nerve and approached him.

This time I was right, I did not draw a warm welcome. But after I congratulated Belichick for his masterful coaching job during the season and for winning one of the most exciting Super Bowls, he seemed to appreciate my gesture.

Perhaps those few minutes offered a window into what I really seek.

I’ve endured the 12-hour days of 29 NFL seasons (and half of a 30th) and the boring drives on Interstate 71 from Dayton and Columbus. I want the chance to share in the ultimate success with the players, coaches and comrades who have been part of the journey.

Since the Browns are one of four teams that haven’t reached the Super Bowl, the chances seem slim at the moment. I might be the Mistress of Mediocrity, but I’m still holding out hope. Even if it’s the men in the orange helmets facing third-and-18.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour.

Ellen Tressel said Thursday that she and her husband, Jim, the former Ohio State football coach, would start house-hunting in the next couple of months as he assumes a new position at the University of Akron on May 1.

But after a whirlwind day that included a 10 a.m. news conference at UA and a fund-raiser for the Berea Education Foundation, Tressel returned to his home in Upper Arlington just before midnight to find the kitchen table covered with maps of the Akron area with circles on them.

“You know her, golf courses were circled,” Tressel said. “She’s excited.”

Tressel said after he left UA, Ellen met a realtor and rode around the area “to get a geographic lay of the land.”

When Tressel takes over as vice president of strategic engagement, participating in programs that are part of UA president Luis Proenza’s new plan, “Vision 20/20: The New Gold Standard of University Performance,” Tressel said he expects his wife to “latch on to whatever the important causes are and be great for the community.”

Tressel discussed his new job and his part in the illegal benefits scandal that resulted in NCAA sanctions for the OSU football program and his Memorial Day resignation during a 25-minute telephone conversation Friday.

Q: How did Thursday’s activities make you feel? How satisfying was it after being off for so long?

A: Probably the thing that really struck me was when we had a chance to start the day with a whole group of student leaders. I really didn’t anticipate that a couple days ago. I thought we were going to do our press conference thing and continue to carve out exactly the various areas that we can go to work. Having a chance to field questions for about a half an hour from the students … the thing I love about this generation of students, they’re so curious, they want to know why or how we can get better, what can we add to our resume to do better. It was almost like I was back sitting with some of my young people who talked passionately about the dreams they have. You could just see the twinkle in their eyes. That started it off wonderfully.

It was great to see so many people I hadn’t seen in a while. When you go in a room and it’s full of people who love where they are and they’re ecstatic about the direction of where they are and they’re anxious to be good and some of the people who have given their lives like Dean Barker and Kenny MacDonald, he was the SID there for 30 years. So many of the people who were excited about what’s going on there.

The thing that struck me from the moment I started talking to Luis a couple months ago, really when I was intrigued about the direction the university was taking, I went back for an alumni event three or four years ago. I really had not been on campus for more than passing through. I saw what was going on, so I started paying a little closer attention.

When I had a chance to begin dialogue with him these last few months, I thought about the populations I’ve had a chance to work with of young people, being very diverse, a broad range of preparedness and tremendous desire to grow, it seemed like a perfect fit. As he was going out and preparing his Vision 20/20, I think he just took it to the board in January, it seemed like he was talking through what their plan was and all the different things that they wanted to impact.

All of the different areas, most especially the evolving program for student success, they talk about a pathway for every student, whether it’s a group in the honors program that may be a little further along or a huge group of people that make up the bulk of the student population who really have the desire to make a difference or if it’s a group that needs a little more preparation, I loved the fact he had a plan. He called it the pathway for success. That was always where ours was. [OSU quarterback] Craig Krenzel, he was in molecular genetics, he probably didn’t need as much attention, he was further along in his pathway. There was someone else who no one in the home had a college experience and they were kind of a pioneer. It seemed to line up really well with all the beliefs I have about educating all people and everyone having a dream. Of course there’s the realities if we’re going to do a good job preparing these young people, we have to make sure we can grow as a region so when they are prepared, there are opportunities for them out there. The thought of partnering with the community and businesses, if you read about the Akron model, their desire for economic impact, they’re very involved in the development side of things. As you try to prepare your students, you want to make sure they have the best laboratories, in athletics the best facilities and those kinds of things. I’ve been very involved in going out and trying to help people realize the needs we have from a fundraising and development standpoint.

It seemed like there were so many things, but the discussion always circled back to the evolving desire to do all we can for the students to succeed. That’s what it’s always been about and what really grabbed my attention.

Q: Was there a point after you left Ohio State where you thought you’d never be able to work at a university again?

A: Not really, no. I guess I’d never considered that and I really didn’t know, I thought when I left Ohio State, ‘Now I have an opportunity to see what else is out in this world.’ My dad coached all those years. From birth I was involved in that world. Yet I was around the academic world and the educational world more than any other. I didn’t have a skill or a trade. I wasn’t a business-oriented person. I read a lot and I thought a lot. Typically you end up coming back to what your passion is and my passion is working with young people and watching them grow and helping them grow. The way you do it is you develop relationships and encourage them.

Whether it’s at St. Anthony Elementary School where I started as a phys ed teacher while I was going to college or student teaching at Midpark or teaching classes at Akron while I was a grad student, the fun part was working with kids and watching them succeed and hearing back from them and how they used those lessons from our class or our team concept their whole life. Those are the championships. That’s what I’ve always thrived on.

Q: Do you feel like you’re still under a black cloud or people are less trusting of you now?

A: I don’t know. I don’t give that a whole bunch of thought, just like I never gave any thought if they thought I was under some wonderful gold cloud like I was some wonderful person because we won some games. Coach [Earle)] Bruce used to remind us that ‘Nothing’s as good as it seems and nothing’s as bad.’ I’ve never given much thought to the clouds people might assign to me. I’ve always given a lot of thought to ‘OK, here’s what we’ve worked on doing, here’s what we’ve done and here’s what we’ve got to do better and here’s where we can improve and here’s a lesson we’ve learned.’ I guess I’ve never concerned myself too much about which cloud because clouds come in and out fast.

Q: Do you have any specific regrets about the scandal? I would assume there are some things you wish you’d done differently.

A: You always have that feeling as you go through and results occur. The biggest, I don’t know if the word is regret or disappointment or whatever, it’s never comfortable, you’re always constantly stung with the disappointment that something ended up not being a positive thing and I was a part of it. That’s disappoints the people, we had a group of kids and coaches who were together and now we’re not together. We had disappointment and negative publicity, sanctions … of course you regret, you wish it weren’t so. But it was.What’s most important is you move on and you try to learn from your lessons. You don’t erase what wasn’t so wonderful. You don’t erase all the things that were wonderful. You just move on and try to be the best you can be as you go forward.

Q: You could think if you hadn’t signed the NCAA affidavit or if you had forwarded the email, things might have been different. That could eat you up inside. Does it?

A: Well, if I allow myself to go back and say ‘What if, what if, what if’ all the time I guess it would and could. But I’ve really always tried to work hard and not spend a lot of my time thinking about something I can’t do anything about at this moment. I can’t say that I spent a whole bunch of time thinking about that because I can’t do anything about it.

Q: You’ve been accused of covering this up because you wanted to win the national title. Can you say anything about what your motives were?

A: All the motives I’ve ever had in decisions I’ve made were with the kids in mind and doing what I thought was the right thing. Winning the national championship is so far out there and we work so hard day to day trying to get better in every way we can, that certainly wasn’t a motive.

Q: Have you talked to Terrelle Pryor recently?

A: Yeah, I’ve kept in good contact with him since he’s been in Oakland [with the Raiders in the NFL]. I haven’t talked with him in the last week, probably.

Q: I was curious if you still had a relationship.

A: Oh, heavens, yes, absolutely. I talked to a lot of guys you’d never heard of, I talk to guys like Terrelle Pryor or Maurice Clarett. All of my kids are my kids for life.

Q: Dan Herron and DeVier Posey have a great opportunity ahead of them in the NFL despite what happened.

A: Absolutely. I talked to all of them when they were down at the Senior Bowl and they were excited.

Q: Was it a couple months before you started to get back to your old self? Can you put a timetable on it? You had so much to think about and cope with.

A: I don’t know if you’re ever back to your old self until you’re full speed ahead on something. To me that’s what is so exciting about this opportunity. I’ll get to study this and the folks there can study what things I can get involved with first, second and third once I hit the ground running when I officially start.

Yesterday seemed a little bit like the old days. My first thing was with kids at 8 o’clock in the morning, my last event ended at 9:30 last night. I had a fundraiser for the Berea Education Foundation. It was one of those long, long days, thousands of people, an opportunity to share. That was a little bit more like what my former life was about. I thought at the end of it, ‘Oh, my gosh, this former life was hard. It was long.’

I don’t know if you’re back to your normal style of life until you’re really just consumed with what you do. That’s dangerous in some ways because all of a sudden you get so consumed in what you’re doing you forget about doing some of the other things that maybe you ought to do to take care of yourself. I’m looking forward to being consumed with doing all we can to make sure the students move towards success. Getting involved with that and everything that goes along with it, all the things we did when we were here, our No. 1 goal was student success. But also we wanted to help the community, we wanted to help fundraising, we wanted to help create partnerships for the university. But you keep that No. 1 focus, which is coming up with the best ways you can for your students to succeed.

Q: Do you have a start date?

A: It’s officially May 1, but I’m sure I’ll be working every day to crystallize what we need to do and to learn more and to become more engaged with the people I’ll be working with. It will take it time because there seems to be so many other things perhaps I could help with. We’ve got to make sure we take the time so when we really do roll up our sleeves we’re doing what’s most important first.

Q: On Thursday, there was a rumor that you might help raise money for a new basketball arena. Any truth to that?

A: I haven’t had that discussion with anyone. You know how it is when change occurs, everyone starts guessing, ‘I wonder what’s behind this or what they’re planning?’ The genesis and the problem that’s first and foremost is what can we do to help our students succeed? Everything else that goes along with it, once you become part of a team, you help in every way, that’s just what you do.

Q: Akron and the campus have changed so much. What are your impressions of the city and the campus?

A: What about the art museum? What’s happened there since I was there in the late ‘70s, it’s mind-boggling to me. One of the things that excites me the most, I want to come be around people like Luis who have a vision like that and who have succeeded like that. What they’ve done for the region and for the city is indescribable.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour.¶

“One of the referees was like, ‘I respect you guys because you guys don’t give up, you guys play hard,’ ” Jamison said.

“That’s one of our identities, we play hard for 48 minutes. No matter what the situation is or how much we’re down, we feel like we’re still in it. But we’re starting to realize we need to do this sooner than later.”

On a night when the Cavaliers could have become spectators watching the myriad talents of Magic center Dwight Howard, they rallied from a 21-point deficit one minute into the fourth quarter and cut the gap to five with less than two minutes remaining. But Howard made six of his final seven free throws when the Cavs resorted to a Hack-a-Dwight strategy, and the Magic hung on for a 102-94 victory before a sellout crowd of 18,933 at the Amway Center.

It was the Cavs’ seventh consecutive loss to the Magic.

Cavs coach Byron Scott could have lavished all the praise on Howard, who scored 19 points, pulled down 16 rebounds (15 defensive), blocked eight shots and made 9-of-16 from the line, all in the final 5:55.

But Scott thought the turning point came with 2:31 to play when Howard missed two free throws with the Magic leading 94-87 and Magic forward Ryan Anderson muscled through for the rebound. Fouled again, Howard made his second try. Alonzo Gee followed with a 3-pointer for the Cavs, but Scott thought the damage had been done.

“When Ryan Anderson got the offensive rebound, then we had to foul him again, he had just missed three in a row,” Scott said of Howard. “That seemed to get him back on a rhythm. I thought it was working pretty well, but that offensive rebound kind of killed it.”

A 47.4 percent free-throw shooter this season coming in, Howard converted 6-of-8 from the line after Anderson’s rebound. Last season, Howard made 59.6 percent, closer to his career mark of 59.2. But that didn’t change Scott’s mind about using the strategy on the six-time All-Star at any time.

“I think you can do it when you’re up as well late in the game because at the most he’s going to get two instead of getting a 3 from one of those guys or him getting an and-one,” Scott said. “I don’t think you necessarily have to be down until he proves he can hit 70 to 75 percent of those free throws on a consistent basis.”

Scott can file that plan away until March 23, when the Cavs return to Orlando. He now has a more pressing matter to attend to — his team’s penchant for falling behind and frantically trying to catch up in the fourth quarter.

In their previous two games against the Boston Celtics, the Cavs followed the same formula. They pulled off a one-point victory at Boston on Sunday, coming back from an 11-point deficit in the final 4› minutes. On Tuesday, they lost by three to the Celtics after trailing by 21 in the final minute of the third quarter.

“I don’t know what we have to do to try to bring that same rhythm we have in the fourth quarter to the first quarter, but we’ll figure that out,” Scott said.

This seemed like an opportunity for the Cavs (8-13) to pull off another heart-stopping finish. The Magic (14-9) had lost six of their previous nine. Earlier in the day, Magic forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis was suspended for two games after a verbal altercation at the morning shoot-around. Orlando was still without Jameer Nelson, inactive for the fourth consecutive game with concussion-like symptoms.

But guard Jason Richardson returned to the Magic lineup after being rested the previous two games and missing three more Jan. 16-18 with a bone bruise on his left knee. He contributed 19 points, 14 in the first half, on 7-of-12 shooting.

Gee contributed 20 points, 13 in the fourth quarter, to lead the Cavs. Rookie Kyrie Irving had 18 (making just 7-of-21 from the field), Jamison 16 (6-of-19) and Anderson Varejao had 12 points, 15 rebounds and three steals.

Scott had his Cavs on the alert for the seemingly slumping Magic and his worries were well founded.

“I don’t sympathize,” Scott said before the game. “We have enough problems of our own.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

ORLANDO, Fla.: Kyrie Irving’s fan club gained another huge supporter when Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy spent the day Thursday watching the Cavaliers’ rookie point guard.

Van Gundy said he’s usually reluctant to praise first-year players, but he couldn’t help himself with Irving, whom he said is cut from the same mold as the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and the L.A. Clippers’ Chris Paul.

“My God. My God,” Van Gundy said of Irving at the Magic’s Friday shootaround before the two teams met in the Amway Center. “Yesterday was my first day of sitting down and watching him. I see no reason he wouldn’t be at the same level as the Chris Pauls and the Derrick Roses and those guys.

“He’s got size, he’s quick, he takes the ball to the basket, he makes good decisions, he’s shooting over 40 percent from 3, he defends. Even now, he’s in the top seven or eight point guards in the league and that’s being conservative. He’s outstanding, outstanding. I was a little bit astounded.”

Van Gundy was most impressed with Irving’s 32-point night against New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams and Irving’s 23 and 21 points in back-to-back games against the Boston Celtics.

“Oh, my God, he goes and gets 32 against Deron Williams. He shredded Boston’s defense,” Van Gundy said of Irving, the first pick in the draft.

“He is very, very good and I don’t say that much about rookies. I’m a little bit conservative. You’ve got to show me. I spent a day yesterday of him showing me.”

Davis suspended

The Magic suspended forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis for two games after a verbal confrontation at practice, General Manager Otis Smith announced. Averaging 7.3 points and five rebounds in 22.3 minutes per game, Davis will also miss today’s game against the Indiana Pacers.

Super Bowl snafu

With a 7 p.m. game in Indianapolis the night before the Super Bowl, the Magic had planned to fly to Indiana in the morning and out afterward. But a few days ago, the league told the Magic they had to come the day before. They left Friday night and were forced to stay in Northern Kentucky, near the Cincinnati airport, more than 120 miles away.

Thompson starts

With guards Daniel Gibson (neck infection) and Anthony Parker (back) and forward Tristan Thompson (sprained ankle) staying home with injuries, rookie guard Mychel Thompson made his second consecutive start for the Cavs.

At the shootaround, Thompson seemed relatively calm about the assignment. He scored eight points and added four assists in his starting debut against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.

“I’m not trying to put too much pressure on myself. I’m always trying to perform when I can and help the team in a positive way,” Thompson said.

Asked if it was tough to keep his emotions in check against the Celtics, Thompson said: “I like to keep it cool, anyway. I felt like I was able to and didn’t get too emotional.”

Cavs coach Byron Scott said, “I thought he did pretty good the last game.”

Other stuff

Scott didn’t sound optimistic about the three injured players being available for tonight’s home game against the Dallas Mavericks. “I would guess all three won’t be around,” Scott said. … Scott said Gibson did not have a setback, but the Cavs worried that the infected area might swell on the plane and decided it was best he rested and continued taking antibiotics. … Magic guard Jason Richardson returned to the starting lineup and J.J. Redick was sent to the bench. Richardson missed three games Jan. 16-18 with a bone bruise on his left knee and was rested in the previous two.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

They spoke of values and what he’d taught them about the importance of education and community service and caring about others. The thought of Tressel no longer being able to help boys become men left them outraged.

When his new position at the University of Akron was announced Thursday, Tressel called the somewhat nebulous title of vice president of strategic engagement a second chance, an opportunity for him to bounce back from embarrassment and scandal. But it is really a chance for him to do what he does best once again.

Thursday at UA’s Honors College, Tressel, 59, spoke in somewhat wistful terms about leaving football. A five-year show-cause penalty slapped on him by the NCAA makes him virtually unemployable in college athletics.

“Out on a field with an oblong thing that bounces funny, that’s probably out of it there,” he said. “But I’ll be coaching every day. Coaching is serving, just like teaching is serving and administrating is serving. I’m an educator … so that coaching will never leave me.

“I didn’t get a chance to stand on the sideline this past fall, it wasn’t as if the world ended. The part I missed most wasn’t game day, it was working with the staff and the young people.”

He wouldn’t say he was distraught or depressed, but Tressel admitted that leaving OSU was emotional.

“You see young people out there who you’ve known since they were sophomores in high school,” he said. “Sometimes you have to get over things and you have to get excited about other things.

“I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity I had to be around the game of football and the young people who play it and cheer for it and everything else. But I’m also excited and grateful to have a chance to grow in a different way.”

There were few such nostalgic comments during a 40-minute press conference. Afterward, his wife, Ellen, said Tressel has recovered from the dark days surrounding his OSU ouster.

“I think he’s really happy,” Ellen Tressel said. “He’s perfect for this because he is a relationship-driven individual who really does care a lot about the students.

“Even when we were in Columbus, it was really more than about football. It was about the human being, the total student, the academic success, the philanthropic side, the community service. He’ll have an opportunity here to develop all of those areas and he’s great at it.”

Tressel did sound like he’d been shaken by what had happened at Ohio State and the career-killing penalty for his lying to the NCAA about his players receiving illegal benefits.

“Anytime adversity comes, you go to what you feel is your rock and my faith happens to be my rock, and family and friends,” he said. “You have to reflect on what’s important to you.

“God knows we’re not all perfect. He knows we all would like to do the best we possibly can, but I think he also recognizes intentions are very important and my intentions have always been to help young people and help communities and help institutions. That time of reflection in some ways was healthy. I wouldn’t say I wished for it. But it was healthy.”

Reportedly a candidate to coach the Indianapolis Colts, a team he served as a consultant and replay observer last season, Tressel sounded like his dalliance with the NFL was barely more than a toe in the water.

“I don’t really have any interest in coaching in the NFL,” he said. “My interest was to broaden myself outside of athletics.”

To broaden himself since June, he set a goal of reading 100 books, but because of the position with the Colts he said he’s only on No. 30. Perhaps the one that moved him most was Bounce: The Art of Turning Tough Times into Triumph, by Keith McFarland.

“It really speaks to you about what you can do to make sure you’re always on an upward trend,” he said.

Not working 18 hours a day, seven days a week for the first time in 37 years, he thought about answering his 10,000 e-mails, but found the enormity of the task too daunting. He did try to respond to every letter. He joked that Ellen wondered, “How many times can you cut the grass?”

Both seemed happy that he found another job in Ohio. They recently sold their Upper Arlington home, and Ellen Tressel said they hope to find a place here in the next couple of months. She said two of their children remain in Ohio, with one in New York City and another in Minnesota. Her parents split time between Youngstown and Florida. Tressel’s brother Dave still lives in Berea. Those ties were among the “150 reasons” Tressel said the UA position was so attractive.

As he was whisked out of the conference room, a security guard at his side, he seemed ready to return to being Jim Tressel. He recognized familiar faces. The adulation flooded over him again. He seemed energized and ready for the next phase of his life.

“The commitment I’ve made to any place I’ve gone is I was going to work every day like I was going to be there forever,” he said. “So my commitment to the University of Akron, I’m going to work like this is the last place I’ll ever work.

“I’m kind of old fashioned. I believe God has a plan for all of us. We have to listen closely, though.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

He was already scrambling, on the job just over three weeks and recruiting under the cloud of NCAA scandal. Then came the sanctions, which included a one-year bowl ban Meyer described as “a shock.”

“When I was hired we went out and recruited as hard as we can with the belief that we would not get a bowl ban,” Meyer said. “When that hit, it was damage control for two to three weeks. Everyone was taken aback. That was a little bit of a sucker punch for a little bit.”

In the wake of that blow, Meyer proved he could adapt, think fast on his feet and, above all, counter-punch.

On signing day Wednesday, Ohio State announced a 25-man class of 2012 that was ranked No. 3 by Rivals.com and Scout.com and No. 6 by ESPN. Meyer said the roster stands at 81, one below the NCAA’s Aug. 1 limit, with OSU losing three scholarships for three consecutive years.

“I keep hearing top five, top three, top two, that doesn’t mean a whole lot to me personally,” Meyer said of the class ranking. “At the end of the day, it’s what happens two to three years from now.”

Asked later how it felt to hit a home run, Meyer said, “I don’t want to give the opinion … It is not a home run. I signed a class [at Florida] one time that I heard a reporter say was the greatest class in history of high school football. Some aren’t there any more. You just don’t know.”

Sixteen of the 25 signees are Ohioans. Eight switched to Ohio State after orally committing elsewhere.

The number of those who flipped might have been smaller if Meyer had not come out in honey badger mode after the bowl ban was announced. He told his assistant coaches to attack the news aggressively as soon as they walked in a recruit’s front door.

“I instructed the staff, ‘Hit that as hard as you possibly can on the front end. Don’t wait for them to attack you with it because your competitors are all over that.’ We went at it extremely proactive,” Meyer said Wednesday during a news conference at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

Meyer said he hadn’t heard the bowl ban mentioned in the past two weeks. Tight ends/fullbacks coach Tim Hinton, who went to work on Jan. 2, said he never fielded a question about it from a coach or a recruit.

Defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Luke Fickell was the man who was forced to wear the scandal and the pending sanctions like a noose. He spent last season as Ohio State’s interim coach after Jim Tressel was asked to resign on Memorial Day.

Fickell embraced Meyer’s approach to get in front of the ugliness as Ohio State’s foes tried to continue the muckraking.

“Honesty is always going to win out in the long run,” Fickell said Wednesday. “[The ban] was a shock to all of us, to be honest. To be out front, to try to get hold of it as soon as possible, we’d already built that relationship. They had enough confidence that they knew who we were and they were really interested in seeing how honest you were with them and you didn’t try to sugar-coat it or beat around the bush. I think it paid off in the long run.

“For young guys, it’s a one-year thing. They’ve got a lot of things to come. As long as you stay strong and stand up, that one year is not what’s going to make you here at Ohio State.”

The ban will rob the 2012 class of valuable bowl practices, when youngsters have made their mark in the past.

That did not deter four defensive linemen considered five- or four-star recruits, which included Se’Von Pittman of Canton McKinley. Meyer called the four “the prize of the recruiting class. Guys you’d take anywhere in the country with you at any time.”

That did not deter five linebackers, including Jamal Marcus of Durham, N.C., whose YouTube highlight video was described by Meyer as “bordering on ridiculous as far as ability level.”

That did not deter two of the country’s best offensive tackles, Taylor Decker of Vandalia Butler and Kyle Dodson of Cleveland Heights. Decker was headed for Notre Dame until the two coaches recruiting him, Hinton and Ed Warriner, left the Irish for the Buckeyes. Dodson, whom Meyer called “the cherry on top,” had orally committed to Wisconsin.

“Where we are at offensive tackle, depth and sheer numbers, I’d almost trade him for any other player we signed,” Meyer said of Dodson. “Those two offensive tackles, three weeks ago it didn’t look like we were even in the running.”

Swooping in on players committed elsewhere won’t go over well with spurned coaches like Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema. But Meyer insisted that when he contacted such recruits, if they responded that they weren’t interested in Ohio State, he backed off. He said Decker and Decker’s high school coach called him.

As he launches his plan to capture a BCS title or two, Meyer didn’t seem worried about making friends. Eventually he and his Buckeyes will have to step on their throats, anyway.

During his first signing day press conference at Ohio State, Meyer didn’t raise his voice or pound the podium. He actually spoke somewhat dispassionately.

But there was no mistaking an underlying tone of aggression. From the day he learned of the bowl ban, Meyer decided to go for the jugular.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.

But Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay appears to be mulling that premise as we speak.

Former Colts coach Tony Dungy said on Dan Patrick’s syndicated radio show Monday morning that Irsay has “about six or seven candidates” to succeed the fired Jim Caldwell and that Dungy was hearing former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel could be Irsay’s choice.

“I think he’s got his person in mind,” Dungy said of Irsay, his boss for seven years. “I don’t know who it is, but I know how Jim operates. He gets a strong feel about somebody; it may be Jim Tressel, that’s what I’m hearing, I don’t know that. I think he’s got a man in mind and wants to get this done pretty quick.”

Reportedly Tressel has had two interviews with the Colts after serving as their replay consultant for the final 10 games last season. Tressel went to four NFL camps last summer in search of work and could have hit it off with Irsay in August. That was before Tressel was slapped with a show-cause penalty by the NCAA that makes it virtually impossible for him to work in big-time college football again.

In the past, I’ve been on the skeptics’ side, believing that professional players wouldn’t be able to relate to Tressel. But I’m starting to come around to the idea of Tressel coaching the Colts.

Perhaps it’s because I’m sickened by the old boys’ network of the NFL, which continually recycles coaches and lets an agent control their hiring like Bob LaMonte does with the Browns. Taking a chance on an outsider, even though college coaches rarely succeed in the NFL (Jimmy Johnson and Jim Harbaugh notwithstanding), would seem like a breath of fresh air.

Perhaps it’s because Tressel seems like a good choice to nurture Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, whom the Colts are likely to make the first overall pick. Tressel went to BCS championships with Craig Krenzel, Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and Todd Boeckman and was able to maximize their assets, although the late quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels greatly aided their growth.

Perhaps it’s because I don’t think NFL players will consider the scandal that prompted Tressel’s Memorial Day ouster in the same light as the NCAA. While he ultimately covered up and lied about the sale of memorabilia for money and tattoos by quarterback Terrelle Pryor and other stars because he wanted to win a national title, pros may see that as Tressel having his players’ backs.

In a December interview, former Buckeye running back Beanie Wells said he thought Tressel would do a “magnificent job” in the NFL, citing his great motivational skills and traits that make him “a players’ coach.”

Second chance?

Ultimately, Irsay must decide how he feels about Tressel’s transgressions.

“If I were Jim Irsay, you’d have to determine what you think about Jim Tressel as a person,” Dungy told Patrick. “As you get through that and say, ‘I believe in this guy and I know what happened at Ohio State and I think it was a mistake and he’s learned from it … I believe in second chances.’ That’s a decision Jim Irsay has to make and how that’s going to play in his community.”

Dungy’s last point could be a huge factor. The NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis and hiring Tressel could be a slap in the face to that organization. Readers of the Indianapolis Star are voicing their displeasure on the newspaper’s website. Wrote Debby from Palmyra, Va., “I thought Jim Irsay was a Christian. I do not understand … how he could hire a man with no morals.”

I don’t share Debby’s belief that Tressel has no morals. I think Tressel can learn from his mistakes.

If he gets the Colts job, he’ll have to ditch his “Winners Manual” and such chemistry-building practices as testing players on the hometowns of their teammates. He’ll have to open up his buttoned-up offense. He’ll have to say goodbye to his old OSU and Youngstown State cronies, like offensive coordinator Jim Bollman, and realize he needs a top-flight staff with NFL experience to succeed. Tressel will have to spice up his news conferences and appear more genuine — less smug and senatorial. The American flag at his flank will have to go.

Irsay is an outside-the-box owner with a little Mark Cuban in him. He could be the perfect owner to take a leap that seems to me more palatable by the day.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sports.abj.