Page 4 - Top Prospect

in small groups to start making adjustments. Alex had
caught five first-half passes. He’d been the whole offense
and the main reason the Gators were trailing by a single
point, not more.
Right before the Gators left the locker room, Alex

spoke to the team.
“Hear me, my brothers. This game of football’s my
life. It’s where I’m going. It’s who I am. I know for lots
of you it’s the same,” Alex said, holding his helmet in
one hand and his mouthpiece in the other. “There’s no
second-best in me. The true talent’s on our sideline, not
theirs. I’m going to push twice as hard to get this done.
Not for tonight, but for this entire season. I’ll prove that
to you all, every practice, every game. All I want to

know is, who’s with me?”
Carter was the first one to shout, “Gators!”
Then a hundred other voices, including mine,
shouted it too.
I was ready to put my head down and run through a
brick wall after hearing Alex’s speech. And I didn’t even
have a helmet.

* * *

Appalachian State didn’t disappear in the second half.
They kept fighting hard and making plays. But the
Gators’ size and strength started to wear the Mountain-
eers down in the fourth quarter.

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