It was Northwestern week and all the evidence in that office pointed to the fact Coach Tressel was committed to preparation – no matter who the opponent.

“Let me get this out of your way,” Tressel said as he picked up his notebooks. “Will this be alright here?”

“Yeah, whatever is convenient for you,” I shot back.

“Well, this will work, I’ll let you two get after it. I’ll be down the hall if you need me.”

So there I was, sitting in Tressel’s office with Mrs. Tressel. I tossed open my little notepad and got my list of ready-made questions out. I had no idea how I was going to do this. I had asked my mom for some suggestions, and the best she could come up with was, “I wonder what she likes to read.”

Thanks mom.

I proceeded the best I could; I tried to write down the answers she gave while still listening to her enough to know what question to ask next. It’s actually harder than you might think, especially when you don’t have a voice recorder -- a problem I fixed not long after.

Rookie mistake.

I bounced all over the place asking her what she did for fun, her relationship with the team and what she liked to read (it was worth a shot).

Forty-five minutes after I had arrived, I was sitting back in my truck. I drove home and began to piece together the article. I constructed what I thought to be a winner and went to bed.

That was almost a year ago and, as I look at my notes and the article today, I can’t help but laugh. Every question I managed to ask seemed to lend itself to an entirely different angle.

You have to start somewhere though, I guess, and I made mine on crisp, autumn night in the Woody Hayes Athletic Facility.

I’m no stranger to pressure, and I’ve had my fair share of sports memories. I’ve played in all-star games, was a captain on my high school football team the only year we ever made the Ohio state playoffs, was named the first scout player of the week in college and was a freshman at OSU in 2002 when the Bucks won the title, but none of that compares to those 45-minutes with Coach and Mrs. Tressel.

I’ve since gotten over the anxiety of talking to people I watch on TV or read about in the paper, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who showed as much class or treated a kid with as much respect as they did that night.

I was just some student who needed help in a class and they both made it happen.

Woody Hayes always said, you win with people, and I would have to say that that has never been more true at Ohio State than it is today.
My last question to Mrs. Tressel was what made her and the coach so down-to-earth. Why would they afford the time to some kid in the midst of a football season already deep into conference play?

“Our faith,” she answered.

That’s the story I should have done, I told myself. What I wouldn’t give for a do-over.