By the Book, Kent State Coach Will Try to Beat One James Team With Another

Sean Lewis has studied the approach of the legendary Husky football leader.

Sean Lewis is a fun guy, a young, vibrant football coach for Kent State, in fact the youngest in the nation when he hired on at 32 with the Golden Flashes in 2018.

He's been fairly successful, too, taking a struggling Mid-American Conference program from 2-10 to 7-6, 3-1 and 7-7 with a pair of bowl appearances, including the school's first bowl victory.

Lewis also knows intimately well who came before him at the Ohio school, with 12 coaches separating them, of a legendary man who set a gold standard for Kent State football success just shy of 50 years ago. 

Don James.

The legendary Husky coach, deceased since 2013, spent four seasons at Kent State before replacing Jim Owens as the UW coach in 1975 and becoming one of the college game's winningest coaches out West.

As he spoke with media members on a virtual call on Monday, setting up Saturday night's Kent State-Washington game at Husky Stadium, Lewis sat in front of a backdrop of various Golden Flashes football images. 

Asked if there was any imagery of James in the football facilities, Lewis spun around in his office chair, pulled a book off his desk and held it up with a big smile: "Thursday Speeches, Lessons in Life, Leadership and Football from Coach Don James."

Former UW linebacker Pete Tormey, brother of long-time Husky assistant coach Chris Tormey and a Gonzaga University professor in leadership studies, collected the speeches and put the book together in 2014 as a tribute to his coach..

Lewis said he came across this book that offers an in-depth look of James at his motivational best when he was dealing with the pandemic in 2020 and he swears by it as a coaching tool. 

"This is a book that sits on my desk each and every single day. ... I think I've got more notes and more highlights in this book than all of the leadership or coaching books that I've ever read," the Kent State coach said. 

Sean Lewis has this Don James book in his office / Kent State

Similar to current UW coach Kalen DeBoer, Lewis has made it a point to embrace Kent State's football past. He's spoken at length with Gary Pinkel, the former Golden Flashes tight end, James offensive coordinator at UW and the highly successful head coach for fellow MAC member Toledo and the SEC's Missouri, as well as others who can tell him about James. 

"Shoot, when I'm lost and struggling, and I need some good knowledge and good wisdom, it can be found in this book," Lewis said. "It's one I often look to and refer to because the kids may change, and the environment may change, but the things we're all struggling with, the things these kids are struggling with, they need to be loved, they need to be cared for, and Coach James has some real wisdom in that." 

On Saturday, Lewis will find himself coaching one Don James team against another. The book most assuredly doesn't have a chapter that explains how to do that, but it should help him in his quest.

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