Stu graciously let me stay in his guest house from February to April with his family for three months until I had enough money to get my own place.

I talked it over with my parents (Wendy and Chris), my coach (Southern Connecticut's Tim Quill of Wolcott) and made the decision to leave college for the second time and drive to Ann Arbor. I had no money, just my 130,000-mile Chevy Cavalier. I put a suitcase full of clothes and my electric guitar in the trunk, gassed it up and took off.

I had no job, and no place to live.

We looked on the hopheads, crooks and gunsels and on their bawdy ladies as members of a family among whom we were privileged to move. There was no caste system, moral or social, in our manners.

I feel fortunate because I have my family. They're healthy, and they're in the same place. ...There are a lot of other families going (through) a whole lot worse and our prayers go out to them.

It's different being here in front of friends and family. It's always more comfortable being here (at Auburn). You don't have all those people in the stands. I was just hoping to increase my numbers. I think I did that.