If you hail from Morgan County, chances are you were rooting for Chris Humphries, the Auburn special teams player from Brewer High School.
Now, Chris Humphries is a national champion.
It has been a long, amazing trip for the player who came out of Brewer High School with just one scholarship offer.
Nobody would have blamed Humphries for taking the scholarship to a small college in Tennessee. The opportunity to play college football at the next level is something so many players dream about, but never get the opportunity.
This opportunity almost passed Humphries by when Auburn coaches came on a recruiting trip to Morgan County and spent the entire time in Decatur watching Rolando McClain.
McClain signed with the University of Alabama and Humphries was lost in the shuffle.
It wouldn’t be the only time Humphries would get overlooked by Auburn.
He failed to make the team as a walk-on his first year at Auburn, a decision that seemingly ended Humphries’ career.
But there is something that you probably need to know about Humphries: he remains firmly planted in a Christian life that has helped him overcome setbacks on his road,
Humphries decided not to abandon from football when the walk-on deal fell through. He just kept battling, even when there were some who wanted to tell him to go home.
Instead, Humphries just went back to work. He worked in the gym to get bigger, stronger and faster. He even focused on the drills that would be used the next time he would try out.
And he snuck in to Auburn’s practice facility every night to work out on the field.
Humphries had already been told no by the Auburn coaches and yet he just refused to walk away.
Now a couple of years later, Humphries is basking in the limelight of Auburn’s first national championship since 1957.
In a season where the headlines were dominated by Cam Newton, Nick Fairley and a host of other Tiger standouts, Humphries’ story was overlooked by many. Sad, too, because it’s a great story.

Sports editor Todd Thompson can be reached at 773-6566 or at todd.thompson@hartselleenquirer.com