The bigger the game, the move conservative Jim became on offense.
I noticed after the first NC State game, he changed his approach to playing 1-A games. I was at that game and he really tried to win the game. I went out to Columbia for the Missouri game and Jim just went through the motions and seemed satisfied with just getting the check. That seem to be his attitude with playing the other 1-A teams during his career. Tressel definitely had his number.
I think Jim was a good coach, I wished he had been hired him as coach when we hired Snyder. He wanted to come back to Marshall, but Marshall made the wrong choice for the head coach.
Jim was good at finding talent. I used to keep spreadsheets of the players and there was a large turnover of first and second year players in his program. You could give partial scholarships in that era. Look at John Wade, he came to Marshall at about 6'4" and 250 pounds. He left being 6'6' and over 300 pounds. He had offers from JMU and a couple of other 1-AA schools. Jamie Wilson, another NFL player, and he another player who a couple of 1-AA offers out of high school. He had a couple of great RB during his time at MU.