With the bowl season stretching out over a three-week span, the college season finished on different dates for different players. However, for the thirty-two players who would comprise the TEST Football Academy class of 2009, their new season would begin on January 5th. That didn’t give Kenny much time to rest up after finishing his college career in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day. Three days removed from that game, Kenny was settling into his new apartment in Martinsville. The first thing he noticed was the drastic change in climate.

“It’s real cold up here,” Kenny remarked. “It’s something you got to get used to. I have to go out and buy a bigger coat as soon as possible. It might be thirty degrees outside, but it feels like it’s damn near fifteen degrees out there!”

Hailing from the south, Frantz was also forced to adapt to a sudden drop in temperature.

“It’s not Florida with all the cold and snow, that’s for sure,” said Frantz. “But I’m really glad I came here. It gets me away from all the distractions and gets me to a place where I can focus on what I need to get done. It also lets me think a lot about life. Whereas if I were in a place where there was a lot of distractions and things of that nature, I wouldn’t be as focused. Putting myself in this position allows me to visualize what I need to get done.”

Frantz also took the opportunity to put in some early work prior to the New Year.

“My bowl game was on December 26th and, on the 27th, I was on a plane to Jersey,” said Frantz. “I didn’t want to waste any time. The clock is ticking.”

All of the sudden, college was nothing more than a memory for these players. It was now time for them to go out in the working world. But their workplace would consist of a field 120 yards in length and 53 1/3 yards wide. It was also a workplace where millions of spectators looked on, ready to point out the tiniest of mistakes. And the wrong amount of mistakes could quickly lead to the search for a new job.

“My friends who play in the league tell me the NFL is great, but it’s a business,” said Morgan. “You’re still part of a team, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same love like it was in college. It’s a new season in my life. College was five years, but it went by fast. Now, this is the first time I’m not part of a team. And I’m not employed. This is like a big job interview I’m getting ready for. It’s an interview for a great job right out of college. There are very few jobs in the world where you can make millions of dollars coming out of college and it’s playing a sport that you love. It’s a blessing just to have this interview.”

Football had carried these players to this point in their lives. Football had also paid for college and had the capability of lining their pockets with sizeable incomes. But football had taught them some other lessons along the way.

“Football taught me accountability,” said Frantz. “On the field, if you’re accountable for the A-gap, then you have to be in the A-gap. That translates into real life. Off the field, you’re accountable to write a paper, to pay a bill, to be at a meeting or to take care of your mother. You’ll get those things done because you know what it means to be accountable. For me, this game is not only becoming a job, but it has also helped me out in life.”

It may have been just a game, but Frantz couldn’t shake the notion that there was more than one parallel between football and real life.

“Football to me is what I’ve been through in life,” said Frantz. “There’s always going to be a time on the field when adversity comes at you and you just have to react. It’s similar to life. When adversity comes up, how are you going to react and what are you going to do? On the field, I never think that a situation will come up that I can’t handle. I don’t think anything is impossible to overcome.”

For Kenny, football also played a major part in the way he saw the world.

“This game is just like life,” said Kenny. “When things don’t go your way, you can’t dwell on it. The only thing you can do is get better. There is a lot of pressure on you in football just like there is in life. But I thrive under pressure. I always have and I always will. In big pressure situations, I want the ball in my hands. I don’t get rattled.”

Since the sixth grade, football had also been a big part of Morgan’s life. Yet, it didn’t define who he was as a person.

“Football is not who I am by any means,” said Morgan. “It’s what I do at times. I want to say I am a man of the Lord first. I want to say I am a great son, a great brother and a great fiancée. After that, I would say I am a great football player, but it’s not what defines me by any means. I play football because the Lord blessed me with the talent to play. It’s not what I chose to do, I think he chose it for me. That’s what I do and I enjoy it. But football could be done tomorrow. If I couldn’t play tomorrow, then I guess that’s what the Lord had planned for me. You have to try to live in the Lord’s will and if football’s not the way, I can’t be upset about it. If it’s not football, then I’ll find out what it is.”