Walk-ons earn scholarships every year across college football, but not every school is smart enough to capture the big moment on video for promotional purposes.
North Carolina State is.
Wolfpack defensive back Nicholas Lacy (5-7, 180) paid his own way as a walk-on for two years at NCST before secondary coach George Barlow called him in front of the team and announced the rest of his education would be on the house.
The resulting exuberance is the stuff college football is made of:
Here are five other things we learned around fall camps in college football on Monday:
2. Quarterback talk. In the SEC on Monday, one quarterback competition ended as expected, while a murky one only got murkier. Pat Towles, despite struggles toward the end of last season, was named the starter at Kentucky. He's good enough to put UK in a bowl game, which is why coach Mark Stoops' choice wasn't a hard one. Meanwhile, the Alabama quarterback battle just gets more complicated. Jake Coker, the second-year transfer from FSU who lost the starting nod to Blake Sims last year, has a minor ankle injury that will keep him out of the most important practice week he's ever had at Alabama. He's battling four younger players for the job, and he did nothing to take the lead in the hunt in UA's first fall scrimmage. If he doesn't play in this weekend's scrimmage, the last wheel on the Coker hype machine comes off.
3. Minus one distraction. Celebrity faces around college football practices aren't uncommon, but one you won't be seeing around UCLA's workouts is Sean "Diddy" Combs. The rap mogul says he's been banned from practices. After allegedly going after the strength coach in a physical altercation, it's no surprise.
4. Williams in limbo. Arkansas RB Jonathan Williams will miss the regular season while recovering from foot surgery. He has injury insurance, and this could well be a case where a claim will be filed. The best-case scenario for the senior is to play in a postseason bowl game, the worst is to enter draft season with question marks surrounding his recovery. The pre-injury draft projection on Williams is as a first- or second-day pick.
5. What union? If thoughts about the unionization of college athletes have been even a small practice distraction at Northwestern, where the legal movement started, they needn't any longer. The National Labor Relations Board stuffed the measure on fourth-and-goal.
6. Husky down. Washington's most experienced offensive lineman, Dexter Charles, hung up his cleats due to injury. Mark this team, already full of questions, down for no better than a fifth-place finish in the six-team Pac-12 North.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
