College football books you've read?

Even got it signed by the man himself.

He was bigger in person than I expected.

I always thought that was cool for Sherrill to do. I would pay attention every week hoping someone would run it all the way back on aggy. I don't recall it ever happened, maybe once? Darn the luck!
Easy to say, those 12thman kick coverage guys gave it all on the field.

It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium is a good read whether you're an LSU fan or not. It's mostly about how difficult it is for a player to eventually give up the game, back when players actually cared about the game.

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Sort of dated, but I enjoyed Meat Market (LINK ). It's about recruiting. The writer spent time following Ed Orgeron for a year when he was at Ole Miss.

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The coach that was referred to as "Snake" in that book was none other than Hugh Freeze.

Meat on the Hoof.

The Bear. Signed by Bear Bryant himself.

Decent book about two Texas Longhorn football fans:

Alabama Showdown: The Football Rivalry Between Alabama and Auburn. It was written in the 80's by a guy from up north who came down to experience not only the game but Southern life in general. I always enjoyed it, though it's been quite a while since I read it. In one of the paragraphs that always stuck with me the author described listening to the competing cheers of "Rooooooooll Tide!" and "Waaaaaar Eagle!" and wondering if that was what Confederate soldiers had sounded like when they came out of the woods at Fredericksburg.

Of course, in true Alabama fashion, the book has only two reviews on Amazon, both of them 1 star - one guy who complained that it doesn't talk enough about football, and an Auburn fan who complained that it is biased towards Alabama.


ETA: I also read a book when I was a kid called 100 Years of Football that had itself belonged to my dad when he was a kid back in the 60's. It was written and illustrated comic-book style. It was about the sport generally so it also talked about the NFL, but it leaned heavily towards the college game. It had a HUGE Midwest bias - Alabama's teams of the 20's and 30's got a single page, as I recall, as did Bud Wilkinson's career with Oklahoma, while individual Michigan and Notre Dame players got more than that. Still, it was a fun read for all that, especially for a kid in the pre-internet age who wanted to learn more about the history of the sport.

Fly Over Football was pretty good. Talked about the origins of various forms of offenses and the coaches that made them mainstream.

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"Bootleggers Boy". Barry Switzer, he had it rough growing up. At home when mother committed suicide with a 38, father murdered. Eventhough he's Arky and Swooner, lot of respect for him, cheating excluded.

What others has the board to suggest?

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"Bootlegger's Boy" is one of my favorites.

"Swing Your Sword" - Mike Leach

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Clay Travis wrote a book about Phil Fulmer and Tennessee that I keep meaning to start. LINK /

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On Rocky Top. Travis is a tool, but that book is pretty good.