Governor Mike DeWine taps former OSU Buckeyes head coach as lieutenant governor

“He has the requisite skill sets. He has the criteria that I outlined. He knows Ohio,” DeWine said of the former OSU coach.

Jim Tressel, former coach of The Buckeyes for 9 years, and former president of Youngstown State University, has been nominated by Governor Mike DeWine to be the state’s next lieutenant governor. He served as the head coach of The Buckeyes between from 2001-2010. During his tenure, The Buckeyes won the 2002 national championship. 

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Governor DeWine announced in a news conference this morning that Tressel is “a natural leader” who will succeed Jon Husted after DeWine tapped Husted to fill the U.S. Senate seat left open by JD Vance’s election as vice president. 

“Jim has spent a great deal of time working with and leading young people, and he will be involved directly with education and workforce development during the remaining two years of my administration,” said Governor DeWine in the conference. “Jim Tressel knows Ohio, he shares Ohio’s values, and is a born leader.”

Tressel agreed to at least two years of public service. “I promised for the next 699 days to have a singleness of purpose and singleness of focus, which is to serve the needs that the governor outlines,” he told reporters at the conference.

The nomination must be approved by the Ohio Senate and Ohio House, and it has not been announced whether Tressel would run for governor in 2026. Due to term limits, DeWine must retire.

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