Undefeated

Let's see here.

Starting right guard, shot. No longer in school.

Starting linebacker, shot, no longer in school.

Two players fighting right in front of the coach

when he's trying to make things work out.

Starting center, arrested for shooting somebody in the face with a BB gun.

Most coaches, that would be pretty much a career's worth of crap to deal with.

I think that sums up the last two weeks for me.

And you know what?

I know damn good and well what I sign up for every year.

And I keep coming back because I love this program

and I feel very responsible to make sure

that you guys have a football season that you can be proud of.

And I will kill myself to make that happen.

This is our season. I don't care what happens.

Back in the day when the Firestone plant

was up and working,

the North Memphis area used to be a booming place.

There was industry and there were people in homes.

Since the plant closed, that neighborhood just went to heck.

I mean, the people moved out, the jobs were gone.

As a result, the football program fell off the map.

When I came, the winning scores were very, um...

I don't remember winning.

For almost ten to 14 years,

we never won a football game.

We'd play ten games and we ended up 0-10.

Oh, you know when you see Manassas on the schedule,

"Oh, we gonna beat them. We don't even gotta practice hard."

Bookie, come say hello to me!

Are you actually here to work out today?

- I am! - I am so proud of you.

What's up? A freshman.

15 years old.

If it hadn't been for Coach Courtney,

I don't know where we would be right now.

He's what got the kids so excited

about the opportunities and the possibilities.

He's the one that's got them headed in that direction.

The foundation has got to be a solid platform

that you can stand on and speak to these kids and say,

"This is the way you build yourself.

If you build yourself this way and handle yourself this way

and have character, you get to play football."

And winning will take care of itself

because young men of character and discipline and commitment

end up winning in life. And they end up winning in football.

Well, when you flip it,

and the foundation of what you're doing is football,

and then you hope all that other stuff follows...

Well, then you think football builds character.

Which it does not. Football reveals character.

All right, shut up and listen up.

Where's Big Kenneth?

Has anybody seen Big Kenneth?

Huh? All right, listen up.

Everybody imagine the state of Tennessee on a map.

OK?

Way over in the corner, you got Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Toward the middle you got Nashville. And you come on down here.

Everybody outside of Memphis,

do you know what they say the biggest city in Mississippi is?

Memphis.

The rest of the state doesn't even claim us

when it comes to football.

We're viewed by people

outside of the West Tennessee area who've played us...

Undisciplined, not very well coached,

running around acting a fool before the game,

about everything other than football,

and about ourselves rather than about the team.

You have a responsibility this year, guys,

just like the teams that came before you.

You have a responsibility to play hard.

You have a responsibility to take care of yourself in the classroom.

And you have a responsibility to show Memphis

what Manassas Football is about.

As you all know, we got work to do today.

Lots of learning. Everybody's head right.

When I got there, there was 17 kids for a varsity football program.

First team, offensive line right here.

Joaquin and Robert on defense. Let's go. Let's move!

There are good athletes in the neighborhood,

but they weren't gonna play for Manassas.

And do you blame them?

Not only was Manassas one of the worst programs in the city,

it was arguably one of the worst programs in the entire state.

Let's go, hustle up. Tre, you're a safety.

Sills, tight end. Receiver, down there. Hit it!

Hot Pocket, do you know the freakin' routes?

Go, go, go!

Our first year there, we won four games.

And people were opening their eyes, saying,

you know, "Manassas isn't the worst team in the city any more.

I mean, they're beating a few people."

There it is,

- that's what we want. -

The next year, there's this group of 8th graders...

That's O.C. And Julius and T.O. And JP and all these guys,

that all showed up to the weight room one day,

and said, "We see y'all getting better. We hear what you got going on."

And I said, "Guys, all of you, as a group, come to Manassas.

Just stay here and let's build this thing."

Hike!

They were talking it up in the neighborhood.

"We're going to Manassas. We're going to make Manassas good."

And in their first year, they're 1-9.

And got hammered.

There you go. Good.

Instead of laying down, they continued to try

and they continued to believe and they continued to work.

You better win that ball, Will!

And now this is their senior year.

And my biggest concern is that it doesn't end up

as great as it should be for them.

And I don't mean they have to win the state championship to be successful.

The one thing that Manassas has never done is win a playoff game.

- - Everybody to Coach Coleman. Let's go!

Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!

Guys, you're playing a football game Friday.

We got work to do. We just gotta keep getting better.

I like their chances this year, I do.

And it starts with that offensive line and with Mr. Brown.

Come on, O.C. Come on, let's go! Come on, O. C!

We get just hordes of film coming to our office,

and to be totally honest

most of the film we get gets thrown in a pile, never to be seen again.

So this link came across my desk,

and the first play, you knew O.C. Was special.

From Manassas High School, number 77, O.C. Brown!

- -

That's what I'm talking about, O.C.!

O.C. Was one of those kids from Humes Junior High, in that class.

Hike!

Mike noticed in O.C., he said, "Bill, this kid is...

...for his speed and size, he's just a big athlete.

He's really good."

We were thinking this kid can play some college football somewhere.

But no one had ever heard of him. Nobody.

And so I pieced together this grainy YouTube clip...

It had thousands of hits in the first 48 hours,

and that's where it went nuts.

Just to see him sometimes turn the corner

and nobody'd be there and he's running with the back,

you think, "Oh, my gosh, this is scary.

That's a big dude running that fast."

Got some mail.

Auburn, Arkansas, North Carolina State,

Louisville, Mississippi State, Southern Miss.

Nah, these ones I got in one day, I think.

O.C. Is a perfect picture of North Memphis.

Raised by his grandmother in a very small house.

Mother's deceased, father's kind of in and out.

If he can have a good senior year and get a Division 1 scholarship,

you know, the sky's the limit.

I don't want to say football is everything to me, but...

This is a very good friend of mine.

And when you find out who he is and what he's about and where he comes from,

you'll find out anybody can do anything.

So, just to speak to you for a few minutes

is my buddy Aaron Hayden.

- Thanks, Coach. -

I always ask two questions when I speak,

and I'm going to raise my hand and answer the questions myself.

Raise your hand, anybody in here

that has a parent that graduated from college,

in this room, raise your hand.

You'll notice I put my hand down.

Anybody raise your hand if you have two parents that graduated from college.

Mom and dad graduated from college.

Is there anybody in this room who has two parents?

I got another question.

Raise your hand if you've had a close relative,

brother, uncle, cousin, anybody, that has served time in jail.

I have my hand up as well, and that's...

...that's the thing, that when I talk to kids,

from where we come from,

is that you got to think outside your circumstances.

I didn't have a dad in the home.

Loved my mama to death, but she had a new man, you know, every month.

Some dude was sleeping on the couch. And I walked by him as I went to school.

And I could have went to school or I could have stayed at home.

It really wasn't like anybody forced me to do anything.

But it's not where you start.

It's what... what is it? It's where you finish.

Thanks for having me. And I appreciate being here, man.

Release, Julius!

Stop!

Stop, back, back, back, back, back.

Get on the ball. This is so easy, y'all.

You block. When you hear the thud, you get in your lanes.

And you got to hustle into your lanes.

But you don't go anywhere until you hear the thud.

Do you hear me?

When you look around this program, not a lot of equipment.

They pretty much have to do with what they have.

They have a nice school here at Manassas, a brand-new school,

but unfortunately they got that built

and didn't get the rest of the school built, which is the athletic part of it.

All right, let's go.