I Beat the Odds_ From Homelessness, to the Blind Side, and Beyond - Michael Oher [61]
The next year, Steve Henderson started at Ole Miss, too. I had to laugh that I had followed him to Briarcrest and now he was following me to college. He played football his freshman year, and I was able to introduce him to all my friends on the team, which was something he had done our first year at Briarcrest. I liked that I was able to kind of look out for him and return the favor.
My sophomore year I was moved back to left tackle and started all twelve games. In our second week, after playing Missouri, I was named the Rebel Quarterback Club Trench Player of the Week and then won the award again later in the season after we played Alabama. I was named to the First Team All-SEC by the conference coaches. I also made the Chancellor's List (which is what the Dean's List for GPAs of 3.5 or above is called at Ole Miss) academically, which may have been my proudest moment of the entire year.
Junior year (the 2007 season) was a really good one for me. The offense racked up 534 yards, 229 rushing, against Mizzou. Against LSU, we totaled 466 yards, 201 rushing. My name was put forward as a possible winner of the Outland Trophy for the best interior lineman in the country, and I was named a Mid-Season All-American by The Sporting News. I didn't allow a single sack against Georgia or Northwestern, and I won the Rebel Quarterback Club Trench Award after the Florida, Arkansas, and LSU games. By the end of the season, I was named to the First Team All-SEC both by the coaches and the AP. CollegeFootball-News. com named me the #2 Offensive Lineman in the conference and #7 overall player in the conference. A number of other lists placed me as a top pick, too.
It was such an exciting time for me, but as the season wrapped up, I started getting a little impatient to go. Even though I had strong statistics that season, 2007 was not a good season overall for Ole Miss, and since the coach's job is always on the line when the team's record slips, I knew big changes were coming. Coach Ed Orgeron left in November and Houston Nutt was soon lined up to take over after resigning from the University of Arkansas. I respected Coach Nutt a lot, but I started to think that maybe I should ride the momentum of a good junior year and enter the draft.
On January 14, 2008, I announced my intentions to go pro and skip my senior year. I had waited so long and worked so hard to get to the pros, and now that I was eligible, I felt I should jump on the chance to enter the draft. But after I announced my decision, I started having second thoughts. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my life wasn't just about football. The opportunity to go pro in a sport is absolutely amazing, but a football player's career usually isn't that long. I mean, think about what our bodies go through each week--that can wear you out quickly. In fact, I think the average professional career in the NFL is under five years. I plan to be in the league a lot longer than that, but you never know what injuries might end your playing days in a heartbeat. I realized that it was shortsighted of me to think I could just forget about finishing my degree in order to go play football. What was I going to do when it was time for me to hang up my cleats for good?
I decided that the only thing for me to do was to finish my education before entering the draft, so that's what I did. I had come too far to quit so close to having everything I'd ever worked for--a pro career and an education. I took my name out of the ring and committed to returning for my senior year. And I'm so glad I stuck around. Not only did I make the Chancellor's List again, but I also had a great senior football season under Coach Nutt. I got First Team All-American, First Team All-SEC, the Shug Jordan Award for the Southeast Offensive Lineman of the Year, the Colonel Earl "Red" Blaik Leadership-Scholarship Award,