A short walk across U.S. Highway 67 in Arkadelphia, Ark., nearly 30 years ago forever altered Gus Malzahn's trajectory.

After failing to make the team at Ouachita Baptist, a small NAIA private university, Malzahn made a call across the street to Henderson State coach Sporty Carpenter. All Malzahn wanted was a chance to keep playing football, and Carpenter was more than willing to give it to him.

"His life changed," former Henderson State assistant George Baker said. "Our coach was really good at handling people.... Gus prospered. He was a great team leader, and he was a heady young man who was already studying football."

Henderson State was Malzahn's third school. Following a promising high school career at Fort Smith as a receiver, Malzahn tried to walk on at Arkansas. He saw the field in one game in 1984 before transferring to Ouachita Baptist to play for Arkansas legend Buddy Bob Benson.

After Malzahn tore up his shoulder on the final day of spring practice, Benson decided he didn't have room for a punter who didn't also play a position. Malzahn picked up the phone and called Carpenter about an opportunity to play for the Reddies -- Ouachita Baptist's archrival.

League rules required Carpenter to inform Benson that Malzahn contacted him and ask permission to have further conversations. Benson gave the go-ahead, and Malzahn walked across the street to Henderson State's campus, where Carpenter welcomed him with open arms.

"We would take anybody whether he couldn't play dead in a Western movie, we'd let him come on and try to make a student out of him and help with our enrollment," Baker said. "At that time, we knew with Gus, we knew that he was not fast and that's one of the things -- speed kills, and if you ain't got it, it kills you. We were not thinking that he was going to make our team successful, but he was a human being, and our coach and our staff were interested in him being successful and going on and doing good things."

Upon their first meeting in Carpenter's office, the longtime Henderson State coach told Malzahn three things: He already had housing set up for Malzahn and his newlywed wife, Kristi. He had an on-campus job lined up for Kristi, and he had pads ready and waiting for Malzahn in the locker room.

"It did a lot," Malzahn said of Carpenter's offer. "Of course, Coach Carpenter was one of the few head coaches to actually offer me a scholarship out of high school... Henderson was a super experience for me. It taught me a lot. There were a lot of former coaches and coaches that greatly influenced me, especially early on in my coaching career."

***

Baker wasn't completely sold on Malzahn the first time he watched him play.

Malzahn was still in high school at Fort Smith, and Baker was recruiting him to Henderson State -- but he didn't have a scholarship offer for him. After watching game film of the lanky receiver and speaking to him by phone several times (Baker never recruited him in person), Baker tried to sway Malzahn to Arkadelphia as a walk-on.

The Reddies were in the market for walk-ons; Baker said sometimes they would take 200 of them in a year, though substantially fewer actually made the team. At a small school like Henderson State, the coaching staff saw it as a way to bolster the small liberal arts college's enrollment, which has recently grown to 3,052 undergraduates.

"Gus played at a private school and he was a tall boy and a pretty good player," Baker said, "but he wasn't very fast and we didn't think he could win for us, but we wanted him to come to school here."

Henderson State eventually offered Malzahn a scholarship but he had other plans: He'd walk-on at Arkansas.

"He thought he was a better player, so he went to the U of A, and it didn't take him very long to find out he wasn't," Baker said.

When he finally arrived at Henderson State in 1988, Malzahn only expected to be the Reddies' punter but the staff moved him around to different spots. Baker briefly tried Malzahn out at defensive back but that experiment didn't last long.

Bill Massey, the program's offensive coordinator, told Carpenter he could use Malzahn for depth on offense. After all, Malzahn was 6-foot-2, 190 pounds and had experience playing receiver in high school.

Malzahn resisted the move, preferring to only punt, but provided depth at the position. He didn't record a reception in 1988, but he finished the year averaging 35.3 yards per punt, including a career-long 64-yarder against Southeast Oklahoma.

"The thing that stood out to me was when he punted the ball," said Mark King, a former left tackle at Henderson State and friend of Malzahn's. "He could absolutely hammer a ball as a punter."

Malzahn, left, with Paul Calley, left-middle, Dexter Lewis, middle, and head coach Ralph Carpenter. (Photos via War Eagle Reader via Huie Library.)

***

Malzahn was unlike any other player at Henderson State, as he was the only one who was married during his time in Arkadelphia.

While the rest of his teammates resided in the school's athletics dorm, Malzahn and Kristi had their own place at Powder Hill Manor -- a quaint, one-bedroom apartment tucked just behind the local Baptist hospital on Twin Rivers Drive.

"It was different for all of us," King said. "Us, as players in our early 20s, the last thing you're thinking about is being married while you're playing, but he handled it unbelievably well."

Malzahn took part in all team activities and hung out with several of his teammates, but he had to balance football life and married life. Kristi, who had a job on campus, was always "super nice" to Malzahn's teammates, and their door at Powder Hill was always open.

It was different, to be sure, but not particularly difficult in small-town Arkadelphia, a rural community tucked in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, bordered on two sides by the Caddo and Ouachita Rivers.

"It's just like paradise out here," Baker said.

Malzahn played intramural sports, including softball and basketball, played tennis with King and others, and spent his downtime relaxing with teammates on DeGray Lake, where they would go swimming and play volleyball. He wasn't one for nightlife, though that was hard to come by in Arkadelphia, which only had a single-movie theater that was only open part-time.

If players wanted to go out on the weekends and after games, they'd have to travel about 30 miles north to Hot Springs or an hour southwest to Texarkana for any semblance of nightlife.

But not Malzahn.

"Gus was mature beyond his age," King said. "That was something that always stood out, but he was always around any team activity, anything we had going on. He was always there. He made time for that, but you also understood that he wasn't the normal college student to go out on weekends after the game or anything. He was spending his family time. He was a family man."

Paul Calley, the Reddies' starting center during Malzahn's time in Arkadelphia, described him as a "no-nonsense" type of guy on the field. Baker recalls Malzahn being introspective, polite and low-key, while Eddington remembers him being studious and quiet.

King recollects a different side to Malzahn, an outgoing personality who "never met a stranger" -- a somewhat different personality than the guarded one he outwardly presents to the public these days.

"When he was younger he was kind of an open book, really," King said. "He would tell you anything. He was just accessible to anybody. Any time you needed him, if you needed something you could call him.... Everybody loved him. I know Coach Carpenter thought the world of him."

When things went wrong for the Reddies, either on or off the field, Malzahn was one of the team leaders who held things together.

"I always looked at him like a big brother to me," Calley said. "He was a guy you wanted to be like."

During the 1989 Battle of the Ravine -- the annual rivalry game with Ouachita Baptist, Henderson State got off to a slow start. Malzahn kept his teammates calm on the sideline and assured everyone they were "going to right the ship."

The Reddies won that game, 20-14.

When King's grandfather passed away in 1988, the left tackle took his passing particularly hard. Malzahn did everything he could to help his friend and teammate through the ordeal.

"He was not a rah-rah guy, but he led by example," Baker said. "You could use a team full of guys like that -- but you got to have some gorillas to go along with it. He was a valuable member of the team in the long run as far as contributions to leadership. Every football team has several catastrophes occur during the season ...and you need strong guys around them to get them back in the fold. Football is such a mental game, and Gus was good for that."

***

Stashed in a shoebox in Calley's closet in Benton, Ark., is a VHS with virtually every offensive play the Reddies ran in 1989.

There's Malzahn, draped in his No. 80 Henderson State jersey, striding downfield and diving for a pass over the middle. There's another one of the 6-foot-2 receiver making a grab on an intermediate pass down the left sideline.

It's one of the few remaining visual representations of Malzahn's playing career at the small-time NAIA program.

"He was a guy that didn't have blazing speed, but he had great hands," Calley said. "He was going to run precise routes and do everything exactly right."

Back then, Malzahn wasn't playing in front of more than 87,000 people, like his teams do these days. Haygood Stadium in Arkadelphia, where the Reddies called home, seated just 9,600 -- though Henderson State never saw more than 7,600 in attendance during Malzahn's years.

He was just happy to be playing after things didn't pan out at Arkansas or Ouachita Baptist.

"Gus was the football equivalent to a gym rat," Eddington said. "He wanted to be around football."

After focusing on punting his first year in Arkadelphia, Malzahn stood out as a senior in 1989 for the Reddies. According to Eddington, Henderson State lost a couple talented receivers, who were either dismissed or left the program prior to that season, opening the door for Malzahn to have a bigger role on offense as a possession receiver.

"He was tall, and we'd throw it to him across the middle," Baker said. "He had plenty of guts."

He caught 24 passes for 288 yards, averaging 12 yards per catch while leading the team in receiving, though he didn't find the end zone. Henderson State threw only five touchdown passes that season in Massey's pro-style offense. Malzahn reminded King of Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Largent in the way he played the position.

"He wasn't going to dazzle you with athleticism, but what he did as a receiver is he ran great routes, precise routes, and he had good hands," King said. "He wasn't going to outrun you -- not the greatest athlete, but ran good routes, great routes, and if you threw it around him he was going to catch it."

Teammates recall a standout performance Malzahn had against Arkansas Tech that season in a game Henderson State won, 34-23, on the road. Malzahn came down with "six or seven" big catches, including multiple third-down conversions across the middle of the field to help the Reddies improve to 4-2 on the year before finishing the season 7-4 and ranked 15th in the final NAIA rankings.

Of course, receiver wasn't Malzahn's only role that season. He was the holder on field goals and extra points, and again excelled at punter. He punted 59 times for 2,223 yards -- including another 64-yarder against Harding -- and averaged 37.68 yards per punt while earning All-AIC honorable mention honors.

Nearly 30 years later, Malzahn's name can still be found in the Henderson State record books. His two 64-yard punts are still tied for 10th-longest in Reddies history, and his 37.7-yard average that season is tied for ninth all-time at the school.

"Gus was a football nerd in some ways, and his interest in being around the game and his commitment to play at whatever level he could find to use his skill, that's what he did," Eddington said. "He went to Arkansas. He went to Ouachita. He went to Henderson, and he found a place where he could get on scholarship and play. I think that says a lot about him, and it's what he was searching for at that time."

He found that in Arkadelphia when he walked across U.S. Highway 67, and then at Hughes High as an assistant coach after graduation, when he launched an unlikely career path that saw him go from small-time high school defensive coordinator to an SEC head coach.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.