I have been pounding my keyboard all day so it is a good time for a break. Today it was my old day job again ( I'm back a part timer for them) and tonight more work on the book.

It has been a little while since I recommended a Buckeye Book to you, but on the plane to the Rose Bowl I read a good one that has been flying I think a little under the radar. More Than A Coach - What It Means To Play For Coach, Mentor, And Friend Jim Tressel is David Lee Morgan's engaging look into where Coach came from, his values and what makes him tick as a coach, and as a person.

Morgan is a Youngstown State Graduate and sportswriter for the Akron Beacon Journal. David was around YSU during Coach Tressel's era there and in the book, David recounts how Coach Tressel changed his own life through the Winners Manual. David chronicles Coach Tressel's journey through his years at both YSU and OSU. Told through anecdotes and stories by Coach's former players, assistants and friends, the book is probably as close as you will ever come to an inside look at the man we affectionately call "The Vest." And what they have to say speaks volumes about the passion and integrity of Coach Tressel to do things the right way and prepare his players for "meaningful lives beyond football."

As I read this book, I thought back to one of the games when I stood next to the Buckeye bench on the sideline in Ohio Stadium. By chance, I met a man next to me from Youngstown who told me he was a childhood friend of Coach Tressel. I explained my book project and we had a nice long chat. In the course of the conversation, I was hoping to get him to open up and share a story about Coach Tressel I might use for the book. I was trying to gain his trust, and illustrate the point that I was about doing something to honor the Stadium and all the good it stood for, not shock value. So, I made the offhanded comment to him, "I'm not looking for any dirt."

I will never forget his reply.... "With Jim Tressel, there is no dirt."

That comes through loud and clear in More Than A Coach, an amazing story about a coach at a big time program that is a molder of men and able to do things the right way. There is a link to order it on the Akron-Beacon Journal Sports Page.