Coach called for his players to huddle up and then introduced Jamar, even though many already knew him. Some of the seniors on the team had been redshirt freshmen back when he was still playing for the Longhorns.

When had this happened? When had he become the sage, older player young running backs turned to for advice?

Silas was somewhere up in heaven laughing his ass off right now.

Jamar stood before the players and quietly prayed that he could give them the pep talk he knew Coach was hoping for.

“I know how you guys are feeling right now,” he started. “I know what it’s like to eat, sleep, and breathe football, to put in so much time and effort on the practice field, only to walk away with another game in the L column.”

He walked over to Carson Wallace, the backup running back who’d fumbled twice in last Saturday’s game.

“My freshman year as a Longhorn, I had four games with back-to-back fumbles. I thought my season was done. But that guy”—he pointed to Coach Green—“he refused to give up on me, and he wouldn’t let me give up on myself either. Put those fumbles out of your head. They’re in the past. Your focus is on the next game, and then the next, and then the next.”

He returned his attention to the entire group again.

“Losing is an unfortunate part of the game, guys. It doesn’t matter if it’s high school, college, or the pros, you’re going to lose and it’s going to suck. I know how that feels,” he reiterated. “But I also know how it feels to fight your way out of a losing stretch. And that’s all this is. You know how to win. And you’re going to win. You just have to believe in your ability to do it.”

Their expressions changed in real time, their heads lifting higher, their chests sticking out just a bit more. It gave him the confidence to keep going.

As he digested the look on each player’s face, Jamar saw so much of himself. He’d experienced how an inspiring talk, delivered at just the right moment, could give him the boost he needed to make it through the next game.

He tried not to scrutinize the current starting running back, but it was hard not to pay particular attention to the guy who was only two hundred yards away from passing him up in the team’s record books. The irony wasn’t lost on Jamar that he’d been asked to speak words of encouragement to someone he would likely have to battle for a job in the not-so-distant future.

He ended his speech with an invitation for any of the guys to call him if they ever needed help, then accepted the handshake and pat on the shoulder from his old coach.