Great article

I love how God sends you messages just when you need them. Yesterday I was kindof pouting around because Ken had recruits in town and I really needed his help with the kids. I started to get frustrated when I realized he has not had one day off since Aug. 7. Yes, that's correct. NOT ONE DAY OFF IN 117 DAYS.

Well, today this article was in the Dallas Morning News. It is about Ken's quarterback and his story. When I read it I knew God was telling me that this is what it is all about. We are in football to change mens lives...and winning is good too. :) So as I write this, Ken is with his recruits, but I know he is making an impact on their lives in so many ways. Here's the article:

Billy Don Malone doesn't introduce himself with the three-pronged version of his name anymore, so when he hears it, he can tell how long you've known him. If you'd seen him playing football in Paris, under the lip of Oklahoma, you'd have sworn Billy Don was headed for the big time. Everybody wanted him coming out of high school, and why not? He passed for 3,500 yards and 33 touchdowns his last two seasons. A big,strong country kid, the next Billy Joe Tolliver, he committed to Texas in the fall of 2001. But so did a quarterback named Vince Young. Malone suddenly developed second thoughts.

He considered several options before settling on Tulane, where his brother, Gary, a wide receiver, would accompany him. But Malone never played a down for the Green Wave. After a redshirt season behind J.P. Losman, Malone, thinking he had acid reflux, underwent a stress test that turned up a kink in an artery. Doctors told him he not only couldn't play anymore, he shouldn't even jog.

Devastated, Malone left New Orleans and went back home to Paris. Hung out on a dairy farm. Cut hay and fixed fences and de-horned cows. And he figured he'd never play football again. "If I saw anybody playing, I'd say, 'Look at a bunch of kids playing with a ball,' " he said. "I was just trying to make fun of it, because I thought I couldn't do it anymore."

He got married and had a kid. Enrolled at Texas A&M-Commerce. Just getting on with his life when a former coach called from West Texas. Told him to get his tail out to Abilene Christian, an NCAA Division II school. "All right," Malone said.

He looked a little rusty his first season, which can happen after laying out of football for four years. But he sure warmed up. Last year, he passed for more yards than any ACU quarterback since Clint Longley and led the Wildcats to their first postseason appearance in 30 years. This season -- which just ended in the second round with an improbable 76-73 triple-overtime loss to Chadron State in Nebraska -- he trashed the record books.

Under third-year coach Chris Thomsen and offensive coordinator Ken Collums, the Wildcats set or tied 82 NCAA, Lone Star Conference and ACU records, including the score of their last game. ACU also became the first school in NCAA history to field a 3,500-yard passer, 2,000-yard rusher and a pair of 1,000-yard receivers, all in one season. Get this: All four will be back next season, including Malone, who, at 6-3, 235 pounds, turns 25 in April.

The blip on his stress test at Tulane? He's had two more tests since, and neither revealed any problems. But he's not bitter about what happened. Had he stayed at Tulane, he figures he wouldn't be who he is now.

"When Coach Collums called me about playing here, I was talking about going to the NFL," Malone said, "and he told me the most important thing was relationships." He had no idea what his new coach was talking about. But he found out it wasn't just football. "These guys changed me," he said. "They're the best guys I've ever been around in my life."

Billy Malone, as they know him in Abilene, might be different from what the locals remember back in Paris. He may or may not be headed for the big time anymore. Either way, nothing matters to him as much as how he'll get there. In his case, it was the long road. "This," he said, "is way better."