Coach Daniels played running back in college at Slippery Rock, and has spent his life coaching football. He tutored both Dan Marino and Troy Smith in college, and also spent time in the NFL with the Bills, Jets, and Browns, where he coached wide receivers and quarterbacks. He has been part of the OSU coaching staff since Jim Tressel arrived in Columbus and hired him away from Cincinnati in 2001.
If you aren't familiar with his story several years ago he went into the hospital after having a heart attack. While there they discovered a football sized tumor that had begun in his kidney and had spread into his liver. He then underwent a new treatment at OSU called biotherapy, which was effective and shrunk the tumor by 1/3. They then performed surgery and removed some of the tumor. Several months ago, however, the doctors determined that they had done all they could.
Here is an article from the Columbus Dispatch from 2008 about Coach Daniel's battle.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2008/11/16/OSU_Daniels.ART_ART_11-16-08_A1_4KBT0QS.html
The Daniels are good friends of mine and they are a fantastic family. I went to high school with his kids and spent lots of time at their house, including every Wednesday night for Young Life. Joe was a strong Christian who has now gone home to be with his Father in heaven.
I'm sure that I'll talk with the family in the coming days and pass along any new information that I get.
Please keep his wife Kathy and children Matt and Kaitlin, daughter-in-law Jenny, and grandson Joey as they deal with this loss.
From left to right: Matt with wife Jenny, Kaitlin, Joey, Kathy, and Joe.
