Gene Smith remembers the conversation quite fondly. How can he not? It happened with one of the best football coaches in Ohio State history.
Jim Tressel recalls it, too, because he was the one who brought it up to Ohio State's Vice President and Director of Athletics.
How exactly was Tressel's tenure supposed to end in Columbus?
"(Smith) would always say, 'Let's extend your contract.' I said, 'OK, but don't let me stay a day longer than our program is going like that,'" Tressel said Friday evening, shooting his hand upward to the ceiling of the Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel.