Jerwin & Derwin Wilson detail T.D. Moton's long journey to Texas A&M

Jerwin: “It was a long process, but when it ended it was all joy.  All the glory goes to God obviously because T.D. had to have a lot of faith, we all had to have a lot of faith.  At the end of the day A&M had to have a lot of faith in what we were trying to do to get this done and complete.”

Derwin: “The main thing was just trying to keep him positive because there were times that T.D. did get down on himself.  We just had to let him know that there is a purpose in life, everything under the sun.  So that was the main thing was just trying to keep him positive throughout the whole situation.”

Jerwin: “The drive up to College Station was unique. He did a lot of snapchat, since social media has taken over he did a lot of snapchatting.  At times when we were almost there he posed the question, 'Coach, is this real?'  Because when you have wanted something for so long, to finally see it come to fruition is a blessing and he understands that.  When he got into Bright he soaked it all in and walked around to take pictures of himself in the lobby.  He is such a humble kid because of this process and he understands where his help comes from.”

Derwin: “T.D. is a very athletic kid at his size of 6’3 or 6’4 and about 300 to 305 pounds.  He moves very well. He probably was the most flexible guy on our team and you would see him doing handstands at 300 pounds, which you obviously don’t see from a 300 pound kid.  There were times at practice where he flashed greatness, even times where we would have to shut down practice because he was going too fast.

Actually during his junior year where he had to sit out, he was still practicing. He was going so full speed, which isn’t his fault, but during that particular time he actually fell on a kid and broke his leg.  There were times I would play scout team quarterback and I would have to tell him, 'T.D., you have to slow it down, you are going to hurt me.'  He is very quick and agile at that size, hopefully if he keeps his mind right in the classroom, he is going to cause a lot of havoc and add a great amount of depth for that D-line at Texas A&M.”

Jerwin: “In regards to T.D., he was a kid that everybody knew.  He was the kid that was always around. I was working at an LSU camp every summer, and that was my first recollection of meeting him.  He was at Cavalry at the time, but little be known he would show up at Woodlawn in the next few months.  It was a long journey, obviously he hadn’t been to a lot of college campuses, and a lot of things wowed him when he went to different campuses.  That is partially why you saw a lot of commitments.  That is one thing that a lot of kids go through when they visit campuses early on.

He was a kid that was committed to Alabama, and they knew it was going to be a tedious process, and they decided to mutually part ways.  Then he signed with Mississippi State, and God makes no mistakes I say that all the time.  If he would have qualified out of high school he would be at Mississippi State which is not where God wanted him to be.  So he continued to take tests, several coaches recommended that he go to a junior college, and I will make this loud and clear, A&M was never one that referred him to a junior college.  They were always on board with what we wanted to do.  What I didn’t want to happen was for him to go to a junior college and spend two years there, then only have two years to play division one football.  I recommended that he continued to take the tests, and we provided support as far as preparation.

A lot of people invested in T.D., we had times where he was working with a kid that made a 36 on the ACT here in Shreveport.  That speaks volumes when people like that are investing there time to try and help this young man.  Then we had him get with another ACT company, in regards to ACT prep which I think was the deal breaker for him.  They really showed him ways to point out his weaknesses in order to improve to score that he needed.”

Derwin: “The main thing that I told him was that the Lord has a purpose for everything.  You have to keep your faith when things aren’t going right because God moves on his own time only.  Like he said, if T.D. had qualified out of high school he wouldn’t be an Aggie, he would be at Mississippi State. Even if he would have qualified in January he would not have had those eight months of growth to be able to understand things better and accept his failure due to his lack of focus on the things that mattered to him.  That time helped him to grow and accept responsibilities as a man and not look to point a finger when things weren’t going you way.  It is easy to point the finger, but you first have to look at yourself.”

Derwin: “When he made the score in September, his sight was set that he did what he had to do, and obviously we all thought the same way so there was no need at that point to continue to take it.  Then in late February, we realized he had to start taking the test and that is when he started doing so. He had two tests between February and June and those were the only two times that he took the test.  Obviously he got what he needed at the last minute in June so that was a great blessing.”

Jerwin: “T.D. became an inspiration for not just us coaches, but for everyone in the building. All of the kids that were still playing at Woodlawn, they saw him every day, and they saw a guy that never quit, that continued to work out and do the little things right.  In Shreveport it is so easy to get distracted and so easy to go the left, but he continued to stay on course.  There was a point in time where there were 26 deaths here in 23 days.  There is so much that can deter these kids, but he stayed on course and kept working out and never looked for a shortcut. Whatever we said he needed to do is what he did.”

Derwin: “Every day after school, even though he had already graduated high school, he would come around and workout with the team.  Even on Friday nights when his eligibility was up he would go to the game and pass the guys water or be a chain gang guy.  On Fridays when we played at Independence Stadium, we kept him close and he never seemed to get fully down on himself and he knew he would make it to Aggieland.”

Derwin: “He is in incredible shape for a guy that has been out of football for over a year and a half.  Obviously he is going to have to go back in and Coach Turner and Coach Price are going to have to help him get more technique-sound because those are the little things that are going to be able to carry him when you play against the top interior O-line guys in the SEC.  As far as physical ability, being able to run, he is going to be fine.  But Coach Turner and Coach Price are going to have to get his technique very sound because while we specialize in those things, we didn’t focus on those things as much during the down time when he was sitting out here in Woodlawn.”

Jerwin: “We laugh about the fact that Coach Turner is now at A&M.  It has been an incredible journey, and obviously when Coach Turner signed on with A&M and T.D. was committed, he was the first one to give T.D. a call to say he was glad to have him back.  The whole staff has been so supportive in this process when they could’ve looked elsewhere. They still welcomed him with open arms and that says a lot about Coach Sumlin and his staff and the character of those men.”

Jerwin: “Our relationship with the A&M staff has grown tremendously.  Coach Sumlin and I text back and forth throughout the season to provide encouragement to each other.  He and Coach Joseph are the two guy that I communicate the most with.  I tell Coach Joseph now that I think I talk to him more than I talk to my mom, which is scary.  I talk to him almost every day.  But when this whole deal got done, I told him I appreciated him for never giving up and never moving on.  He said he had faith in us and Coach Joseph was a guy that I looked for whenever we needed anything.  He is obviously not a guy that is in compliance, but he is so knowledgeable about the whole process.  If it wasn’t for that relationship, it would have been tough to get through this whole deal.”

Derwin: “I was at school when I found out, and my brother had stepped away from campus.  He sent me a text message that said T.D. has been cleared by the SEC and I shed tears of joy.  At that particular time, T.D. was standing right beside me so I began to play some mind games with him.  Saying, 'T.D., man, you think this thing is going to work out?'  Right after that I remember taking him outside and saying, 'If you think this thing is going to work, I want you to run 10 gassers.'  After about the sixth gasser, T.D. was like, 'I really have to run 10?' and I said, 'If you want to be great and play in the SEC, yes you do.'  I had to head back inside and he had about one more gasser left.  I told him to run the last one by himself.  I came back outside and he had finished running it.  I told him to go to talk to Jerwin because he had some news for him.  He went to talk to him and when he told him, he obviously went to crying because he couldn’t believe it.  He was crying and shedding tears of joy because he was so excited.”

Jerwin: “On Monday, I had been in contact with Mr. Reynolds, who was phenomenal in this whole deal, and Coach Joseph.  They had originally told me that this whole thing may get cleared by Tuesday, so I was anticipating this thing to be done by Tuesday at noon.  I get a call back that afternoon that the deal had been cleared earlier than we thought and that he was good to go.  It was an emotional time for me and I called his grandmother and let her know who was also so helpful in this whole process.  When I was headed back to campus, I pulled him into the office and gave him the news.  He was crying, but I had already soaked mine up so I didn’t want him to see me crying.  But it was a good deal and a very humbling deal.

The expression on his face when we arrived on campus was priceless.  Those are what you live for as a coach.  I tell people all the time, it is about effecting kids in a positive way, and we are going to be remembered by him for the rest of his life because he understands.  He could write a documentary at this point, he is such a humble kid and can’t wait to get to work.  I texted him last night and he told me he was giving it everything he had on every play.  Hopefully that is what he does and hopefully he can help out the Aggies this fall.”

Derwin: "We were coaching Donovan (Wilson) before we realized we were related to him.  When I got to Woodlawn in 2011, Donovan was already at Woodlawn.  My brother had already been at Woodlawn for two years.  I coached him through his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons and when I got here there were two Wilsons that were on the roster.  I didn’t think anything of the fact that any of our players were related to us on team.

After Donovan’s senior year, we finally had a sit down with him a day before signing day.  We got to talk to his mom and she gave us a run down on how their family is not from Shreveport, that they are actually from another town.  She thought we knew we were cousins, but I didn’t know that at all.  Then we got to talk to his grandfather and his uncle and they gave us a whole rundown of the family tree and how they are not originally from Shreveport. 

It just gave me an understanding of things because there were plenty of nights after the ball game where me and my brother would go back and talk and think that there was something about this kid that we couldn’t quite figure out.  Obviously we coached him hard, we made him shed a lot of tears.  The thing was he always responded and he wanted to be better.  Now when we see Donovan he doesn’t even call us coach anymore, he calls us 'Unc.'”

Jerwin: “Donovan is in a perfect spot in Chavis’ defense.  Again God makes no mistakes.  We were joking about the fact that he wasn’t good enough to be recruited.

Sumlin went into his house and he was still solid that he was going to Utah.  I remember coming over and talking to him, and obviously when guys need that guidance, you have to be the coach that gives them that guidance.  You can’t just let them go astray and let them make decisions that you don’t feel are in their best interest.  I went over to talk to him and laid my heart on the line. I and he hugged and that is one kid that will tell you, 'Coach, I love you.'  When guys tell you that, they know the impact that you have had on their life.  That was pretty tough, and after we had that sit down, I called Coach Joseph and told him that Donovan was on board.  Alabama wanted him to come on a recruiting visit that weekend and he told me that he didn’t want to go to Alabama, and that he wanted to go to A&M.”

Derwin: “Donovan made it very easy for me, because he believed in 'See ball, get ball.'  He has picked up phenomenal weight.  When he takes his shirt off, I have to tell him to put it back on because he makes me look like a little boy.  When we showed up to his house, he had no idea about T.D. actually being in College Station.  I show up to his house and we go out to eat and he asked me, 'Is he here for good, Coach?'  To be honest, he was probably one of the most excited guys of them all about T.D. being able to join him, and obviously you could see that on the picture.

They were together for most of the time we were there until we got back to Shreveport.  It is a blessing to have two kids playing at the same school and then in the SEC, it speaks volumes.  Our relationship has really grown with the A&M family, and obviously we hope that it will continue to grow in the future.  To have two kids at a great institution, getting a great education, and playing on a great football team is phenomenal and a blessing.”