OSU column: Not many off days for Big Ten coaches

When Lloyd Carr retired as Michigan's football coach last year, he talked about the time demands of being a college football coach.

"I know what this job entails and I know what it takes and it was the right time," Carr said.

There is no doubt coaching at a top-tier school like those in the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and PAC-10 is a job that can become all-consuming, or pretty close to it.

So, if you're Jim Tressel or Joe Paterno or some of their fellow coaches, is there ever a day that they don't think about football?

And if they can push it out of their mind for a few hours or a few days, what do they do without game films to analyze.

I put those questions to some of the Big Ten football coaches last summer at the conference's annual summer meetings in Chicago.

Here are their answers:

Ohio State's Tressel said, "I like to do it (get away from football) in short bursts. I have a hard time going more than three days.

"But I really enjoy getting a long weekend and not taking my briefcase with me, or not taking anything in it other than a few cigars. It's a consuming thing when you feel the responsibility of 100-some kids and nine assistant coaches and four strength coaches," he said.

Penn State's Paterno says he likes to get away to the New Jersey shore for two weeks every summer, but found himself driving back to campus three times to deal with football-related matters last summer.

Iowa's Kirk Ferentz says he doubts football is ever too far from any coach's mind.

"I don't know if anybody in coaching doesn't think about football every day because we're all sick individuals," Ferentz said, with a laugh.

"I hear some coaches say they never take a vacation. I take a vacation every year, I take a week in July. And I've got a great deck on the back of my house. Even if it's just moments, I've got a place to retreat."

Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, the youngest Big Ten coach at age 33, with two pre-school children, takes vacations that include slightly different things than most head coaches at his level.

Though he said there are "zero" days a year he doesn't think about football, he and his family did get out of Evanston for 12 days last summer.

"But around trips to the beach, going for a run, times in the pool, flipping burgers and brats on the grill, watching Curious George and reading The Little Mermaid, I was doing football, be it recruiting, something with the staff or watching our first four opponents," Fitzgerald said.

When Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema was asked if there was ever a day he didn't think about football, he said, "I don't know if I want that day." And when he was asked the strangest place he'd ever thought about football, he said, "You don't want to know."

"I took my parents on a seven-day cruise this summer, but there are so many things that remind you of football. Maybe you're thinking about a recruit. Maybe you're thinking, ‘Is this guy eating right?' " he said.

Bielema cited Carr as an authority on how to balance the demands of the job with the need to get away, at least for a little while.

"When Lloyd Carr retired, I left a message for him and we played phone tag for a couple months. When he finally got me, he said he had some advice for me. The first thing he said was that every year you need to get away. You should get away from Madison or Ann Arbor or whatever the city is where you live for a while," he said.