Sports Columns

Commentary by The Plain Dealer's sports columnists

Hear what Terry Pluto had to say as he answered your questions about the Cleveland sports scene.

Among the questions he answers:

- Thoughts on Peak's season-ending injury?

- Do you expect the pass rush to suffer in his absence?

- Browns injury update?

- Prediction for Sunday's game against Dallas?

- Thoughts on Cliff Lee's 20-win season?

- Shoppach trade bait this offseason?

- Cavs soon to make another signing?

+ much more

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COLUMBUS -- "You win with people," Woody Hayes said.

That message is so important it is splashed around the athletic center named for him.

He did not mean speedsters who made you do a double take with the stopwatch because -- how fast can a man run between the tackles?

To some extent, Hayes meant punishing linemen and durable running backs to join the linemen's convoy. But over the years, both before Hayes and after him, Ohio State has rarely been short on talent.

What Hayes really meant was people of good character.

Only one coach has won a national championship at Ohio State since Hayes, Berea's Jim Tressel. There are many strengths to him as a coach.

He coaches to the abilities of his personnel, not to a preset system. He was conservative when he had Craig Krenzel at quarterback in 2002. He gave Troy Smith the freedom to beat Michigan with his legs in 2004 when Smith was a heedless kid. By his Heisman Trophy season in 2006, Smith ran the spread as a pocket passer.

Tressel has that "Woody" gene, which insists that dealing out punishment will never go out of style in football. It will be interesting to see how he blends powerful running back Beanie Wells with veteran receivers this season and still works in dynamic freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor. I would not bet against him.

Jim Tressel is the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten

Tressel will make about $3.5 million annually, which is why it was also necessary to include 3 to 4 percent yearly increases.

Try getting by on that kind of money without a built-in cost of living bump.

A man could run short of hair gel halfway through the season.

Tressel deserves every penny just for spanking Michigan, but clearly this contract was an offshoot of his second-straight BCS title game appearance. A clause in Tressel's previous deal said the contract would be renegotiated in good faith if OSU reached the BCS championship game.

That clause is not included in his new deal. If anything, erasing the clause is to the benefit of OSU, which wouldn't be compelled to rework Tressel's deal again should this season end where the past two did.