Mon Williams is a forgotten man.
Buried almost as deep on the depth chart as he is in the minds of fans, Williams is left to wonder what might have been.
A year ago, he was on the brink of stardom.
After rushing for 95 yards during UF's 62-0 rout of Western Carolina as a freshman in 2006, Williams looked as if he was the answer to Gators' running back woes.
"After that, I really felt like I was going to get that starting spot," he said with a smile as big as the Dallas skyline tattooed on his right arm.
But that was then.
Williams tore his ACL during the first week of spring practice while participating in a non-contact drill.
Even before the team doctor had a chance to examine him, he knew his season was over.
"As soon as it happened, I knew something wasn't right," he said.
All he could do was watch as his dreams faded away as quickly as they came.
Humbled and heartbroken, Williams learned how thin the line between sideline and stardom really is.
"I was like damn, my whole career is over," Williams said. "I felt like I didn't have nothing left."
Williams spent the better part of the next year hobbling from his dorm room in the Springs Complex to the UF weight room for long and painful rehabilitation sessions.
With every grueling repetition, he tried to rebuild shattered expectations.
Teammates called and family members prayed, but nothing seemed to fill the emptiness inside of him.
"I had to watch everyone out there sweat and get tired, and I was just sitting there," Williams said. "It was real hard on me."
Practice was tough, but the games were harder.
Williams spent Saturdays with a pair of silver crutches in his hands and a hole in his heart.
The constant and deafening roar of the crowd and the violent clashing of helmets - even the profanity-laden screams of coaches and teammates.
The same noises that had once played in the soundtrack of his soul had become a constant reminder of what had been so unfairly taken away.
With every weekend Williams fell farther and farther into obscurity.
Forced to watch as Kestahn Moore, Percy Harvin and Brandon James took the carries that were meant for him.
"I didn't even want to go to the games," he said. "It was like I was surrounded by 90,000 people, but I was all alone."
Again, Williams watched as the coaching staff brought in Southern California transfer Emmanuel Moody.
They wanted a bigger back, an every-down back- the same role that the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Williams was recruited to play.
Burdened by doubt, the Mesquite, Texas native wondered if his only opportunity to play had been torn apart along with his knee.
But even when it seemed like his life had fallen into the shadows, there was one person that wouldn't let Williams give up on himself. One person that showed him that there was still some light left.
Kestahn Moore reached out to Williams during a time in his life when it felt like no one else would.
"I told him that just because it wasn't his time right now, it doesn't mean that it won't come someday," he said. "God does things for a reason."
Moore, who Williams describes as a big brother, felt for his young teammate.
"He was doing really well during the off-season - making big plays - Coach Meyer was really starting to look at him," Moore said. "Then, out of the blue, he got hurt. That has to be a hard thing."
Moore said that he wanted Williams to know that he wasn't alone.
Williams also received some encouragement from a place he didn't expect.
Moody, the same man that was seemingly brought in to replace him, quickly became the one he turned to for advice, prayer and friendship.
After transferring from Southern Cal, Moody was forced to sit out the 2007 season.
He soon found that he had quite a bit in common with the injured Williams.
The two worked out together, studied the playbook and forged a friendship out of the most unlikely of circumstances.
Moody, who plans to become a minister one day, did what he could to help his new teammate recover spiritually.
"I told him that if he put his trust in Jesus Christ, he would make it through everything," Moody said. "God gave him strength and he has been able to bounce back from it."
When Moore saw that Moody, also a native Texan, had gone out of his way to help Williams, he wasn't surprised.
"I don't know, man? There's just something about that Texas sky that keeps us all together," Moore said. "Us Texas boys have to look out for each other."
Williams is now fully healed from the injury that took away his 2007 season.
Doctors have cleared him to play, and he is once again out on the practice field with his teammates.
Finally, he is done with all the watching.
But questions still race through his mind.
Will he ever be the same player he was before the injury? How will his reconstructed knee hold up to the contact of a game? Will another opportunity to start ever come around?
Running backs coach Kenny Carter said that before Williams can fight his way back into the rotation, he is going to have to find the answers.
"Physically he's fine but mentally - if he can jump that last hurdle he'll be OK."
Despite his injury, Williams still feels like the same player that coaches begged to come to UF - the same player that was one wrong step away from everything he had always dreamed of.
It has been nearly two years since Williams has played a down for the Gators.
He hasn't played a full season since his senior year at Horn High where he rushed for 1,672 yards and scored 17 touchdowns.
But Williams is a long way from the starry Texas nights that used to be his stage.
The lights have faded. The interviews have all but stopped. All that remains are the memories of those nights and the burning desire to once again feel the rush of fans and football.
"We always used to fight at practice about who was the best player and stuff like that. But it's not about that anymore for me," Williams said. "I just want to prove that I can still help this team - that I still have something to give."
