It's like you don't even know your own children.
"Is what it is, Coach. Ain't what it ain't."
Who are these people?
"Yeah, I was wondering why you be running so much of that Ace Tight bullshit last game. It's like you come to a gunfight bringing a chain."
All you have is that one moment. Guzewski, the cutback, the sideline, the score. The silence. Who called that game?
"Straight up it was you, Coach. Everybody be looking at you like what are you doing? Everybody like, Oh Oh, Oh No, Here We Go."
September in Tupelo. You bring as much water as you can. Never enough.
"Well, you got the state right. I guess that's something. What went down in Tupelo?"
You exit off of 178 onto 145. The back side of the storm. Things are still falling from the sky.
"Uhhh when was this?"
There's nothing left but wreckage. La Quinta, Hilton, Days Inn.
"Was that a long time ago?"
He was going to meet you at the Outback Steakhouse. His young bride was with him. You were going to meet her for the first time. Your daughter-in-law.
"Damn, Coach. Can somebody help me out here? It's like he don't even see me no more."
The GPS says it's here. It's right here. There's nothing here.
"The roster is right here, Coach. This your boys. Right here."
Your boys.
"They need a plan. They need a game plan. You already showed you can straight up smash against the SEC champs. Now show you got guns."
Nexton Jones. His mother named him Next to nothing, because that's what they had and she wanted him to remember it.
"Yeah. Just look at that. You got a 5 year quarterback. You got the guns. We want the roses."
Sweet child of mine.
"We're on the same flow. I'll go coach them up. We'll be ready."
Sam Riley. Signed his letter of intent in 2016. Dropped the first ball thrown his way in 2019. You didn't like that. You let him know it. But with every game his hands came to life. He didn't drop another pass the rest of the season. Player of the game in the conference championship loss to Ole Miss last year.
Mike Perry. You drove through the Shreveport fires and the Beaumont floods to see this guy play at Houston Worthing.