So much has already been written about the College Football Playoffs this afternoon (Clemson vs. Oklahoma) and tonight (Alabama vs. Michigan State).
Really, there is seemingly not much more to say, so as such you’re probably tired of reading about it, especially since the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes are not involved this time.
Even with that, though, there are still some noteworthy, and interesting, Browns, local and Ohio connections of which you may – or may not – be aware.
Michigan State head coach Mark “Don’t Call Me Mike” Dantonio is a proud native of Zanesville, Ohio. He was the defensive coordinator on Ohio State’s 2002 national championship team and started his coaching career as an assistant at Ohio University in 1980 before moving on to his first stint at OSU as a graduate assistant in 1983-84, the defensive backs coach at Akron in 1985, the defensive coordinator at Youngstown State (1986-90), the defensive coordinator with the Buckeyes from 2001-03 and the head coach at Cincinnati from 2004-06 before going on to Michigan State in 2007 and, at the introductory press conference, flashing his Ohio State national championship ring to let everyone know that great things like that had also happened at MSU before, and could again.
MSU co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Mike Tressel is the nephew of Berea (Ohio) High School and Baldwin-Wallace University (Berea) product Jim Tressel. He was graduate assistant linebackers coach with his uncle and Dantonio at Ohio State from (2002-03) and was the linebackers/special teams coach for Dantonio at Cincinnati (2004-06) before going to MSU with Dantonio. His father, Richard, was a Buckeyes assistant for 11 seasons.
Mark Snyder, who joined the Spartans this season as linebackers/special teams coach, is a native of South Point, Ohio, located along the Ohio River in Lawrence County. He was an assistant coach at first Youngstown State (1991-96) and then Ohio State (2001-04).
MSU co-offensive coordinator Jim Bollman is from Ashtabula, Ohio and played at Ohio University. He coached at Miami of Ohio from 1977-82, Youngstown State (1986-90) and Ohio State (2001-11).
Michigan State’s Dave Warner, co-offensive coordinator/running backs coach, was an assistant at Kent State (1984-87) and Cincinnati (2006).
MSU offensive line coach Mark Staten played and coached (2001) at Miami of Ohio and coached at Ohio State (2002-03) and Cincinnati (2004-06).
Bob Stoops, in his 17th season as the head coach at Oklahoma, is a native of Youngstown who played at Cardinal Mooney High School for his father, Ron Sr. His older brother, Ron Jr., is an assistant coach at Youngstown State.
Stoops’ younger brother, Mike, another Youngstown native and Cardinal Mooney product, is defensive coordinator of the Sooners.
OU inside linebackers coach Tim Kish is from the Columbus suburb of Westerville and played at Otterbein.
Nick Saban, now in his eighth season as head coach at Alabama, played as a defensive back at Kent State for head coach Don James, a Massillon native who is the brother of Cleveland Browns Legend Tommy James, a defensive back on the club’s first teams. Saban also coached at Kent from 1972-76 and Ohio State (1980-81) before serving as a head coach in 1990 at Toledo.
He was on Bill Belichick’s staff in Cleveland as defensive coordinator from 1991-94, with his last team setting a club record for fewest points allowed (204) in a 16-game season.
Mel Tucker, in his first year as Alabama’s assistant head coach/secondary coach, is a native of Cleveland who was an assistant coach for the Browns under Romeo Crennel from 2005-08, serving as defensive coordinator in his final season. He was an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio in 1999 and at Ohio State (2001-04).
The color analyst on the Alabama Football Radio Network since 2009 is Phil Savage, who did two stints with the Browns, the first as a defensive assistant from 1991-93 and then a scout through 1995 under Belichick, and the second as general manager from 2005-08.
The most interesting thing to watch tonight will be MSU defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett, a fourth-round draft choice of the Browns in 1990 out of Michigan who played safety and as a special teamer in his three years (1990-92) with the team, plotting strategy against Saban, his former coordinator in Cleveland. After leaving the Browns, Barnett played four more years in the NFL with the New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings.
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SAVAGING SAVAGE: It’s interesting that Savage is doing Alabama games on the radio. Nothing involved with the Crimson Tide football program happens unless Saban approves it, and he was pretty tough on Savage when they worked together in Cleveland. In his job as a defensive assistant, Savage, a young guy at the time who was still green behind the ears, reported directly to Saban. Saban is known to be tough on his assistants, and he lived up to that reputation concerning Savage.
But times and things change, and they must have done so in their relationship, because 15 years after they parted ways in Cleveland, Savage and Saban were reunited. And more than that, six years later, they’re still together.
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SABAN SAYS: When Saban was coaching with the Browns, media members could eat lunch during training camp with the players and coaches in the cafeteria at Browns Headquarters in Berea. And they could do so free of charge, to boot. Now, if a media member gets within 50 yards of the cafeteria, the police are called and the person is pinned t o the floor, handcuffed and hauled away to jail to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But that’s another story for another time.
Anyway, I was in the cafeteria eating with two other writers during camp in 1994 when Saban came out of nowhere and, with his tray in hand, sat down with us. We made small talk for a while, and then we asked Saban about the situation involving another Cleveland Browns Legend, defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry.
Perry and Belichick, two stubborn guys, butted heads on a lot of things, and as such the coach waived Perry shortly after that 1994 season. The discord that led to that had already started in camp, and Perry, upset with whatever issue, walked out of camp for 44 hours in protest. It was big news. This was right after that had happened, and Perry had returned.
Saban had to have trusted us, because he spoke frankly on the matter, which was something no one with the Browns did back then – and got away with it at least. But he and Belichick were then, and still are, great friends, so Saban probably felt comfortable in doing that, although he looked around to make sure that no one else was within earshot and spoke quietly.
“It’s like with your kids,” he said. “They get mad about something and pout and storm out of the house. When they finally come back, you spank them on the butt and tell them not to do it again, and then everybody moves on.”
Saban was also asked about something that had happened less than a year earlier, and still is discussed today – that is, Belichick’s shocking release of iconic Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar on Nov. 8, 1993 (I’ll never forget that date).
“Look, he said, “Bernie wasn’t the same player that he used to be. Everybody knew that. Now, could we have handled it better? Yes. But it was still the right thing to do.”
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TITLE TALK: As mentioned, Saban’s Crimson Tide will try to move within a victory of winning the national championship when they square off against Michigan State. Saban, of course, was head coach of the Spartans State from 1995-99 immediately after leaving the Browns.
In the next-to-last game of the 1998 season, he got his signature moment at MSU when the Spartans, who were just a run-of-the-mill team in the Big Ten, came into Columbus and, with a near-perfect second half, stunned the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes 28-24, in effect costing them the national championship. It was Ohio State’s only loss all season.
With the expansion Browns being held in trust after the original franchise bolted to Baltimore following the 1995 season, I went back to covering Ohio State football and basketball for three years for The Medina County Gazette and its sister publication, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. After the game, I eschewed the Ohio State press conference with jibber-jabber head coach John Cooper and went to the Michigan State presser, making sure to sit in the middle of the front row, right in front of the chair for Saban. He and I had gotten along well during his time in Cleveland, and when he sat down and saw a friendly face within an arm’s reach, he got a big smile on his face.
The Browns had stunned the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys 19-14 late in 1994 – on the road, no less — because of a great defensive coaching job by Saban. It propelled the Browns to an 11-5 record and a wild-card berth, marking their only winning record and trip to the preseason in the Belichick era.
I made sure to ask the first question – one that might not have been pertinent to MSU media members, but certainly was a good topic for those from Northeast Ohio.
“Was this win today bigger than that one over the Cowboys in 1994?” I posed to Saban.
He thought for a moment and then replied, “I don’t know. They’re both pretty special.”
Saban would no doubt view it as “pretty special” if his current squad, seeded second in the four-team playoffs and coming off a disappointing loss to the Buckeyes in last year’s semifinals, goes on and wins the title. I know I’ll be rooting for Saban, who, in my opinion, gets a bad rap. When you get to know him, as many of us did during his time in Cleveland all those years ago, he’s not the irascible guy that many people think he is.
