TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Every carry is a witness. Every yard, a statement.

Glen Coffee isn’t playing through an aching biceps muscle for the attention or absorbing an unusual number of hits in the fourth quarter from those impossibly huge LSU linemen for any glory. The huge yardage totals and the touchdowns aren’t the reasons Coffee keeps churning, keeps working, keeps fighting.

Because Coffee knows his roommate, Alabama track athlete Matt Watson, will ask him that night why he ran so hard, and Coffee loves delivering that honest answer: He did it for God, of course.

The long, twisting path it takes for a person to turn his life started, for Coffee, in a house with Watson. They met through a mutual friend, and the three began rooming together last year. Watson is supremely enthusiastic, often starting his sentences with “Oh my goodness” and talking so fast his thoughts can barely keep pace. It’s no surprise he runs sprints.

But Watson saw a person equally unique in Coffee, who wore his clothes differently and didn’t act like the other athletes. They are also both from Florida, and the two bonded.

“Glen has never been a bad guy,” Watson says. “He’s always been weird. He stands out.”

Everyone wants to know the date it happened, the moment Coffee decided to stop fretting over his statistics and the parties and the girls and ceased to act so self-righteously. Neither one really knows. It was a long process that happened overnight, Watson says, and somehow it makes sense.

Coffee says he was a self-confident football player who enjoyed his life and felt accepted. But he still felt a void.

“I thought I was a pretty cool dude,” he says. “But there had to be more. Even when things were going good, I had reached a point in my life where I realized there had to be more to life than football or the girls or partying. There was just something missing. Matt had something I needed. I just didn’t know what that was at the time.”

Here was this roommate, this track guy, who seemed so at ease with himself that he could express his opinion on a TV show or religion or whatever the topic and then go read his Bible. After weeks of responding, “No, man, next week” whenever Watson invited him to church, Coffee eventually relented. He was baptized in October 2007 amid the textbook scandal that resulted in his suspension.

There are plenty of stories about athletes who rise to fame and succumb to the hype and the adulation. But this one is the opposite, which is fitting for a person Watson describes as “weird.” Coffee only drifts further away from his old life the more he succeeds.

“If there’s something to do with Christ throughout the week, Glen is going to be there,” left tackle Andre Smith said. “I love the fact that he’s like that as opposed to being like everybody else could be.”

He’s one of 10 semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation’s top running back, after rushing for 1,020 yards through undefeated Alabama’s first 10 games. Asked why the offense is so much more successful this year, quarterback John Parker Wilson quickly responds, “We’re able to run the ball.” And the SEC’s fourth-leading rusher is Coffee, who rushed for 126 yards in the win over LSU and carried the ball 11 times in the fourth quarter.

“I play with a passion because I want to glorify God,” Coffee says. “I’m not carrying the ball for myself or the stats or my family or my friends or anyone out there on the field. It’s definitely not harder to focus on my life now with all the publicity. If anything, it brings more glory to God to be recognized, and now people know what I’m about. When people see me or hear my name, I want them to think about Jesus.”

Coffee has always been the type of person to pursue passionately what he deems worthy. Watson believes that people will always respect a person who takes a stand, whether it’s positive or negative. Coffee had his respect. At Fort Walton Beach High School in Florida, Coffee committed himself to working out and claimed the state powerlifting title. But he often got caught from behind his junior year of high school and didn’t receive a single major college offer.

His high school football coach, Mike Owens, told Coffee he needed to improve his speed or he would be playing for a small school. So Coffee started training with the track team, and a week before spring football started in 2004, he ran a 4.44 in the 40 at a Nike combine in Baton Rouge, La. A skeptical Owens became a believer when he saw Coffee turn the corner on a carry in spring practice and disappear.

“Glen is very unique. He was not your typical high school kid,” Owens says. “He read a lot. He loved novels. He was very thoughtful and aware. So he didn’t run off to McDonald’s like his teammates. He watched everything he ate. He’s passionate about what he does.”

Coffee got those major college offers and, as Watson notes, ended up at a perfect place to tell others about his passion.

“Glen is reaching so many people,” Watson says, “because so many people love Alabama football.”

And the people in Alabama love Coffee, the junior who rushed for 162 yards at Arkansas and 218 against Kentucky. After the Kentucky game, Watson approached Coffee and said, “Hey, man, you already know what I’m going to ask.” Coffee knew. And, finally, he feels at ease with the answer.

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