Sarah Spain

Adele wanted to make sure he went somewhere that if he got hurt or if it didn't work out, he still got an education.

Well, he's going to be a running back.

And so in the weeks before he arrives, they tell him, we're actually going to put you at flanker.

He's going to get a lot of playing time.

And he was in practice one day.

They're getting ready for their last kind of scrimmage.

And so we went to meet with Sherman Smith and said, I'd rather take a redshirt year and really work to be a running back than be a flanker.

So we did that.

He actually stepped away from playing time to get to do the thing he wanted to do most, which meant being on the scout team, being a redshirt, and having to sit and watch for a whole season.

Just a real players coach, an inspiring guy with really high standards, extremely high standards.

He would say to every team at the beginning of the season, none of you asked me to be a father, but I'm going to treat you like you're my sons.

He cared as much about how do I make these players full human beings that are going to be successful in life as he did about the football side.

And so even though Dillon is mostly working with assistants because the starters are the ones who get most of the time with the running backs coach and the head coach, he still goes after practice and spends a lot of time just connecting with Sherman and really asking him for advice.

And he doesn't want to go at first, but the rest of the coaching staff says, like, this is a great opportunity.

You got to go.

Well, everyone was convinced he was getting drafted.

This was a guy whose numbers were up there with the top running back prospects.

And he was sitting with his agent on draft night watching, expecting to be called, you know, maybe third or fourth round.

The Cincinnati Bengals call him early in the draft, and they're like, hey, man, you excited?

He's like, yeah.