When Jim Tressel was the head coach of the Ohio State football program, he made sure to build a fence around the state of Ohio when it came to recruiting. He wanted to make sure that the Ohio State Buckeyes were landing the best recruits in the state every single year.
When Beanie Wells was coming out of high school, he was the best running back prospect in the country. The five-star recruit from Akron, Ohio, was one of Tressel's highest priorities on the recruiting trail. Still, that didn't mean that it was a shoo-in that Wells would pick Ohio State.
Wells ended up picking the Buckeyes and was fantastic. By the time his career was over, he had played in two national championships and ended up being a first-round pick. Recently, Tressel told a hilarious recruiting story on how he was able to nab Wells.
Jim Tressel tells story of how the Ohio State football program landed Beanie Wells
While appearing on The Script Podcast, Tressel detailed how he was able to land co-host Beanie Wells as a high school recruit 20 years ago.
.@LtGovJimTressel shares his @BeanieWells26 recruiting story 🤣🤣@CJ1two @DaveHolmesTV pic.twitter.com/3hmkTXPTWI
— THE SCRIPT (@TheScriptOSU) October 17, 2025
"Beanie committed to us, but he said, 'Coach, I've never traveled that much. I need to go to USC. I need to go to Texas. I need to go, I don't know, to Arizona State.' I said ' Well, Beanie, if you just promise me that you're coming, that's fine. I trust you.' After each visit, I thought 'Man, I hope my trust was well-founded."
Wells clearly wanted to travel around the country and see everything that other programs had to offer, even if he wanted to come to Columbus to play. It's good to see that Tressel trusted his relationship with Wells enough to allow him to do that without getting angry that he was taking additional visits.
It ended up working out for the best. Wells ended up being a massive part of Ohio State's success under Tressel, and Tressel got one of the best recruits they've ever had. Part of Tressel's reputation is that he trusted his players and his recruits a lot. That's why they loved playing for him.