PISCATAWAY -- Josh Hicks knows what Rutgers fans must have been thinking last season -- that he was a head case, or that he was out of shape, or that he didn't buy into the methods of the new coaching staff.

How else could they explain such a dramatic drop in production for a running back with so much talent? Hicks was too good to vanish from the Scarlet Knights offense, but after the second week of the season he had just 43 rushing yards, including four games when he didn't touch the ball at all.

"They (were) probably like, 'He sucks. He's not into it.' They never know what's going on," Hicks said on Saturday, an hour after a strong performance in the team's spring game.

He wasn't complaining. He understands completely. How could those fans know what was happening in his life?

That his mother had given up her apartment in Palmetto, Fla., to have more spending cash for his family. That she had moved in with her sister and was about to take on a third job to pay the bills. That she was not only raising his three siblings, but she was helping to support four of his own kids back home.

Hicks wasn't struggling on the football field. He was consumed with stress and fear in his personal life, worried to the point that he was ready to give up the sport forever so he could return home and do something -- anything -- to help his mother and family.

"I'll work in McDonald's if I have to," Hicks told Taia Curry, his mother, and this was not an idle threat. He left the team multiple times this fall, with head coach Chris Ash and strength coach Kenny Parker convincing him to return each time and think about his long-term future.

He knew what they were saying was true. But staying focused on a distant goal was next to impossible while facing the immediacy of his family's problems.

"I didn't want to be here no more," Hicks said. "I just wanted to go home and help my family. But I realized that the NFL is the next step and it's within arm's reach. I've been having this dream for a long time, and it would give me a way to provide for my family."

Rutgers running back Josh Hicks hugs his mother, Taia Curry, at his high school graduation.

Hicks is back with the Scarlet Knights, with a clear mind and healthy body. He credits Ash and Parker for keeping his eyes on the big picture, and also his mom for insisting that he would not, in no uncertain terms, throw away his future for a short-term fix to her problems.

The fans who watched the spring game saw the flashes of the old Hicks, the quick first step to the hole and the powerful strides. It was hard not to shake your head at the NCAA's hypocrisy that night, that Rutgers could write a $100,000 check for a country band to entertain the crowd but those same fans would be breaking a dozen rules if they passed a hat around to help Hicks' mom pay her rent.

But that's college football -- for now, at least, and the foreseeable future. Hicks has one more season to make an impression for the NFL scouts and hope that, one year from now, he'll be on draft boards with a shot at the payday that could change his life forever.

He has to get there first, which is why each time he called home last fall threatening to come home, his mother told him, "That is not an option."

"You were blessed with a scholarship for four years," Curry said he told him. "Many kids wish they had that opportunity. You're going to stay in school. If you listen to anybody who became famous and made it to their dreams, they struggled somewhere along the way.

"If you give up now, you'll always wonder where you could have ended up."

Curry is a cook at a nursing home. She took on a second job last fall in a similar field as a dietary aid and was considering a third job as a "companion" who helps take clients to doctors' appointments.

It was the news of the third job that angered Hicks. "I don't want you to be stressed out with all those jobs," Hicks told his mother. "I don't want you going through all that. When will you have time for yourself?"

Hicks, a self-described homebody who had never traveled out of Florida as a kid, couldn't stand the idea of his mother struggling. She was the one who raised him, the "only person I had in my corner" when he was growing up.

He and his mom were always close. Curry said she was "a bit of a tomboy" growing up, and she was never afraid to join in the football games with the boys around her house. When she discovered she was pregnant, she worried about the impact those rough games might have had on her baby.

So it was no surprise to her that Hicks was a bruiser out of the womb, a star player at Palmetto High good enough to earn that full ride to Rutgers. She said people were always offering her shortcuts to get her son back on the field, but she never allowed him to take the easy road when it came to academics.

"I didn't finish high school," she said. "I know college is not for everybody, but if you've got an opportunity to get that degree, you take it."

Curry convinced her son that better days were ahead, and in a phone call this week, she confirmed that her life has taken a turn for the better. She is only working one job now, and she is preparing to move back into an apartment of her own in the coming weeks.

All of that has helped Hicks keep a clear mind and focus on football. He has no idea where he would be now if he left the team last fall, but he knows staying the course is the best road to help his mom and kids.

"Every time I get up in the morning, I think of them," he said. "That's my motivation. I get up every morning and do what I do, of course because I love football, but I (also) have a family to look after. If I can control what I can control now, I can provide for my family later."

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.