Before the trying to pretend he didn’t know anything about his players exchanging gear for tattoos and other services, Jim Tressel was consistently getting outstanding recruiting classes to Columbus. His recruiting coordinator for much of that time was John Peterson.
A former Ohio State offensive lineman. He had been climbing the coaching ranks as a OL Coach. First at Akron (1995-98), then at Miami (Ohio) under Terry Hoeppner until 2003. Then he was hired to be the O-line coach at Arizona. That changed quickly when his alma mater came calling in the spring. Tressel hired him to be the recruiting coordinator and TE Coach at OSU.
The tattoo scandal hurt his career arc, as he ended up knocked down to being the O-line coach at UAB for a couple of years before being rehired by Akron this past year.
Now he is coming to Pitt as the Offensive Line Coach. This photo of him just makes me unreasonably amused.
Another strong hire for Pat Narduzzi’s staff with the continuing emphasis on guys who just don’t coach but recruit.