Most of what you probably know about Georgia Southern's Matt Breida came from his breakout sophomore campaign, when he burst onto the scene with 1,485 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns.

He also led the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per carry at 8.7 yards a pop and had the most rushing touchdowns (seven) of 50 or more yards of any player. Then there are the expectations for him this season and the preseason accolades he hears about week after week - making first-team All-Sun Belt Conference and the Maxwell Award and the Doak Walker Award watch lists - to the point it makes him ready to start the season tomorrow and put the hype to rest.

You probably know Matt Breida the rising star. You probably don't know Matt Breida the unknown - who he was before he broke off a 61-yard touchdown run in the 2014 season opener at North Carolina State, leaving a pair of Wolfpack defenders huffing and clawing after air.

To know that Matt Breida, it's best to start with the parents who raised him. There they are near the handicap rail just above the lower deck of the north stands of Paulson Stadium.

Don't see them? They're not easy to spot. You have to look beyond the surface. Breida knows exactly where they are. He looks their way and waves to them during his pregame warm-up before every home game, and they wave right back.

That's them. Mike and Terri Breida.

It's obvious they are not really related to Matt. They are not his biological parents. They are both white, 55 years old and permanently disabled; Terri is confined to a wheelchair. None of that matters to Matt. To him, they are Mom and Dad.

He also has an adopted brother named Josh. While Matt helped lead Georgia Southern to a Sun Belt championship in the school's first year as a Football Bowl Subdivision program, Josh sat in a prison cell.

Filling the void

Nestled in between Hernando Beach and a slew of natural wildlife preserves, Spring Hill, Fla. - a community of about 100,000 residents roughly one hour north of Tampa - is described by Mike Breida as a very "blended" community, friendly and kind toward all of its residents.

It became the perfect place for a white couple moving from Philadelphia to raise their newly adopted baby boys, both of whom came from separate black families and were born 11 months apart.

Mike and Terri Breida were 25 years old when they were married, living in Philadelphia, dreaming of having children. They tried patiently for 10 years, but Terri never got pregnant. They went through multiple fertility tests that provided no answers, while a hole in their life continued to expand.

They were reminded of it constantly. Friends and family members were getting married and working on their second or third or fourth child. One day, Mike and Terri were invited to the christening of the twins Mike's cousin had just given birth to. The babies were passed around for everyone to hold, and when one of them reached Terri, she could barely hold back the tears.

Innocuously, relatives started to ask them when they were going to have children.

"It's killing you inside," Terri said in a telephone interview. "I was trying so hard not to cry."

Added Mike: "We wanted a kid from Day 1. We started trying to have kids. We were both getting tested and not getting anywhere."

When the couple hit 35, they had silently given up, and they moved to Spring Hill, where Terri worked as a nurse at a hospital in Dade City, about an hour to the east just off Interstate 75.

There, Terri said she encountered a situation in which a white woman, who was being abused by her black husband, gave her baby up for adoption. After that, Terri pledged that if she and Mike could not have a child of their own, they would rescue one from a desperate situation.

Terri could never be a foster parent. She couldn't handle growing attached to a child only to see them leave within a few months and have another one come in.

"Emotionally, it would really devastate me," she said.

She wanted one she could call her own.

On March 2, 1995, after they completed all the necessary courses and certifications, the Breidas got a call from their adoption agency about a 2-day-old boy whose mother was single and already had two children, and she could not afford to take care of another. Mike and Terri didn't hesitate to say yes.

Under adoption laws in Florida at that time, biological parents had 90 days after putting their child up for adoption to change their minds and regain custody.

"Once those 90 days went by, I felt a lot better," Terri said.

Things were a little more complicated with Josh. His mother, who already had six children, was conflicted with her decision from the beginning. She reached out to the Breidas twice to set up a meeting, but she never showed. Eventually, the first 90 days passed, and the Breidas now had two sons.





'They're my real mom and dad'

Josh would become just as conflicted with wanting to know who his mother was, but Florida adoption laws also stipulate that after the preliminary 90 days, no contact is allowed between the child and his biological family until the child is 18 years old.

Matt is two years older than that, and he still has never met his mother. Somewhere on the planet are his two older siblings.

"People always ask, 'Do you ever want to meet her?' It never really crosses my mind," Matt said Monday during team practice in Statesboro. "I've known these people from Day 1, so they're my family. They're my real mom and dad."

Josh didn't share those feelings. Matt doesn't doubt that Josh loves the Breidas - and they have always told Josh they love their sons equally - but his curiosity about his family grew early on as a child.

"Some kids have no problem being adopted, some do," Mike said. "Matt, we were Mom and Dad. Josh, he didn't like it.

"Josh has so many questions. I wish I had a picture of his mother to show to him. That would make him feel a lot better."

Matt was the oldest, content with where he was, and he excelled in sports - three things that never sat well with Josh, who was trying to figure out his place in the world.

"We were really close," Matt said. "He used to follow me around. He always looked up to me. At the same time, he didn't really want to be like me. He always felt like I always got the better of things. I just try to tell him it's all the same, and you have to follow your heart."

Matt is still hoping Josh learns that.





Days well spent

The experience of parenting was as fulfilling as the Breidas had hoped. They remember Christmases together the most and enjoyed seeing Matt and Josh's eyes light up when they received presents of bikes, Playstation video games and Power Rangers.

Mike stayed home with the boys. A few years earlier, before moving to Spring Hill, he was declared permanently disabled after a life-threatening case of meningitis. He survived, but the disease left him with permanent brain damage, mostly affecting his memory and problem-solving ability.

After years of sitting at home by himself while Terri worked, he was able to do everything with Matt and Josh. He occupied his time by taking them to the mall, the movies and football practice.

"It really made my day so much nicer," Mike said.

The 2000s brought times of tribulation to the Breida family. Mike was in a car accident in 2003, and he's had difficulty walking ever since. The family had to downsize into an apartment for two years before they could move back into a house.

Terri was involved in an even more serious accident in 2006. The driver at fault ran through a red left arrow as Terri was crossing through an intersection at 45 mph. She had been in a couple of accidents before, but this one put her in a wheelchair, unable to work.

The family was suddenly dependent on disability income, but they've managed to stay in their current home for the past nine years.

Mike and Terri were now both at home full time, but Matt continued to do well in sports, especially in football and track, which gave his parents an outlet from the confines of their house.

"Any sport I played, they were at every single game," Matt said. "If they can make it, they're going to go."





A season to remember

Matt Breida celebrated a win over the school he grew up wanting to play for in 2013, his freshman season.

He became a star at Nature Coast Technical High School, where he combined for 3,012 yards and 37 touchdowns over his junior and senior seasons. But he was overlooked by Florida and the state's other major universities, which thought he was too small.

He followed then GSU head coach Jeff Monken to Statesboro, and as a freshman he saw playing time taking kickoffs and had just one carry for 15 yards. In the last game of the season, the Eagles came into Gainesville, Fla., to take on the Gators in the first football meeting between the schools.

Even after that game - one of the biggest wins in the school's history - Breida was still an unknown. He returned two kickoffs for 34 yards. The Eagles entered that game with 19 injured players, and eight different players carried the ball that day, but Breida wasn't one of them.

During the offseason, Monken left to become the head coach at Army, and GSU hired Willie Fritz as its new coach. An injury he sustained during the season required Matt to have shoulder surgery, which caused him to miss all of spring practice, and he was afraid he was at a disadvantage when preseason came.

"I was in the film room so much because I wanted to learn," Breida said. "I knew I would only have one opportunity to impress the coaches, because they didn't get to see me in the spring. That was going through my head the whole time."

For Fritz, once was enough.

"After the first practice, I said, 'Wow, I think we've got something here.' He's just taken off," Fritz said.

Fritz retooled the Eagles by bringing in a zone-read offense to replace Monken's triple-option attack. He and running backs coach Dell McGee believe Breida would be a great rusher in any offense, but he fits in perfectly with the zone scheme.

"What we do offensively as a running team is a lot different than what they were doing," Fritz said. "He's just got a knack for it. You've got to have patience to decide where the hole is going to be, and you've got to make quick decisions, and he does that.

"He's got tremendous acceleration. We tell our players slow to the hole, but sprint through the hole. He really runs a 4.3. I haven't had a lot of guys who run a 4.3, but he does. He's fast. If he gets out there and gets a step on you, it's a touchdown. I've seen him outrun a lot of good players, a lot of fast guys."

Fritz saw that against North Carolina State. Breida took a handoff in the first half on the 39-yard line and nearly stopped looking for the hole. When he saw it on the left side between the center and left tackle, he burst through the hole and with his track speed outran defenders to the end zone.

He continued to impress and get better week after week. He became the Eagles' biggest offensive threat, averaging as much as 16.8 yards per carry in a 69-31 win against Georgia State. Breida had a career day, rushing 12 times for 201 yards and four touchdowns. He became the most efficient ball-carrier in college football. The most touches he received in one game was 21 in a 28-6 victory over South Alabama, the fourth game of the season. That was also the game Breida thought he had solidified himself as the starter.

This season, Breida would like to become the type of running back who can close a game out. Even with defenses game-planning to stop the Eagle rushing attack, which averaged an FBS-leading 383 yards per game last year, Breida already has talked with his coaches about getting more touches, and he has his eyes set on 2,000 yards for his encore.

"We'd like for him to touch the ball 15 to 20 times per game, whether it be a pass or a run," Fritz said. "If he's rolling and feeling good and we can get him the ball more than that, we will."





Ties that bond

Before Matt continues his quest to make history in Statesboro, Josh is scheduled to be released from prison on Wednesday. Matt is hoping to have the chance to make the trip down to Florida to see his brother for the first time in almost a year.

In October 2014, Josh was brought up on domestic violence charges and sentenced to 10 months. At this point, Mike Breida said he doesn't know what will happen when Josh gets out. He's 19 now and old enough to seek out his birth mother if he wishes.

Josh has been to many of Matt's games to cheer him on. He was the first to greet Matt with a hug in The Swamp after the win over Florida. Mike hopes he will be in the stands again this season as Matt seeks to become one of the greatest running backs to ever play at Georgia Southern.

"I want them to have a relationship," Mike said. "They may not be blood brothers, but they're brothers."