Pablo Torre

What kind of local DJ are we talking about?

What's kind of the affect here for his adopted father?

So to be very clear in terms of the kind of family that Dylan finds, it is not a football family, right?

This is a football story, but not a football family at the beginning.

So the idea that, again, you know, Sherman Smith played eight seasons at running back for the Seahawks, was a second round pick in the 76 draft draft.

was the guy with Sir Mix-a-Lot's car, which is really like the first line in any biography we need to give.

But like, how does visiting Miami of Ohio even work?

Right.

And so positionally then, what's the job?

And presumably, he believes that the coaching staff believes in him.

And so Sherman Smith, the coach, his leadership style is best described as what?

All of which is to say that for Dillon McCullough, who grew up searching for a father figure and never got one, you can guess why this style of coaching felt like more than a cliche.

before Deland ever gets to take a single snap at Miami of Ohio.

The same thing that happened with Deland's biological father and Deland's adoptive radio DJ father proceeds to happen once again with his new mentor in college.

Sherman Smith leaves.

Because not long after recruiting Dylan McCullough to Miami of Ohio, Sherman himself got recruited by the University of Illinois, where he would become an assistant coach at a way bigger program in the Big Ten.

And so as Sherman Smith goes a different way, eventually making it all the way up to the coaching staff of Pete Carroll's Seattle Seahawks, his old team,

Dillon McCullough understands, he does, why his new mentor had to go.

And while the two of them will stay in touch from afar, Dillon finds himself again back on his own, fighting to push ahead by himself, one yard at a time.

And that is ultimately how it happened, by the way.