<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Freshman year at Auburn could have been the effective end of Ben Grubbs' football career.Like many small-town prep stars, he'd been the alpha dog on any field he'd ever played on - big enough to squash his strongest foes, quick enough to catch his swiftest.But when he reached college, everything changed. He couldn't learn Auburn's complicated defensive sets. He felt uncomfortable playing from a down position instead of on his feet as a linebacker. Good grades in the classroom didn't come as easily as they had at Elmore County High.One night, a despondent Grubbs called his high school coach, Travis Pearson. Pearson's wife handed him the phone with a worried look."I'm struggling," Grubbs said."You've got to stick with it," Pearson told him. Remember who Ben Grubbs is, he said. Remember the kid who never minded working for his success, who followed his brother through long weight-lifting sessions as early as junior high."Momma, it's not working out," Grubbs would say in daily calls home to tiny Eclectic, Ala. His mother, Deborah, who raised Ben and his brother while working as a mail processor 35 miles away, offered even simpler advice - pray. If he couldn't find answers by reading scripture, she added, he should go to Auburn's chaplain."It's hard to put into words because I wouldn't say I was looking for anything in particular," Grubbs said. "It's just the belief of knowing that when you put yourself in God's hands, things will work out. You may not know how exactly, but that's what faith is."Football salvation came in the form of a switch to offense. Grubbs first impressed coaches with his blocking at tight end. Then he wowed them by zooming past more experienced players to start at left guard for a 13-0 team as a redshirt sophomore. Grubbs earned his business degree in four years and in his fifth, he established himself as the consensus best guard prospect in the land. The Ravens selected him 29th overall in last weekend's NFL draft and believe that Grubbs, 6 feet 3 and 315 pounds, could start right away.</div>
The article is actually an extra page at least. I know it took up one entire page and some of the front page of The Sun today.Interesting read.
