After a very thorough search, Ohio State Athletic director Andy Geiger announced that Jim Tressel would be the new head coach of the Ohio State football team. Across Ohio, and in many other parts of the country, there was a collective pause, and maybe a "Hmmm..." But by the end of the day, at least in Ohio, everything was put to rest.

It just so happened that the Ohio State and Michigan basketball teams were squaring off that night. The game was nationally televised on ESPN and the cameras were rolling at halftime when Geiger came out on the court and introduced Tressel as the new football coach. The crowd gave him a nice, polite ovation.

Tressel took the microphone and said, "I'm humbled and honored to be your coach. I can assure you you'll be proud of our young men in the classroom, and proud of them in the community. But most of all, you'll be proud of our young men in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan."

The place errupted. It was like the Messiah had walked into the room. From that point on, it has been Woody Hayes all over again. I've never seen the state of Ohio as excited for the football season to begin as they are this year. It started with the momentum of that speech, and then Tressel finished strong with a tremendous recruiting effort.

Fans of OSU football are beginning to recognize that this is a pretty talented football team. Talent has never really been the question at Ohio State -- they've always had the talent. Their problem was that an individual, "me" attitude took over the team. Tressel's number one priority is to reinstate the team concept and family atmosphere. He needs to win again with class and integrity. The program had lost that in the past few years -- they became a trashy, punky program.

Tressel needs to insert discipline by letting his players know that the way they had been doing it won't work any more. They have to deal with everything as a group -- if they happen to have superstar individuals, that's great, but they have to do things as a team. The team attitude had slipped the past few years, and it was the demise of John Cooper.

The Buckeyes have enough talent to be competitive -- the key to their success this year will be the non-conference games. They should win their first two against Akron and SDSU handily. They go to UCLA for the third game of the year, and if they beat them, all this momentum will become something else. They would go steamrolling into the Big Ten conference schedule, 3-0, and ranked close to the Top Ten. They could really start believing in themselves. The UCLA game is pivotal. If they win, look out -- if they lose, it will be interesting to see how they rebound.

Columbus and the state of Ohio certainly expect their team to be competitive. But equally, if not more important, will be the way this team conducts themselves. Integrity, heart and character are the most important things to OSU fans, because they believe that if a team goes out onto a field with those things intact, everything else will take care of itself.

Buckeye fans will accept an 8-3 year if they know the team went out and gave their best effort. Losing and then doing the throat slashes, taking off their helmets and talking trash, not shaking hands with the other team -- be generally surly -- that is the stuff the fans won't tolerate. And they will hold the coach responsible. Tressel needs to get this team back to the basics of class and integrity at Ohio State. That is what the fans want, what they get excited about.

Of course, slipping in a win over Michigan once in a while wouldn't hurt.

ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit appears weekly at a campus near you on ESPN's College GameDay.