Before Gov. Mike DeWine met with Jim Tressel on Feb. 1, he already made up his mind to offer the former football coach and retired Youngstown State University president the opportunity to be his lieutenant governor.

A little more than 48 hours after DeWine announced Monday that Tressel, a fellow Republican, would be his lieutenant governor nominee, the state House and Senate overwhelmingly confirmed him to the position.

It’s perhaps the fastest rise in Ohio’s political history.

Tressel is keeping things close to his sweater vest when it comes to a 2026 gubernatorial bid.

After I asked him during a joint interview with DeWine if he would run for governor, he first told a story about starting his coaching career at the University of Akron, a philosophy he has about life and about staying focused on the job he has.

I then asked, “So you wouldn’t rule it out?” meaning governor.

Both he and DeWine laughed with the governor commenting about my reporting skills.

Tressel said: “Yes, I wouldn’t rule that out.”

As for Tressel’s thoughts on life, the insights included: “You’re not going to progress if you’re not working right where you are. And you know what? You don’t know where you’re going to end up. But if you keep your mind and your rear end in the same place and I try to live my life that way. Someone this morning, when I shared that with them, said, ‘Well, that’s a good answer.’ I said, “No, that wasn’t an answer to your question. That was letting you know how I live.’ And I live every day trying to see what I can do today right where my feet are and my mind stays there as well.”

DeWine repeatedly praised Tressel, while also saying the two didn’t discuss the lieutenant governor’s potential political future.

DeWine said Tressel would “make an excellent governor. I wouldn’t put anybody in that position if I didn’t think they would make a good governor.”

He also said: “I wouldn’t put him in this position unless I thought he was the best person I could think of to serve as governor of the state of Ohio. So, yeah, I think he would be a very, very fine governor if something happened to me.”

DeWine has long admired Tressel and became close to him during the latter’s time as YSU president.

DeWine is confident that despite Tressel’s lack of political experience, “he would be a very great, excellent governor. He has the ability to do that.”

After Tressel retired from YSU and was subsequently succeeded by Bill Johnson, a Republican congressman with no academic experience, DeWine told me in January 2024: “Look, there were people who objected to Jim Tressel when he came in and the allegation was that he did not have the academic credentials. Jim Tressel was, I would say, a great president at Youngstown State. He understood that the future of the Mahoning Valley depended to a great extent on how well Youngstown State was doing.

In that interview, DeWine added that Tressel was “an excellent president even though people said he did not have the academic credentials. Anytime you get a president who does not fit the norm, and the norm would be kind of moving up through different ranks in the academic community, there are going to be people who object to that because they don’t think that person is going to be qualified.”

There are those who consider Tressel, 72, a caretaker as a lieutenant governor, and that is certainly possible.

But it also can be argued that when DeWine appointed Jon Husted, his former lieutenant governor, to an open U.S. Senate seat on Jan. 17, which ended Husted’s opportunity to run for governor next year, DeWine went looking for a new successor.

That he chose Tressel is rather shocking as he isn’t a politician.

But Tressel is arguably one of the top five most-recognizable people in Ohio. He shares DeWine’s political philosophy of measuring twice and cutting once and is not necessarily in step with the current Republican Party under President Donald Trump.

As we sit here today, Attorney General Dave Yost, who has spent the past six years in that job after eight years as state auditor, is the only Republican to announce for governor.

But it’s just a matter of days before billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who briefly ran for president and is aligned with Trump, makes his gubernatorial announcement. Two polls from those aligned with Ramaswamy show him with a huge lead over Yost.

Dr. Amy Acton, DeWine’s health director during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running next year as a Democrat for governor.

The millions and millions of dollars Ramaswamy will spend to get elected governor was enough to get Treasurer Robert Sprague to not only get out of the gubernatorial race, but to endorse Ramaswamy before he even announces. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is running next year for auditor, also has endorsed Ramaswamy.

If Tressel runs for governor, it’s an entirely different race.

Tressel can’t raise the amount of money Ramaswamy is willing to spend for governor. But if Tressel runs, he doesn’t have to as he will collect enough cash to compete and has the benefit of positive name identification.

As DeWine said: “He has the ability to use the bully pulpit of the office of lieutenant governor and reach people like no one else can because he’s Jim Tressel.”

Tressel is a traditional Republican, but if he got into the race, Trump may choose to back him over Ramaswamy – or stay out of the election. The president is a huge football fan and supports well-known Republicans running for higher office.

Also, plenty of Tressel admirers who are independents or Democrats could vote for him in the Republican primary.

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.