Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel says Brady Hoke boosts the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry

“Brady’s awesome,” Tressel said Wednesday morning at the Big Ten spring meetings. “Anything that’s good for the Ohio State-Michigan game I’m for.

“And Brady’s good for it.”

Hoke has been adamant since he arrived at Michigan that he won’t say “Ohio State,” instead preferring “Ohio” to describe the Wolverines’ biggest rival. And Hoke said he hasn’t ever worn red as a primary game-day color, even though he was the head coach at Ball State and San Diego State and both schools have red in their color scheme.

He was a defensive line coach at Michigan under former Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr from 1995-2001.

Tressel has been dominant during his tenure at Ohio State. He is 9-1 against Michigan in his career, although some of those victories may be taken away due to an ongoing NCAA investigation into the Buckeyes’ football program.