Alan Grant's book, "Return to Glory," brings up the issue of access vs. approach in sports books.

Grant, a writer for ESPN, has written a book on Tyrone Willingham's first season as Notre Dame's football coach. It's a good subject for a book, considering Notre Dame's vast national following and the intense interest in Willingham's first season with the Fighting Irish. Willingham led Notre Dame to a 10-3 season, helping some to forget that he was the first African-American head coach in the school's history. Willingham proved he could flat out coach, and made everyone a little more color blind in the process.

Willingham is something of a no-nonsense personality, and a valuable clue about the book is presented. Grant played for Willingham at Stanford (Willingham's head coaching position before coming to Notre Dame).

Now, let's think about this one. Would Grant spend a season following Willingham around if he didn't think he was a good coach and a better person? Nope. What's more, Willingham doesn't seem like the person who would want just anyone around him for that length of time; he doesn't need the distraction.

And that brings us to the access question. Grant was allowed to get a little closer to Willingham than the average reporter because of their prior relationship. The problem, of course, is that Grant wasn't going to write much that was critical of Willingham.

The portrait, then, comes off as rather one-sided. In fact, it often turns a little "gushy." It does get a little sweet in these pages, such as when Willingham is called "the ideal representative for their university" at the end of an anecdote. If Grant was going to write this sort of book, then maybe a few first-person stories about Willingham at Stanford might have added to the picture he paints here.

The "inside" look into the Notre Dame program has some good moments. It's nice to read some of the little incidents that took place during practices and in the coaches' meetings. Willingham even lets his guard down a little bit here and there, such as when he was watching video of his old school, Stanford, play.

Writing as someone who isn't overly interested in the Notre Dame program, the hero-worshiping tone of the book did cause it to lose points with me. There were a couple of other drawbacks as well.

The first couldn't be helped. Most of the drama of Notre Dame's season came early. The Irish lost three of their last five games, including the Gator Bowl, to fall out of the national championship hunt. This sucks a little of the drama out of the narrative. Notre Dame's story is still a good one, but Grant clearly didn't get a break in that sense.

Second, the writing style is a little odd. Some of the descriptions lapse into "street talk" every so often. Do you think the so-called "Touchdown Jesus" mural on the campus has ever been described as having a "certain bling-bling?" It's supposed to add a little relevancy, I guess, but it comes off as merely forced.

Notre Dame fans probably will breeze through this and enjoy this easy-to-read book a great deal, and Willingham couldn't have written a more flattering portrait of himself. The rest of us, though, are left wanting a little more.

Recommended: No