COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel will become Ohio’s lieutenant governor in less than 24 hours. Statehouse reporter Natalie Fahmy went one-on-one with Tressel to learn more about the man who will soon be in the state’s second highest political post.

“I’ve had 48 years of a professional career. I’m fortunate that a lot of them I had a role where I had to be a part of the strategic direction and so forth and had to make sure that I got a lot of people’s input,” Tressel said.

Tressel was put into the political spotlight on Monday when Governor Mike DeWine nominated him for the job and was approved by a majority of lawmakers on Wednesday. “Oh, man, I don’t know if I have an elevator pitch because I didn’t even know I was the right person until the governor came and said, ‘I think you’re the right person,’” Tressel said.

WATCH: Full interview with lieutenant governor Jim Tressel

While Tressel was approved by a majority of lawmakers on Wednesday, others did not think he was vetted thoroughly enough.

“He is a heartbeat away from being a governor of a state with nearly 12 million people,” Representative Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said. “We don’t know where he stands on almost any issue and so the process was rushed for such an important position. I would’ve liked to see a more robust process; the public deserved a more robust process for vetting the second highest ranking position in the state.”

“I know I sat down with the leaders of the minority leaders, majority leaders, the caucuses, that kind of thing. We made my time available to them. You know, throughout those 48 hours,” Tressel said. “Their opinion of ‘it wasn’t enough’ is fair. And apparently there were enough others that thought they had vetted enough and maybe worked with me enough or whatever. But that’s the way it is in everything. And, you know, you have to go with the majority.”

Tressel is best known for his time as football coach, bringing Ohio State a national title and Youngstown State University several accolades. But during that time, he also fell into trouble with the NCAA. The NCAA accused him of failing to report misconduct by his players and lying to investigators.

“Fortunately, in my particular case, you can go back and look at the transcripts of everything that occurred,” he said. “And I was not interested necessarily at the time in ending my coaching career, but because of the situation, my career needed to end.”

Fahmy asked Tressel if Ohioans can trust him to blow the whistle on wrongdoings at the state level, if need be. “Oh, I think that’s a fair question. And like most things, when you look back and you think about where you could have done things better,” he said. “Now what I get is 696 days to prove to the Ohioans that I’m here for them. I want to gain their trust; I want to hear their needs. And I’m excited. And to answer your question, if I see wrongdoing, of course, that’s something that we would not allow to happen.”

Tressel said he expects to be focused on education and workforce development as lieutenant governor. After Tressel’s coaching career, he was president of Youngstown State University for a decade. Right now, Ohio lawmakers are working to fast track Senate Bill 1, which makes sweeping changes to higher education, like prohibiting any diversity, equity and inclusion practices on campuses, banning faculty strikes and prescribing certain coursework.

Tressel said that bill is a conversation he was first cued into five years ago. “I don’t know if they used the phrase sweeping changes, but they talked about here are some of the things that they would like to talk to us about that they might have some concern about,” he said. “And there was a lot of great conversation.”

Tressel said he was interested in some of the revisions that could be made to trustee boards to help schools run more efficiently as part of the bill. But said as fair as the details go, he still needs to dive into it all. “I know there were conversations on the DEI programing and so forth. I don’t know how all that ended up,” he said.

Tressel said that bill is just one thing he is going to get working on right away to make the most of his short time in this office. “I’m a listener. I don’t pretend to know everything. People ask me a little bit now, what about this bill and what about this part of the budget? And I think they’ve given me a stack of things to learn here, and I’ll get there,” he said.

As far as his future aspirations in politics? The 72-year-old said he is not sure whether he will be running for governor, or any other office, in two years.

“Natalie, you know, you’ve been about 400th person that’s asked that. And I appreciate it and you need to ask that. The governor and I have had no conversations about that,” he said. “So to answer your question, the only thing I think about is the 696 days I have to make a difference in the DeWine administration.”