Golden Oldie

Jacob started in peewee football at age four and frequently moved up two age groups to team with Adam, who would eventually become a Division I-caliber fullback recruit before rupturing a disk in his back late in high school. By the end of Jacob's eighth-grade year he had earned a varsity letter at Shreveport's Evangel Christian as a 215-pound noseguard. He later became a standout on the Eagles' varsity baseball and soccer teams.

During Hester's junior season, when cramps sidelined Evangel's starting tailback, dealing a serious setback to the team's offense, assistant coach Chris Tilley successfully lobbied for Hester to fill in. He responded with more than 200 yards in one of his first starts en route to a 1,593-yard season that upstaged the Eagles' other big draw—USC-bound quarterback John David Booty. "By that time," says Tilley of Hester, "we figured out we had something special."

It wasn't the last time the coach would place his faith in Hester, who, after being named the state's top fullback his senior year, spurned Texas for LSU. Last July he was wed to Tilley's daughter, Katie. Hester, of course, followed tradition by first getting approval from her father, using the words "hand in marriage" when he did. "We had a lot of great football players that I would not have wanted Katie to go out with," Tilley says. "But I knew what kind of a person Jacob was."

The buildup to the proposal, which came after a tense tilt at Arkansas in 2006 and was contingent on a Tigers' win, would have been enough to make a nervous wreck of nervier men. But not Hester. After totaling 62 yards in a 31-26 victory, he took a knee in front of his high school sweetheart outside War Memorial Stadium.

It might have been the only time that Hester has ever buckled under pressure. As ever, when life plays that tune, he doesn't miss a beat.