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I go back to Francis Schmidt. Francis Schmidt was the Ohio State coach who hired me.

I wound up through a wild set of circumstances getting into coaching. I went in and volunteered with Don Coryell, who was a big part of my past, great coach. A lot of people say he was one of the greatest coaches ever. He was very good in high school, college and pro. Another guy on that staff was named John Madden.

My high school coach was Ray O'Conner. He has coached a lot of players that have signed professional contracts, and many of those have gone on to play in the major leagues.

I feel like I've been very blessed to have some great mentors through the years, starting with Don James, who was my college coach, who really inspired me to want to be a coach, which is not something that I really had in mind.

John Wooden made a name as a coach but also a life as a mentor.

I think I'm telling the truth. I sat by Ray Perkins at the Hall of Fame dinner in New York, and at that time he didn't know he was our coach and I didn't either.

Bobby Cox had the biggest influence in my career and probably the second- or third-biggest influence in my life.

Teaching players during practices was what coaching was all about to me.