ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Gallons created a three-car caravan to the Orlando International Airport that summer day in 2009.

For the first time, a Gallon would head to college, an emotional experience beginning with a 45-minute drive to the airport and the start of a new life for Jeremy Gallon.

Jeremy Gallon earned All-Big Ten honorable mention honors this season. Jesse Johnson/US Presswire

"Every mile got tougher and tougher," Gallon said. "My dad … I've never seen my dad cry. Ever. Got to the airport, and every step it got tougher and tougher for him. He let it go, started bawling.

"I did, too."

The Gallons, 15 in all including extended family, joined for one final group hug. Jeremy had been accepted to Michigan, and this was how he would depart to follow his dream.

He moved through the security line, looking back at his parents. He didn't know what it would be like on his own, whether he'd fit in, how it would all work. No one in his family could guide him.

As he disappeared through the line, the remaining Gallons stood around, climbed back in their cars and drove home to Apopka, Fla., where they spent the night watching Jeremy's high school highlights.

With Gallon's eyes bloodshot, nose sniffling as he reached his seat on the flight, the woman next to him asked, "What's wrong?"

Gallon was leaving behind everything he knew to become a receiver for the Wolverines. He didn't know how else to handle it, even if he knew it was a positive.

"We were sad to see him go, sad to see him leave," said Christopher Gallon, his father. "But we knew he was going to do something better with his life."

Escaping Apopka

Rick Darlington, the Apopka High coach, had seen kids like Gallon before -- athletically talented enough for college but struggling or worse academically.

Darlington would drive Gallon home after practices in his beat-up Jeep, dropping him off last. Before he would go inside, Darlington preached the importance of academics and being a "good guy."

Fed up one day in his sophomore year, Gallon asked Darlington why he pushed him. The answer was the first critical change in Gallon's path. Darlington responded: "You can go to college for this. You can do good things with this."

Gallon said he saw negativity all around him, from "drugs, gangs, whatever," to friends he grew up with being arrested or killed.

"I wasn't even thinking about college until my coach stressed it," Gallon said. "I never thought I would get this far."

Gallon said his first letter came from nearby UCF. Interest from other schools followed. Most schools spoke of what Gallon could do with football.