had to block against guys that were, as he put it, twice his size. One of the linebackers on the 7th grade team completely pancaked him, then walked over him and taunted him. It crushed his spirit. He started playing timid and even faked (or at least exaggerated) an injury so he wouldn't have to practice against the 7th graders again. After this went on for a while, I sat him down and we had a long talk about it. I mentioned that he's never going to be the biggest and strongest out there and if he continues playing football (which he absolutely loves), he's always going to have to go and block against guys bigger than him. It isn't fair to his team for him to quit when he's needed. It's his choice: football isn't for everyone and there's no shame switching to a different sport. It really woke him up and the last couple weeks of his season he worked hard and changed his mindset. I was really proud of him, even though he didn't get a lot of playing time.

This morning, before I dropped him off at school, I showed him a clip of that last BYU drive. I showed him how our RBs got beat time and time again by BYU's defense. They just got out played. But they didn't quit, they didn't give up, and Ropati was able to get them into field goal range that enabled them to win the game. I could just see understanding and realization come into his eyes.

Love this team and their fight. What a special season.