Chasing Titus: The Gridiron Odyssey Of Tuscaloosa County's Fastest Man

"It's a Thursday night but there's a high school game, sneak a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name. These 5A bastards run a shallow cross ... It's a boy's last dream and a man's first loss."

- Jason Isbell, "Speed Trap Town"

NORTHPORT, AL — This is a very long story and every word of it, unless otherwise noted, is true.

If you're expecting a few stats and some quick quotes you can read in less than 60 seconds, you should probably find something else to do.

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But for those committed to read this behemoth of a story, let's step into the Way-Back Machine and travel to that regrettable point in time when I was a knobby-kneed seventh grader a year out from breaking my right wrist doing back-pedals during warm-ups on the first day of JV football practice.

I knew next to nothing about football other than what I watched on TV and heard adults talk about.

Still, even a pasty, bookish kid like me could see the gulf in talent separating someone like, say, Dallas Cowboys superstar Emmitt Smith and everyone else on the football field with him.

Some athletes are so great you don't even have to qualify them in conversation with their sport or position. Even the slowest wit and worst set of eyes can see it.

Michael Jordan. Tom Brady. Bo Jackson. Michael Phelps. Pelé. Usain Bolt.

And around the turn of the millennium, Tuscaloosa County High School football and track star Titus Ryan was that kind of lightning in a bottle.

Going into Titus Ryan's junior year of high school, "Gold Digger" by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx was the top song on the charts and "Meet the Parents" premiered in theaters that October.

Nick Saban was in his first year as head coach of the LSU Tigers and television icons like "Survivor," "ER" and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" battled nightly for ratings.

Destined for greatness, the star of a legendary Wildcats backfield was the coveted piece of a local recruiting class for the University of Alabama and by all accounts had Olympic-class speed.

Speed — it's the only word every single person interviewed for this story mentioned more than once in conversation.

Even when I was in middle school, I told my parents and friends that I was convinced Titus Ryan was going to be Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner. He was a legend, a star bound for glory.

And this is where a piece of slow news day journalism becomes a folk tale.

These were the true heroes of the fall when I first really began to love the game — Greek Gods in plastic shoulder pads, capable of feats that left us mere mortals in awe just from reading the stat lines in black and white newsprint. And they were right here in our community.

If this is about nostalgia, so be it. We're all better for remembering it.

The first time Titus Ryan knew he was different from his peers was when he finally beat his cousin — a girl — in a foot race. Granted, she wasn't just any other "girl" running against a future professional football player.

In fact, Laquisha Ryan was a local legend in her own right as a track star for Central High School and besting her in a one-on-one race became a formative experience for Titus. After all, it was how he learned how fast he really was.

"Me and her were the fastest boy and girl in the state of Alabama my junior year," Ryan told Patch, reflecting on his love of running track. "Growing up as kids, we would always run and she would give me a huge head start and still beat me by a couple of car lengths. I finally beat her going into my sophomore or junior year and once I finally beat her I knew I must have some speed."

Most feature backs over the years have been outwardly confident and boisterous, but Ryan is very much the opposite when it comes to his personality. He's self-deprecating about most things regarding his playing days, other than his speed, and is both candid and generous in discussing the myriad challenges he faced during an incredible football journey.

His height is a fun side story in this odyssey, with his shortest classification being his Wikipedia page, which lists Ryan at 6'0" and 200 pounds during his playing days. The opposite end of the spectrum is the Northport Gazette's reporting from his junior year of high school, where he was reported to be 6'3".

When asked what height was listed on his driver's license, 6'2" was the documented figure provided.

Titus keeps a low profile on social media these days, not one to share dozens of memes every hour or offer up his opinion on toxic identity politics in the public forum.

No, Ryan spends most of his time on the open road as his own boss.

Indeed, other than interviews and background research, the first month of work on this story was spent primarily chasing down the seemingly elusive gridiron hero.

But he has no reason to hide and isn't running from anything these days. He's just a quiet man who wants a peaceful existence.

"I invested in myself and have my own truck. I drive an 18-wheeler that I own and I'm pretty much on the road now," Ryan told Patch in a phone interview in July. "I do still try to work out here and there and try to talk to young athletes just giving them game on how things go, because a lot of people think you just have to go Division-I to be successful. Then you have the business part of it [in the NFL]."

For someone who defied so many odds on a football journey for the ages, Ryan is self-aware and slow to brag. By his own account, he gave football all he had for as long as he could, made it to the highest level and walked away when he was good and ready.

Simply put, he hated getting hit and being injured all the time — the costs of doing business that he endured for most of his adult life. He was once a Dallas Cowboy, after all, so he's allowed to gripe about the occupational hazards.

Titus Ryan loved to run. That's what so much of this story boils down to. It didn't matter if he was wearing heavy gear on a football field or breaking loose in a straightaway during a track meet at the University of Alabama's outdoor complex.

Once he got out in the open, all he needed was just a little daylight.

Then he was gone.

It's a story fewer and fewer recall as the years pass. But longtime County High receivers coach Price Thompson remembers the brilliance like it was yesterday.

"First of all, he's the fastest guy that I've ever seen," Thompson told Patch. "When he was running, he would be in fast-forward and everyone would just be in play."

The average person on the street, if asked about Titus Ryan, is first likely to bring up his speed.

This will ultimately be followed by a mention of his younger teammate, future University of Alabama standout and Pro Bowl Baltimore Ravens fullback Le'Ron McClain. Then, inevitably, his grades — a widely publicized road block that kept Ryan from wearing the Crimson and White for his hometown team.

For reasons this reporter has yet to explain, Ryan's story ends there for so many.

Indeed, it's only fitting that a local folk hero with that kind of talent was peppered with criticism in the early days of online message boards, only to prove doubters wrong by finding his own way to the NFL.

This was well before social media, so few truly realize the adversity that Titus Ryan overcame in running down his dreams. Folks just have a tendency to remember the negative, but we'll get around to all that.

When asked about his sports heroes growing up, Titus Ryan mulled over the question longer than most sports fans and athletes would, before offering up the easy answers of Barry Sanders and Michael Jordan.

He conceded that, to this day, he enjoys playing sports much more than watching them on television. But he will gladly wear a piece of Dallas Cowboys memorabilia when he enjoys a rare day off from driving.

Titus is named after his Dad and his Mama was the first person he called from Birmingham when signed a rookie free agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs — well after he had been counted out and forgotten back home.

If there was ever a misunderstood and under-appreciated storyline in Tuscaloosa-area football history, this is it.

Retired football coach Robert Higginbotham told Patch that it doesn't take him long to recognize football talent when he sees it — a sentiment that sounds pompous, but one that few, if any, are likely to argue if they know his pedigree and resumé .

Boasting a career coaching record of 270-127-3, he's the 15th winningest coach in Alabama high school football history and left an undeniable mark during his final head coaching stop at Tuscaloosa County High School.

The son of legendary football coach Morris Higginbotham, who made a name for himself at places like West Blocton, Enterprise and Hueytown during the "mythical era," Robert became a gridiron star for Hueytown High as a quarterback with his father on the sidelines and earned a chance to play football for Bear Bryant at Alabama in the late 1960s.

Like his father, Robert Higginbotham — "Coach Higg" to his former players — became an Alabama high school football coaching icon, getting his start as an assistant under other legends like Etowah's Jim Glover and Shorty White at Banks High.

While at Banks in Birmingham, he served as a mentor for future Crimson Tide and NFL quarterback Jeff Rutledge, but soon got his first head coaching job at nearby Mountain Brook.

For the Spartans, Coach Higg is the man who made the fateful decision to move future Crimson Tide football star Major Ogilvie from quarterback to running back when he transferred to Mountain Brook from Vestavia Hills.

Talk about ending up on the right side of history?

And, as fate would have it, his two former players, Rutledge and Ogilvie, would go on to be teammates and crucial components of the Crimson Tide's 1978 national title team.

This was even ahead of Higginbotham's historic tenure at Shades Valley and well before Titus Ryan was even born, so it underscores Higginbotham's true eye for talent.

All those names briefly faded away, though, when Coach Higg reflected on the first time he saw Titus Ryan run.

It was a school day like any other and the physical education class from Lloyd Wood Middle School came outside on the same track they shared with Tuscaloosa County High School at its former campus in Northport. The chance happening, however, would go on to forever impact athletics at TCHS and still lives in the memory of just about everyone who saw him run with their own eyes that day.

It's also a story everyone present or otherwise will tell, with broad details conflicting but everyone agreeing on the end result.

"One day, I'm out there looking at everything and I see the junior high PE class come out and this kid is a standout, because he just kind of takes over," Higginbotham recalled in an interview with Patch. "This was a standout kid and you could tell he was a heck of an athlete, so I started asking questions about him and he wasn't even playing football at the time. So, I called him over and said you need to look at playing some athletics, because you're pretty good here. And from that conversation on, I encouraged him."

Former TCHS volunteer assistant coach Whitt Jones was another fixture for the program during that unforgettable moment and years later corroborated the greatness on display.

"It took about half a second to recognize he was going to be special," Jones told Patch. "The kid was great to work with. He always had a smile on his face and was joking around. His God-given athleticism was off the charts. Sometimes he really didn't know exactly where to go, just got the ball and took off and made everyone else look like they were chasing Bo Jackson in Techmo Bowl."

Titus Ryan recalled that day as well, saying he had a cousin, Fredeldrick Ryan, who was going out for the County High football team and who had encouraged him to do the same. Ryan said he had played some Pop Warner football when he was in elementary school but his favorite sport was, and has always been, basketball.

Ryan explained that while he initially aspired to play for the Wildcats basketball program, he was kicked off the team for wearing earrings after being told that such a fashion statement was against the rules.

"We were told not to do that so that was on me for not following directions," he said.

Regarding basketball, former County High standout linebacker Kevin Sewell offered up an urban legend that exists only by word of mouth from someone who saw it firsthand.

"Even though he didn't play basketball, he came in the gym one day and did a windmill, between-the-legs, 360-dunk," Sewell said. "It was effortless for him."

But football just didn't seem to be in the cards and it was never a sport Titus gave any sort of commitment to, which is apparent in the consistent gaps in his on-field experience leading up to that historic summer day in the old Wildcats Stadium.

"I would be out there when they were coming out to do [40-yard dash] times," Ryan told Patch. "My cousin asked me to run with them. I didn't want to but I ended up doing it for them and ended up beating him. I was surprised by that, honestly, so it just kind of started from there."

Still, Ryan was reluctant to commit to playing a brutish, unforgiving sport like football and stressed to Patch that he really didn't come into his own until his junior year at County High.

For all of his greatness and the myriad urban legends surrounding his abilities, Titus Ryan's high school days exist almost exclusively in still photos and memories.

VHS was the burgeoning technology at the time — a lesson learned the hard way by this reporter in over two months of research. Most, if not all, of the high school game film for Titus Ryan was probably thrown away to make room for DVDs that have also since been discarded.

When asked if he had any photos he would want to appear in this story, Titus reflected back on a family scrapbook of his newspaper clippings, photos and everything else relating to his athletic career. That scrapbook was lost in a fire and he apologized for not having anything of sentimental value to offer in the way of photos or videos.

But for those willing to look hard enough, that chapter in time can still be found in black and white yearbook pictures and in the access to archives generously granted to Tuscaloosa Patch by our friends at the Northport Gazette and Tuscaloosa News.

According to Gazette archives, Titus Ryan's first true varsity football game came on Aug. 24, 2000, when the Wildcats made the drive over to Fayette for a single-half preseason jamboree tilt against what would become another iconic Alabama high school football team.

Fayette High head coach Waldon Tucker was entering his 17th season for the Tigers and had one of the best teams in his own storied coaching career.

Led by future Alabama quarterback and Tide baseball first baseman Spencer Pennington, the Fayette Tigers went on that year to a 13-2 record and eventual loss to T.R. Miller in the 5A state title game. The 6'4", 200-pound Pennington cut an imposing figure and was consensus All-State that season on a team with six other All-State picks.

For Titus Ryan, though, the jitters were abundant well before his first fall varsity season.

"I actually tried to quit before I made it to that point," he explained. "In spring ball, I had to tackle someone. I was going out for free safety. I had no form and I end up getting a welp across the back of my neck, so they switched us and I ended up running the other guy over. At that point, [the coaches] told me I was playing running back."

Charles Yerby of the Gazette wrote that TCHS quarterback Rickey Montgomery got the Wildcats on the board first with a 34-yard touchdown strike to Johnathan Cole, before County High missed the extra point.

For Fayette, Pennington promptly responded to begin the first quarter by leading a drive and hitting receiver Coley Blankley from six yards out to put the Tigers up 7-6.

In the second and final quarter, County High running back Justin Crocker — the fullback playing ahead of sophomore Le'Ron McClain — scored on a four-yard run to put the Wildcats up 12-7. But it was junior Titus Ryan who punched in the 2-point conversion to even out at the score at 14-7 for a win over the eventual 5A runner-ups after two quarters of inconsequential preseason play.

It was his only mention in the newspaper story, but the corresponding photo published in that edition of the Northport Gazette captured a flash of history with No. 6 Titus Ryan blocking for Crocker.

A week later, though, Ryan erupted onto the local sports scene with a performance for the ages in his first-ever regular season high school football game.

Things have certainly changed over the years and few are likely to realize that nearby Holt High School is the oldest gridiron rival of the Wildcats, with the two schools playing a total of 71 times as of the publication of this article.

While County High has swelled into one of the state's few 7A schools, Holt High has seen a steady decline in enrollment over the years to become an AHSAA Class 4A school. Because of the widening gulf separating the two schools, the rivalry has been on pause since 2001 — the opening game of Titus Ryan's senior season.

Nevertheless, it would be the Iron Men and head coach Jerry Wright who traveled to Northport that night in 2000 and caught the first real glimpses of the speed that carried Titus Ryan to the NFL.

Indeed, Gazette reporter Charles Yerby made it a point to mention early in his game story that it was Ryan's first-ever regular season varsity football game — a lop-sided affair at the old Wildcats Stadium that ended 40-6 in favor of TCHS.

Ryan's impact was made almost immediately, despite running into fumble trouble in the contest, as he punched in the first score of the 2000 season on a 47-yard touchdown run on the first offensive possession for the Wildcats.

By the time the night was over, Ryan logged a stunning 151 yards on just nine carries for two rushing touchdowns, along with catching an 18-yard touchdown pass.

"I think we can turn some heads this year and remove some people's doubts," Ryan told Yerby following the win in his first four-quarter football game.

If there were ever any doubts of Titus Ryan's athletic abilities going into that hot September night in Northport, the star running back on most nights would need less than 10 carries to silence them.

Still, the Wildcats were in program-building mode during Higginbotham's second season in Northport and Ryan admitted that he struggled to hold on to the football.

While it's not on tape or documented in newsprint, one folk tale expressed by multiple independent sources said he once, in a game, dropped a ball after breaking a long run and, because he was Titus Ryan, was able to stop, look around to assess the situation, lean over and dust off the football and still have time to coast into the end zone before any of the gassed defenders got close.

"I was actually nervous that whole season, honestly," Ryan told Patch. "I was kind of superstitious, so I grew my hair out because I thought that would be extra cushion for my head. I had fumbling issues because I didn't like getting hit, so it was a big transition for me."

In an effort to address the issues, Ryan's grandfather in Michigan mailed him a football to carry around all day at school — the same way Omar Epps' character would carry the ball around his college campus in the 1993 classic "The Program."

"My grandfather told me to never put it down," Ryan recalled with a laugh. "So my teammates would come up and try to slap it out of my hand. That first year, I think I averaged like two fumbles a game, but I eventually overcame it."

The Wildcats finished a nine-game 2000 regular season with a 6-3 record, capped off by a close first round playoff loss on the road at Grissom, 21-16.

Never mind that Titus Ryan carried the ball 153 times for an insane 1,759 yards and 17 rushing touchdowns on the year. That factors out to over 11 yards per carry.

Despite not breaking the 2,000-yard mark that season like his contemporary Carnell "Cadillac" Williams of Etowah, Ryan's rookie numbers outshine more greats than could be named in this story during their junior years of high school.

However, the 6-2, 190-pound tailback and returner went largely undecorated after that brilliant junior campaign, with TCHS senior lineman Russell Olive being the only Wildcat to earn 6A All-State honors from the Birmingham News.

"Even considering the accolades of my senior year, hands down the star of the show was one of the fastest guys I've ever met, Titus Ryan," Olive told Patch. "Being the weak-side tackle there were multiple running plays focused on Titus running behind my block. The struggle was always getting him to slow down enough for me to actually make his block. He was just so dang fast."

Titus Ryan no doubt made a lasting impact with that first football season, along with turning heads at the 2001 AHSAA state track meet for the Wildcats.

Just in track and field, Titus became the AHSAA record-holder in the 100-meter dash and went on to win the long jump at the national junior college meet. Indeed, the Tuscaloosa News reported that Ryan also won the 100 meters in 10.38 seconds and finished second in the 200 meters at the national junior college event.

Years later, former TCHS star linebacker Kevin Sewell, who earned the chance to run track at Mississippi State University and now lives in Ohio, reflected on Titus Ryan's speed in the sport.

"We had a track meet at Mississippi State and Titus was there when he was looking at community colleges," he told Patch. "We had one of the fastest guys in the SEC and one of the fastest guys on the team, but I pointed to Titus and I bet him that guy right there is gonna smoke everybody by at least three or four steps and they didn't believe me. When that gun went off and Titus came out of those blocks, it was with no effort."

Another unforgettable folk tale.

But it would be Ryan's senior year that is remembered most in County High football lore.

Enter Le'Ron McClain: The most decorated fullback in annals of Tuscaloosa County high school football and arguably the last great player at the blue-collar position in the game's history.

To the man on the street, the name Le'Ron McClain gets immediate recognition.

Indeed, if he walked into, let's say, City Cafe in Northport, this reporter would bet a paycheck someone would recognize him and at least ask to shake his hand.

And rightfully so.

McClain was a local kid who made good at the University of Alabama and went on to occupy the same rarified air as names like Druid City's John Stallworth and Tuscaloosa High's Sylvester Croom as the few who truly proved themselves at the highest level of the sport.

Conversely, though, if you ask someone about Titus Ryan, they will first mention his speed.

Then they are going to talk about Le'Ron McClain.

They were polar opposites in every regard. But through so much reporting, it stands out as the most important dynamic in this story.

Think Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Thelma and Louise. Lennon and McCartney — Iconic duos who couldn't be more different, but who needed each other to realize their greatness.

"Both of them were very talented but different styles," former Tuscaloosa News sports writer Chad Berry told Patch. "Titus and his speed on the outside, also the receiving threat out of the backfield, then Le'Ron was the more physical back. But at the high school level, [McClain] was faster than most of the guys, too. They were a pretty dominant one-two punch, but their personalities were different, too. Titus was a little bit quieter, he would answer questions and was a good kid and took time with the media. But Le'Ron was more outspoken, and even on the sidelines you could see Le'Ron firing teammates up. But Titus was more quiet."

While many will tell you that Titus Ryan had more God-given ability than just about any two athletes from that generation put together, those same people will speak at length about Le'Ron McClain's work ethic. That includes Titus Ryan.

"Le’Ron was a guy who inspired me to push even harder whether he knows it or not, just his approach to the game I knew there was something special about him and he would go far playing the game of football," Titus told Patch. "Playing both sides of the ball and making an impact like that, he was really one hell of a guy off the field as well. He was full of laughter and brought an amazing energy that a lot of us fed off of, just overall an awesome guy that I’ve had the pleasure of playing with and knowing and that’s real."

Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Le'Ron McClain moved to Tuscaloosa County in elementary school and eventually played his first real organized football in eighth grade at Lloyd Wood Middle School and then for the B-team at County High.

From there, he would ultimately star as a fullback at Alabama, before becoming a fourth-round NFL Draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2007. In a blue-collar position that has little utility in today's NFL, he became a two-time Pro-Bowler for the Ravens and retired in 2013 after stints with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers.

McClain recalled seeing the TCHS coaches watching him and other talents like Terrence Jones in those early years. It didn't take a professional scout to see that the stout young running back was one day going to be something truly special.

And by all accounts, McClain worked like hell to keep turning heads, eventually earning a spot in the running back rotation for Higginbotham's vaunted Wing-T — an archaic offense focused on short runs and built around a punishing fullback.

"We put a lot of emphasis on all the backs," Higginbotham told Patch. "Le'Ron was the fullback who probably ran the ball close to 50% of the time and Titus ran the ball the rest of the time. If we'd have been a different offense [Ryan] would have had a lot more yards his junior year."

Going into his sophomore season, though, McClain would never forget seeing a tall and chiseled young man come down from the concrete bleachers at the old Wildcat Stadium and put his speed on display.

"The first time I ever saw [Ryan] run, it was over the summer and I guess he was in summer school and we were out there in our shorts and shirts," McClain told Patch. "He said he would run with us, took his shirt off, was wearing long blue jeans and he took off. Coach had 4.28 on the clock [for Ryan's 40-yard dash time]. I was there. Coach didn't even say anything, he just walked the time over to us and showed us."

Everyone remembers the boring details of the story differently. And that's the key ingredient for a local sports folk hero. Facts be damned, everyone agrees on 4.28 seconds. It's a feat so great that it overshadows his accomplishments in professional football and became the thing Titus Ryan is most known for.

But I digress.

Sophomore year was a crucial learning experience for McClain, who became the team's starting fullback after Justin Crocker went down with an injury against Robert E. Lee High in the second game of the season.

"I was nervous and tired like two plays in," McClain said with a laugh. "Really, I was just trying to do too much. I fumbled the ball in the open field and they got the ball and that was an embarrassing play and that was a growing experience for me."

With a year of 6A football under their belts, Ryan, McClain and a talented Wildcats team were poised to take the high school football world by storm in 2001.

Former Tuscaloosa News high school beat writer Chad Berry had graduated from the University of Alabama that spring and took a job at the newspaper the following July. His predecessor had the foresight to leave Berry notes on things to be aware of going into the football season and the name "Titus Ryan" was at the very top of the list.

"I think the very first game I covered was a County High game at Holt on a Thursday night and it was pouring rain and I was soaked head to toe," Berry remembered. "But it didn't bother Titus, he was running away from everybody as he often did. I had been told he was really fast and a big prospect for UA and he showed immediately why that was the case."

In the season opener against Holt his senior year, Ryan was absolutely brilliant, carrying the ball only nine times for 124 yards and three scores in the first half alone.

Northport Gazette scribe Charles Yerby wrote that Ryan "didn't come off the bench at all in the second half."

And after a convincing 28-14 win over Lee the following week, the 2-0 Wildcats made the short drive to Taylorville to take on the rival Hillcrest Patriots.

While not apparent at the time as the tean finished 3-7, this Patriots squad would go on to send numerous players to the Division-I ranks, including former Alabama quarterback Brandon Avalos and future Mississippi State and NFL linebacker Titus Brown — who intercepted a pass from TCHS quarterback Matt Kosloff during one of the best passing performances of his career playing in Higginbotham's run-oriented offense

Markus Manson was an underclassman on that Hillcrest team, but went on to star at running back for the Patriots and head coach Bart Harper, ultimately earning a football scholarship to the University of Florida to play for head coach Ron Zook.

Manson was a legendary Tuscaloosa football product in his own right and told Patch he partially modeled his one-cut running style after Ryan.

A talent who ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash, Manson vividly remembered that night when the Wildcats trounced the Patriots 26-7.

And, like so many others, Manson was left in awe of the speed.

"I ain't ever seen nobody as fast and as talented as Titus," Manson told Patch. "I remember when he came to Hillcrest and it was just amazing that someone who could be so fast and tall and be as elusive as he was. Absolutely amazing. He was a blessing to Tuscaloosa and Northport. His style was unbelievable, but he never got caught from behind and that's one thing I mimicked. I never got caught from behind. I was fast, yeah, but I wasn't Titus fast."

After thumping Wenonah at home the week after the Hillcrest win, the Wildcats travelled to Hueytown for another iconic game during a season filled with historic performances.

Higginbotham was going for his 200th career win against his alma mater and the school that his illustrious father had put on the map. It was a must-win game.

Senior quarterback Matt Kosloff, now the head football and baseball coach at Echols Middle School, works as a mentor to up-and-coming talent on the same field where his team once shined, as the former Wildcats Stadium has been relegated to middle school ball.

He told Patch the "football gods" aligned that night in Hueytown as the Wildcats, led by Kosloff's passing and multiple touchdown runs from McClain and Ryan, stomped the Golden Gophers 42-21 for Coach Higg's 200th victory.

But it was the fourth quarter of that game that stands out in Kosloff's memory, after a couple of bad plays put the Wildcats behind the sticks.

"Coach Higg called a timeout and I ran to the sideline and he was pissed," he said. "Dog cussing me and the whole offense. I was the only one by him so I got it all. It was like 4th and 15, inside their 40-yard line, so too close to punt. Higg said we are going for it. I looked at him crazy and said 'coach, just kneel it, give them the ball back with less than two minutes and let’s get out of here.'"

But Higginbotham was there to prove a point and turned to his quarterback and said "hell, we are giving it to Titus right here."

"We ran a sprint draw, where I roll out and then hand back to Titus going the other way," Kosloff told Patch. "Titus took it 35-plus yards to the house. Literally made 7-8 people miss him. Craziest run I’ve seen on 4th and long, and I've played and coached with and against guys who played in the SEC and the NFL. Still to this day, I’ve never seen anyone else close to Titus."

The following week, the Wildcats made easy work of Minor at home in a 35-18 drumming and, once again, went on the road to face another team that will live forever in Alabama high school football history.

Boasting one of the best defenses in the state, the 4-1 Jess Lanier Purple Tigers' only loss had come in the opening week of the season by way of a 14-12 nail-biter to eventual 6A runner-up Hoover and head coach Rush Probst.

As Gazette reporter Charles Yerby pointed out, several high-profile Jess Lanier players were in attendance for the Hueytown game to "intimidate the Wildcats players."

The Jess Lanier defense alone could claim four 6A All-State selections, with defensive backs Antonio Nelson and Clyde Allen, along with defensive lineman Jamal Russell.

But it was No. 32 — a high school senior with a hulking frame sporting a classic cowboy collar — who struck absolute fear into the hearts of every opposing offense he lined up against: Linebacker DeMeco Ryans.

Ryans went on to be a standout at the University of Alabama and in the professional ranks, but is starting his first season in 2023 as the head coach of the Houston Texans.

Another local boy who made good. But, at the time, he was the single-meanest linebacker in all of Alabama high school football.

"[Ryans] wore that old cowboy collar and we knew what type of game it was gonna be," recalled Ryans' future college teammate and NFL competitor Le'Ron McClain. "It was tough and our coaches made some adjustments for the first time that season that made the difference. But I was a little nervous because DeMeco was the truth. One day when we were at practice at Alabama he knocked the mouthpiece out of my mouth. He was a monster."

C.A. Williams put the first points on the board for the Wildcats on an end-around pass from Terrence Jones, before McClain and Ryan carved out another successful drive that ended with McClain punching it in from two yards out.

After the Purple Tigers closed the distance in the fourth quarter to 14-6, TCHS linebacker Kevin Sewell, a tenacious but undersized defender, forced a fumble when he sacked Jess Lanier's Rod Windsor near mid-field.

Years later, though, Sewell was quick to point out Titus Ryan on that following drive, breaking loose for a 14-yard touchdown run to seal the deal 21-6 for the Wildcats.

"We had two of the best athletes in the country," Sewell recalled of McClain and Ryan in an interview with Patch. One of them was just born with it and the other worked so hard to get it. With the speed Titus had, I thought he was the fastest man on earth."

Longtime County High assistant Price Thompson was also pacing the sidelines that night and offered his perspective of the game plan implemented by the Purple Tigers.

"They had DeMeco Ryans, so we couldn't run between the tackles and we knew that going into the game," Thompson told Patch. "But Titus had his speed and got outside of them."

If the Rolling Stone's classic song "Sympathy for the Devil" were a 2000s-era Tuscaloosa County high school football star, it would be Titus Ryan. He just kept running right past history.

This reporter could go on and on just about this single season, which ended in historic disappointment as the undefeated Wildcats fell 18-15 to Huffman in the third round of the 6A playoffs.

There's no real need to go into the ending. No sense opening up old wounds, especially considering it was a boring defensive showdown that saw Huffman focus on the TCHS run game and put a stop to it.

It was the one black mark on an otherwise perfect season. It hurt.

Even the last picture of a high school football game featuring Titus Ryan was printed in the Tuscaloosa News and didn't even show him, but made it a point to underscore his name.

It was a full circle moment after his fumble troubles during his junior year and the photo, shown below, shows two players fighting over a loose ball attributed to Titus Ryan.

The high school football season was in the books after the heartbreaking loss for the undefeated Wildcats. For some, the child's game was over for good.

Titus Ryan would go on to earn more medals and records than anyone could count during the spring track season, but the first months of 2002 would serve as the eve of the end of his career in the eyes of so many who suddenly lost interest.

How wrong they would be.

During those halcyon days, Ryan's favorite memory was an in-house visit from Mississippi State icon Jackie Sherrill. But he got letters and phone calls from everybody.

After all of the buzz, though, he wanted to be close to home and committed to the University of Alabama.

"There weren't really recruiting rankings back then, but if there had been, he would have been a top-five player in the country, if not the best player in the country," former County High quarterback Jarrett Shepherd told Patch.

At the end of the season, he had rushed for 1,292 yards — averaging a stunning 9.3 yards per carry — and returned four punts and one kickoff for touchdowns. Never mind that Robert Higginbotham and Le'Ron McClain both say Titus was the singular focus of every defense during that undefeated regular season and would have posted bigger numbers had it not been for the stats he racked up as junior.

"They were so keyed in on him from the year before that I had one of the best seasons I ever had and it really opened my game up," McClain told Patch.

But this was the hobbled Dennis Franchione era at The Capstone and everyone around at the time remembers the backyard talent in the signing class for the University of Alabama in February 2002: Quarterback Brandon Avalos from Hillcrest, defensive lineman Chris Harris from Central, and the speed demon Titus Ryan from County High.

Here's the recruiting class:

"In Crimson Tide football history, it's hard to be a special class," Franchione said in a story written by the late Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News. "There have been so many great classes. But this class is going to have a special bond with the coaches, and I think the fans are going to have a special passion and bond with these players ... The next four or five years will clarify just how special they can be, but I am proud of them. They have a great love for the University of Alabama."

And who better to be the centerpiece artwork for such a story than Titus Ryan?

But then his grades and ACT score entered the public discussion.

Ryan wasn't able to qualify to enroll at Alabama and the team went on to see Franchione lead his bowl-ineligible squad to a 10-3 record and a first place finish in the SEC West before bolting for Texas A&M.

"The biggest thing that held Titus back from being absolutely phenomenal was probably his grades," Higginbotham told Patch.

Chad Berry of the Tuscaloosa News reported that Titus didn't get to walk with his County High classmates at graduation due to scores in correspondence courses that were turned in late.

"I got my diploma," Ryan told the Tuscaloosa News. "That's all that matters."

It's something Titus is quick to acknowledge to this day and serves as a cautionary tale for any young athlete with big-time talent. It's also something he's made peace with.

"I didn't have the ACT score, which sent me over to East Central Community College," Titus told Patch about his first year out of high school after being a coveted recruit. "I went out for receiver there but our running back ended up getting hurt and I ended up having to play running back."

Titus spent two seasons at ECCC and Tommy Deas of the Tuscaloosa News reported that he earned Junior College All-America honors playing running back, receiver and kick returner in an age where records are scarce and game film even more so.

What's more, Deas wrote that Ryan wasn’t able to graduate with the two-year degree that would have allowed him to enroll at Alabama.

“I didn’t finish," Ryan told the Tuscaloosa News in 2007. “I came home and worked for a while."

After his brief hiatus, he earned a track scholarship to Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, where he once again turned heads.

Former Alabama men’s track and field coach Harvey Glance was a decorated Olympian and the first African-American to be a head coach of any athletic program at Auburn University.

As Patch previously reported, Glance died in June at the age of 66 and left a lasting impact on the sport of track and field in the state of Alabama.

And even Harvey Glance thought Titus Ryan was fast, going so far as to tell the Tuscaloosa News that he believed Ryan could have made it to the Olympics — projecting Ryan c0uld've worked to get his 100-meter time down to 10.1 or faster and his long jump t0 26 feet or better.

“There’s no doubt this guy could have gone places," Glance told the newspaper. “I’m talking he could have gone to the Olympic Trials ... We had high hopes for him. I know football also had an interest. We know he had an interest in running track and wanted to be a two-sport athlete. We were licking our chops at the possibility of having him."

Injuries would ensure that wouldn't be the case, as Ryan hurt his knee and returned to Tuscaloosa again for a brief time before Birmingham sports agent Jasmine Warren convinced him to enroll with NAIA Concordia College to get the education and enough film to garner an NFL tryout.

But Ryan suffered another setback when he was sidelined with a ruptured appendix ahead of the upcoming football season.

"I missed the first 2-3 games then tried to work back into the lineup," Titus told Patch. "So I really didn't get to play. But it was more so I could have that schooling under my belt and try out for the NFL, which worked out pretty good."

Titus trained hard for that chance, mostly focusing on fine-tuning his speed and hands to impress scouts as a prospect at wide receiver and returner

"The core of my training was running that [40-yard dash] so I did a lot of track work," Titus told Patch. "And I really wasn't trying to bulk up for a wide receiver position."

Pro Days on college campuses were the focus from a marketing standpoint and Titus found himself at a scouting event at Tuskegee University. Despite a strained hamstring, he told Patch he was mentally prepared and still managed a 4.36 and a 4.39 on his two attempts at running the 40-yard dash.

The best coaches can teach a lot of things, but no coach is capable of making someone run that fast. It's just natural.

But a little bit of rage-induced motivation never hurt.

"What really got me going was that one of the scouts said I looked like a 4.5 or 4.6 guy and it burned me good," he recalled. "I think I stole the show that day."

Titus and his agent then began the marketing ground game of getting his name in front of as many professional scouts as possible — handing out reprinted copies of press clippings and jockeying for an audience willing to listen.

Titus went to Pro Days at UAB and Samford in Birmingham, but ultimately was left on the outside looking in when he came back home in the hopes to showing off his speed at the University of Alabama's athletic complex during the Crimson Tide's Pro Day.

"I end up getting put out and I ended up sitting outside the facility all day and watched different NFL scouts walking past me," Titus told Patch. "At the end of the day, I was frustrated and wanted to leave."

Then he heard someone beating on a blacked-out, one-way window on the first floor of the Mal Moore Athletic Facility.

"As we're trying to get in the car, we kind of just stopped and go back toward the window and we see someone waving," Ryan said. "A guy comes outside and asks if I was inside at Pro Day and I told him no, so he took me across the street, worked me out on a little patch of grass to see how my hips moved and how I caught the ball. Plus, he found out I was the guy who ran that [40-yard dash] at Tuskegee."

Nothing was guaranteed after that chance encounter on the UA campus and Titus went back to Birmingham still hungry for an opportunity.

And, wouldn't you know it? Opportunity rang.

"The Kansas City Chiefs called me and pretty much told me the day of the draft that they're not drafting me but will be calling me to offer me a free agent contract to come into camp," Ryan said. "I still didn't believe it. Even though I saw the contract and signed it, I didn't believe it. I was staying in Birmingham training. I called my mother and told her what was going on and by the time I made it to Tuscaloosa, all the family was at the house and we had a little celebration."

Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards was impressed enough to tell The Kansas City Star: "He can run fast. He’s a guy to take a shot on."

“They haven’t talked to us about who’s going to play [in the preseason opener] or cuts or things like that," Ryan told the Tuscaloosa News after securing the contract. “It’s going pretty good. Every day is a day to get better. It’s too early to tell for me. I certainly hope [I make it]. Everything is new to me. I’m still just learning every day."

Ryan was careful to take in the moment his first time in uniform in an NFL stadium, but said he was transported back to his junior year of high school and became a deer in the headlights.

"Inside that stadium and to hear all those people yelling, I had that feeling like my first game in high school," he told Patch. "But when you get to that next level, it's totally different. It just seems so huge to see all the people and all this talent around you."

But his stint with the Chiefs was short-lived and Ryan was cut early on in camp, ultimately returning home to Northport before getting a chance with the practice squad for the News Orleans Saints. His time in New Orleans felt good and he was proving himself, but injuries once again sent him back home to Tuscaloosa County.

"My journey has been crazy because I was about to get moved up to the playing roster and tore my hamstring in practice," he said. A business decision saw him cut from the Saints' roster, before he tried his hand with the Carolina Panthers — a stint that turned out about the same.

The stars seemed to align again, though, and he got the chance in 2010 that every red-blooded American kid who loves football dreams of: playing for the Dallas Cowboys.

"In Dallas, everything was great. I worked my way up the depth chart to starting returner and ended up breaking my thumb in the Hall of Fame Game [in the preseason], which was disappointing," Ryan told Patch. "I may still wear some kind of Dallas Cowboys attire sometimes and I get greeted with 'How 'Bout Them Cowboys?' everywhere I go. But I really saw it once I was there. I really enjoyed it and really liked the environment — not only the city but the organization itself. It was nice to meet Jerry Jones. I got to meet Wade Phillips, too, before he left, and had Jason Garrett as my coach."

Nevertheless, another injury resulted in another athlete taking Titus Ryan's place and he was once again left without a team.

Then he went to Canada and made the most of his time in the wide-open game, despite not putting up the video game numbers he had in high school.

"It's very different from the NFL, but the only thing that I had a difficult time with was the air," he said. "The air is much thinner and just in conversations you lose your breath way faster."

His shining moment came with the Calgary Stampeders when he returned a kickoff 104-yards for a score and the only special teams touchdown of his professional football career.

But after stints at receiver and returner for the Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, he made his way back to the states and played most of a year for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the UFL in 2012.

In Sin City, Ryan had a commendable lone season before the league dissolved, with 402 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns, including an 94-yard score. And it was that performance that earned him a chance with the New York Jets the following year in 2013.

Yet another injury saw him cut during preseason camp, though, and he decided it was time to move on with his life — a decision that was also made the same year by his former high school teammate, Le'Ron McClain.

"It was hard for me but it wasn't," Ryan explained. "In all honesty, from the moment I started playing sports my junior year of high school, I had some kind of injury. With being on the professional level and understanding the business side of it, there's always someone to replace you unless you were drafted or they have money invested in you. Even when I got that last injury in New York, mentally, I was already kind of done because I knew how this was going to go.

"It's like someone trying to give you something and as soon as you reach out they snatch it away from you," Ryan added in lamenting the business of professional football. "And I was kind of done with just continuously putting my body through stuff and tearing it down."

With that, Titus stepped away for good — a legendary career played on his own terms, at the highest level and in a sport he didn't really like playing in the first place.

He was just that good.

The Tuscaloosa County High Wildcats football program of today calls a different location home off of Rose Boulevard in Northport and this season will see the unveiling of a brand new video jumbotron at Wildcat Stadium.

Just about everything is different from those bygone years.

But following in the footsteps of Titus Ryan and Le'Ron McClain is Kevin Riley — a composite four-star running back in the class of 2024 who has committed to the University of Miami.

If you combined the recruiting stars given to McClain and Ryan, they wouldn't equal those heaped upon Riley. So maybe there's hope for the future.

Still, the memories live on.

"I really enjoyed following [Ryan's] career after my senior year and was always so proud to have played with such an amazing athlete," All-State lineman Russell Olive told Patch. "Not everyone gets to be on a winning team with that level of talent."

McClain and Ryan both retired from the NFL a decade ago this year and to this day, the Pro Bowl fullback will tell anyone who'll listen that Titus Ryan was something special.

"He was the best running back I ever blocked for, I've said that at any level when people asked me," McClain told Patch.

People can offer up compliments, criticism and everything in between, though.

Titus Ryan is fine with all of it and grateful for the people who made his career something that's still being discussed today.

Like his playing days, he never really stops moving in the present as his makes his living on the road driving his own 18-wheeler.

"From what I've known and experienced, certain things are going to work out," Ryan told Patch. "Just give it your all, keep God first and let everything else fall into place."

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