“Flush it.”
Those were the words that Ian Brookshire, a senior and Taylor University’s assistant football coach, said to Grady Stanley, a freshman linebacker.
Stanley had just given up a touchdown for Siena Heights in the opening game of the 2024 season and was sitting on the bench with his head hung low.
“Grady, you've got to flush (it),” Brookshire said. “I promise you, no one is sitting here mad at you. No one is upset with you. We believe in you — you gotta go out there and play.”
As the clock struck zero for halftime, Taylor’s football team led, 28-14. In the locker room, the team gathered around Taylor’s quarterback, junior Damon Hockett.
“Let’s put up 60,” Hockett said.
One year ago, the team had lost to Siena Heights by a field goal. That was their sixth loss of the season. Taylor would end the year with a record of two wins and nine losses.
There was a sour taste left in all of their mouths, Hockett said.
“It was almost like every game we were fighting, fighting, fighting,” he said. “We just couldn't … break the rock open.”
Siena Heights was ready to win again this year, with a fireworks display prepared to follow the game. But as the last few seconds of the clock wound down, the scoreboard reflected a different result.
While Mansfield and the team watched the fireworks explode, they began to realize that the 2024 season might be the beginning of something new, the beginning of a comeback.
That first game set the tone for their competitive edge, and the Taylor Trojans went on to flip their 2023 record of 2-9 with a 9-2 season.
But progress for Coach Aaron Mingo was something that had begun much longer ago than that day on the field.
In January of 2024, the football team spent several weeks in the Dominican Republic on a mission trip. This took time away from their schedules to train, Mingo said, but he believed that God was doing something more.
Fifty-two players and eight coaches stayed at Mission of Hope’s campus, using their time to reach out to neighboring villages and do evangelizing work.
Mingo and the other coaches left the campus to attend a dinner event one night as the team players were preparing to have a worship meeting.
Several hours later, the coaches arrived back on campus to find the men still worshiping, testifying and praying over one another. Hockett realized in the middle of the prayer meeting that he wasn’t close with a lot of the men who were sharing their testimonies.
“You really don't know what's happening in somebody's life unless you get to know them,” he said.
Mingo sensed that a lot of his players experienced a breakthrough that night, a moment that had brought them closer to God in a way they had never encountered before.
Fast forward several months, and the weeks of summer training were now in motion.
On a pitch-black morning outside of the Dunham’s store in Marion, senior Jeremiah Mansfield was finishing the last part of his night shift. One hour later, he walked out and turned the keys in his car’s ignition, driving to Taylor’s gym.
In the past, Mansfield had never done much gym training in the summer. This year didn’t make it any easier, working a night shift that prevented him from joining the team for their regular midday workouts.
Mansfield recalled the voices of coaches telling him that he could be better. This year was his last one, and he began to realize that he didn’t want to end up having regrets once the upcoming season was over.
He began to train consistently.
“It didn't matter how tired I was after a shift,” Mansfield said. “I made sure that I made it out there.”
Jared Boddie, the program’s defensive coordinator, arrived at Taylor during Mansfield’s freshman year. The dynamic of the two being able to grow together was a formative experience. Mansfield recalled telling Boddie that he would be lucky to get one sack in a game.
Boddie told him to go out and get three.
Mansfield described playing on the football field like the adrenaline rush a person feels when performing a show in front of an audience. He hoped that this show would bring glory to God.
Every time that Mansfield broke through the offensive line, he had one thought on his mind — to not fall.
“My thought process (was) just (to) dominate the guy in front of me — because I know I can, and I know I have the ability to,” he said.
Mansfield’s brute force and quickness off the line helped him to get in the backfield to the quarterback much more often than in the last two years, Caleb Heffron, a junior sports editor for The Echo newspaper, said.
He collected twelve sacks during the season, ranking Taylor in the top five teams for sacks in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
“(Boddie) had a lot of faith in me, and that's what allowed me to have faith in myself,” Mansfield said.
Agility wasn’t just needed for the defense.
The triple option has been a defining aspect of Mingo’s offensive play calling since he arrived at Taylor three years ago, Heffron said. This style required a significant amount of coordination between players on the offense because any individual play could go in multiple directions.
It would be very difficult for the defense to follow, but if the offense weren’t in sync, they couldn’t provide the necessary means to execute well, Heffron said.
For all of last year, Hockett had been learning how to be a better quarterback. Every game that the team came up short on flashed before his eyes.
Hockett said that he found it difficult being the quarterback during challenging team circumstances because he still needed to exhibit mental toughness and maintain a positive outlook.
“I look back on film, and I was probably the reason we lost a lot of the tight games,” he said.
The answer to his problem? One thousand footballs needed to be thrown every week.
It was a task that he knew was going to hurt his arm and shoulders, but it was what he needed to become a more accurate thrower on the field.
As Hockett worked with a personal trainer and watched film over the spring term and during part of summer training, he began to change the way he threw the football. His trainer transitioned him into one sweeping, full-body movement that was smoother.
Heffron credited Hockett for how this translated into the season’s games, with his quick thinking and solid execution during complicated plays.
Then, almost halfway through the season, Hockett injured his foot during a rainy home game against Marion.
The ball was handed to Kyle Stratton, the freshman backup quarterback, in the second half of the game.
“Be confident — you’re that guy,” Hockett said. “Go make plays. We all believe in you. We all love you.”
In the third quarter, Stratton completed a 56-yard run for a touchdown with a drive that took 90 seconds and four plays.
Marian struck back. In the fourth quarter, Marian scored with two touchdowns while Taylor only collected one. The game was taken to overtime, where Marian and Taylor both scored again.
There was a moment of uneasiness as fans tried to figure out whether the Trojans would just kick the extra point. Then, a ripple of surprise ran through the crowd.
Taylor was going to attempt a two-point conversion.
As the teams faced each other at the three-yard line, the student section emptied from the bleachers and lined the right side of the rain-soaked field expectantly.
It was a weird situation, Hockett said. Stratton went with a trick play pass to Nate Munson, a freshman tight end, and for a moment it looked like they might secure the win.
But the pass was broken up.
Mansfield described that moment as the most difficult part of the season because it changed the outcome of whether Taylor would be able to advance to the playoffs.
Mingo gathered the team together after the game to have a conversation.
“He told us that it doesn't change our process,” Hockett said. “So, no matter whether we win or we lose, our process doesn't change.”
The team pushed forward and won four out of their next five games, with Hockett returning for the last three.
When the clock ran out on their final game of the season against Concordia, Hockett embraced his brother, Jacob Hockett, a graduate student and linebacker on the team. It was their last game after three years of working together.
“He hugged me, and I thought it was gonna be a quick hug, and he wouldn't let go,” Hockett said. “He said, ‘Thank you — I'm so proud of you.’ And that made me cry, and I said, ‘Thank you for everything.’”
