horse, and that I should gut it out. We were trailing 17–0 at the time, and I went back in. At halftime, with my leg still hurting pretty badly, I tested it out for our trainer, who thought I should come out of the game. My dad had even come down from the stands to the locker room to ask how it was. I told him it really hurt and I could feel it click on every stride, but I was okay.
I stayed in, and late in the game I scored on a long run to tie the game. My mom said people in the stands were wondering why I wasn’t running any faster! In fact, when I scored on that run to tie the score at 24 with ten seconds left, I collided with their safety in the end zone, snapping his leg. Unfortunately, Menendez returned the kickoff to our thirty yard line and kicked a field goal to win the game. It’s probably a good thing that we avoided overtime, as I headed straight to the hospital where x-rays revealed I’d been playing with a complete break to my fibula.
So at that moment in my senior year against Columbia, I probably would have given Coach Howard whatever answer kept me in the game. I told him I didn’t know if it was broken, which was accurate. I didn’t. It hurt, but not as bad as when I’d hurt my leg during my sophomore year. It was a whole lot less painful to put my weight on it when I walked or ran. And so I went back in.
As it turned out, it was only a high ankle sprain. To give it a better opportunity for healing but still allow me to play, we cut down on the amount I ran for the next few games leading up to the playoffs. It required a lot of restraint on my part, but by that point our offense had clicked enough that we knew how to win against opponents without my running game. In fact, I didn’t even play in a couple of games at the end of the year.
All that ended when we got to the playoffs. We opened our run in the State 4A playoffs against Leesburg but I only played in five plays—four of them were passing touchdowns—before my day was over. We then had a battle with New Smyrna Beach High School, and, once again, we assumed that my ankle wasn’t healthy enough for me to run. We were right. Not to mention, I had a hard cast over my ankle that Mike Ryan, the head trainer of the Jacksonville Jaguars, made for me.
Late in the game it was still close; they were dropping nine guys into pass coverage, rushing only two, because they knew I couldn’t run.
Finally, I told Coach Howard to let me run, and he saved the moment for late in the fourth quarter, as we faced a fourth down with two yards to go. I ran. We scored. I ended up running one more time, and behind some great blocking, we scored then too. Most important, we survived to move on to the next round. That’s what playoffs are all about—in any sport—surviving to play again. Sometimes it seems like our days are a lot like that too—just getting through the stuff and challenges of the day, knowing that God is still there and allowing Him to use it all to prepare us for another day and the things He has planned for us to do tomorrow.
For that next round of the playoffs we traveled to Gainesville, and with my leg feeling better, we beat the Eastside High School Rams by a score of 57–21. I rushed for sixty-two yards, and with that running threat something they now had to defend against, our offense was freed up, allowing me to throw for over four hundred yards. The following week, we played Pensacola Pace. It was an intense game with a record crowd. In the crowd were many of the Alabama coaches, while Coach Meyer paced the sidelines, making comments to my two brothers. Near the end of the game, we used a play that Coach Howard had gotten from the University of Florida—“Bullets.” I threw a ninety-nine yard touchdown using their play. After winning that game, we found ourselves in the 4A State finals in the Miami Dolphins stadium, facing Armwood High School, a school located just east of Tampa.
Armwood had won the 4A State Championships the
I stayed in, and late in the game I scored on a long run to tie the game. My mom said people in the stands were wondering why I wasn’t running any faster! In fact, when I scored on that run to tie the score at 24 with ten seconds left, I collided with their safety in the end zone, snapping his leg. Unfortunately, Menendez returned the kickoff to our thirty yard line and kicked a field goal to win the game. It’s probably a good thing that we avoided overtime, as I headed straight to the hospital where x-rays revealed I’d been playing with a complete break to my fibula.
So at that moment in my senior year against Columbia, I probably would have given Coach Howard whatever answer kept me in the game. I told him I didn’t know if it was broken, which was accurate. I didn’t. It hurt, but not as bad as when I’d hurt my leg during my sophomore year. It was a whole lot less painful to put my weight on it when I walked or ran. And so I went back in.
As it turned out, it was only a high ankle sprain. To give it a better opportunity for healing but still allow me to play, we cut down on the amount I ran for the next few games leading up to the playoffs. It required a lot of restraint on my part, but by that point our offense had clicked enough that we knew how to win against opponents without my running game. In fact, I didn’t even play in a couple of games at the end of the year.
All that ended when we got to the playoffs. We opened our run in the State 4A playoffs against Leesburg but I only played in five plays—four of them were passing touchdowns—before my day was over. We then had a battle with New Smyrna Beach High School, and, once again, we assumed that my ankle wasn’t healthy enough for me to run. We were right. Not to mention, I had a hard cast over my ankle that Mike Ryan, the head trainer of the Jacksonville Jaguars, made for me.
Late in the game it was still close; they were dropping nine guys into pass coverage, rushing only two, because they knew I couldn’t run.
Finally, I told Coach Howard to let me run, and he saved the moment for late in the fourth quarter, as we faced a fourth down with two yards to go. I ran. We scored. I ended up running one more time, and behind some great blocking, we scored then too. Most important, we survived to move on to the next round. That’s what playoffs are all about—in any sport—surviving to play again. Sometimes it seems like our days are a lot like that too—just getting through the stuff and challenges of the day, knowing that God is still there and allowing Him to use it all to prepare us for another day and the things He has planned for us to do tomorrow.
For that next round of the playoffs we traveled to Gainesville, and with my leg feeling better, we beat the Eastside High School Rams by a score of 57–21. I rushed for sixty-two yards, and with that running threat something they now had to defend against, our offense was freed up, allowing me to throw for over four hundred yards. The following week, we played Pensacola Pace. It was an intense game with a record crowd. In the crowd were many of the Alabama coaches, while Coach Meyer paced the sidelines, making comments to my two brothers. Near the end of the game, we used a play that Coach Howard had gotten from the University of Florida—“Bullets.” I threw a ninety-nine yard touchdown using their play. After winning that game, we found ourselves in the 4A State finals in the Miami Dolphins stadium, facing Armwood High School, a school located just east of Tampa.
Armwood had won the 4A State Championships the
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