Wisconsin will have an important Cornell College presence Saturday vs. Iowa

In the mid-1990s, a mathematics major and a biology major were roommates at Cornell College before going off into the world.

Today, Mike Tressel is the defensive coordinator of Wisconsin’s football team and Matt Mitchell is the outside linebackers/special teams coach of the Badgers. They are working together this week to plan for their home game against Iowa Saturday.

Cornell football was very good when Steve Miller coached there from 1987-2001, and never better than when Tressel and Mitchell played for Miller. They were on the Rams’ last Midwest Conference football champion, in 1995.

The two were student-athletes, to say the least.

“Mike was perhaps the smartest football player I ever coached,” Miller said, “and I’ve had some pretty smart ones.”

“I’m not exaggerating. They are the smartest individuals I know,” said Steve Huegel, a social studies teacher at Maquoketa Valley High and a coach of Maquoketa Valley junior high sports. He was a Cornell teammate and roommate of Tressel and Mitchell. They rented a house from Miller, in fact.

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“Those two could have done anything they wanted, doctor, lawyer,” said Steve DeVries, a National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Hall of Famer. He coached three-time Midwest Conference wrestling champ Tressel, and Mitchell was a student-trainer for him.

“The fact they chose the coaching profession and I didn’t wreck it for them makes me pretty proud,” DeVries said.

“They flat-out had work ethic and dependability. Even as 18-year-olds, their maturity was incredible. Mike Tressel used to come to my office before away meets and make sure we remembered everything we needed to take on the road.”

Tressel graduated first in his class at Cornell. He immediately went into the family business, which is coaching. His uncle, Jim Tressel, was head coach at Ohio State. His father, Dick Tressel, was head coach at Hamline University for over 20 years. Mike’s grandfather, Lee Tressel, won 154 games as coach of Baldwin-Wallace University.

Mitchell started coaching at Regina High in Iowa City, then launched his college coaching career at the school where Tressel already was a football assistant, Wartburg College. That enormously successful program was led by Rick Willis, another former Cornell player.

The pair’s paths then split. Mitchell went to Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan in 2004, and was head coach there from 2010 through last year, going 117-31. Tressel was a graduate assistant at Ohio State, an assistant at Cincinnati, and was on Michigan State’s staff from 2007 through 2020.

Tressel returned to Cincinnati when Luke Fickell became head coach there in 2021. Fickell took the Wisconsin head job after last season and brought Tressel with him. Tressel wooed Mitchell from Grand Valley State.

Thirty years ago, “I didn’t see them in our sports center,” Miller said. “Matt spent a lot of time in the science building. Mike, I don’t know where math majors live. Not in the athletic department, I guarantee you that.

“With his dad and uncle coaching, it wasn’t a stretch to predict Mike would one day. Matt loved football and loved to play. His love of the game might have given you some thought coaching is where he’d up someday. But I didn’t think either one, when they left Cornell, were heading straight to the coaching track.”

Mitchell and Tressel never cut ties with Cornell. They’re on a text chain with many of their former teammates. A group of those Rams held yearly reunions at Grand Valley State games. Some are going to Saturday’s game in Madison. Others are planning to attend the Nebraska-Wisconsin game next month.

The two are forcing their college coach and one of their Cornell buddies to divide their allegiances for a day.

“I’m Switzerland this Saturday,” Huegel said. “I’m a big Iowa fan. I haven’t worn this much red-and-white since I was a New Hampton Chickasaw.”

“I’m not very comfortable wearing red (crimson is a Coe College color),” said Miller, who will attend the game. “I do have my Wisconsin swag ready. But I may wear an Iowa T-shirt underneath my Wisconsin sweatshirt to keep the mojo going.”

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