It's exam time for University of Central Arkansas students with summer on the horizon, but it's another season of thanksgiving for running backs Brent Grimes and Leonard Ceaser.
Grimes and Ceaser were the only frontline backs available to the Bears in the spring.
The Bears are luck to have them.
They'll break for the summer as dynamic potential one-two punch.
Both are happy they are playing football at all. They are thankful to be alive.
"If you'd have seen the truck, you'd be surprised that me and Ceasar are still here to play football," Grimes said.
During a trip to Louisiana during an open playing date last year, the two were driven off the road by a driver who had lost control. They just missed a head-on collision. Luck and the grace of God had them miss a nearby canal. Seat belts probably prevented a horrific tragedy.
They were victims. They did nothing wrong just innocent folks in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They emerged with a few bruises and lacerations. Both were playing in a couple of weeks.
As they plan for the football future, neither can completely blot out the past.
Neither really wants to. At an early age, they received a surreal glimpse of life in perspective.
"It gets on your mind sometimes," said Ceaser, a sophomore-to-be from Monroe. "Just a couple of feet ... a couple of feet ... and both of us would have been seriously injured or dead. When I got out of the truck, that canal was just a couple of feet away. We were lucky we were not in it.
"I feel blessed that both of us came out of an accident like that with scrapes and bruises."
As challenging as exams are, as tough as offseason conditioning can be sometimes, as achy as it gets with those tired muscles, Grimes, a junior-to-be from Baton Rouge, has learned the value of a day of life.
It's apparently affected his football outlook, his school outlook.
"The Lord brought us through," Grimes said. "I cherish every day now. I thank Him that me and Ceaser are both here. Every morning I say a prayer, telling the Lord I'm thankful I'm still here and for the ability he gave me to play football."
Many of the Bears will break for the summer this week benefitting from another year of playing and book learning.
The education of Grimes and Ceaser has gone well beyond that.
(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)
