Gardner Minshew is an unlikely reminder that you can come out of nowhere, you can be an afterthought no one believed in, and you can write a story of perseverance so compelling that you are suddenly a national phenomenon.

In Brandon, Miss., where it all began for Minshew, young kids are mimicking him with fake mustaches around town — though the odds of Tom Coughlin wearing one around Jacksonville are considered about as remote as the prospect of his new Jaguars quarterback stepping in for Nick Foles and captivating the entire country when the NFL least expected it.

“I’d have a better chance of winning the Kentucky Derby,” Jaguars offensive coordinator John DeFilippo said by phone, and laughed.

Joe Namath sported a famous Fu Manchu at a turbulent time in American history when he was a rebel with a cause, and several other quarterbacks have followed suite in various ways, but the Minshew Mustache has taken on a life of its own, for whatever reason.

Maybe it’s because it sits above his upper lip as the defining part of a package, the likes of which flies in the face of NFL norms.

Houston Smith has been Minshew’s best friend since the eighth grade.

“You think about the faces of the NFL right now,” Smith told Serby Says by phone. “You think about Tom Brady, Odell Beckham Jr., Cam Newton, guys like that. It’s all about who can wear the nicest clothes and nicest jewelry, drive the coolest cars, you know, they’re wearing watches and chains during the game.

“And then Gardner comes, he comes out of nowhere to Washington State, he’s got this goofy mustache and this headband, and he wears these jorts and cowboy boots and these goofy suits. And, it’s just kind of like his brand and his style is just kind of like the polar opposite from what you see from — not that there’s anything wrong with what OBJ and Tom Brady and Cam Newton and guys like that are doing — but I think Gardner’s style, his swag is so much different than what fans are used to that it’s kind of refreshing. It’s unique, it’s original, it’s funny. It’s charming in like its own little way. His journey to the NFL is so much different than everybody else’s, and I think it all just kind of fits his personality so well.”

Smith has been an eyewitness to every step of a journey that began with a frustrated Minshew having to walk on at Troy University.

“He knew that he was good enough to play Division I football, and because he wasn’t 6-4, because he didn’t run a 4.5, he wasn’t getting offers from any D-1 programs,” Smith said. “The premier all-star game in Mississippi, they didn’t select him for it mainly because he wasn’t the big high-profile recruit like most of the other in-state guys.

“It hurt him, it frustrated him, it pissed him off, there’s no doubt — it pissed all of us off.

“What he does better than anybody is use that kind of stuff to fuel him, to motivate him, he plays with that edge, that chip on his shoulder, that’s what he’s used I think his whole career to get to this point. I think that he still remembers that stuff today, I know he does.

“So now that he’s here, it’s kind of like an F-U to so many people that’s doubted him, that didn’t give him a chance.”

But Minshew — who is 6-foot-1, 220 pounds of competitive fire and smarts — was forced to overcome devastating heartache after leaving Troy after six months and winning an NJCAA championship at Northwest Mississippi CC and then winning the starting job at the only school to offer him one, East Carolina.

“I went with his family to the home opener his second season at East Carolina,” Smith recalled. “They played James Madison, he started the game, got pulled after a half, got benched, they ended up losing the game, got booed off the field. We saw him after the game, went to dinner, went to breakfast the next morning, and, he didn’t hardly pick his head up. I mean, he had his head in his hands the whole time, because he felt like he had had an opportunity and had squandered it. It was heartbreaking, it really was. None of us had ever seen him like that. It was an absolute low point for him, I think.”

You can knock this kid down but you can’t keep him down. He went on to pass for nearly 3,500 yards with 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 17 games at East Carolina. After graduating with a year of eligibility left, he transferred to Washington State.

It was there Minshew created an everlasting image — getting carried on the shoulders of Cougars fans after he upset No. 12 Oregon last October. Minshew Mania blew into Jacksonville after he was 22-of-25 for 275 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in his debut against the Chiefs.

“I get this question probably 10 times a day,” said Smith, a student at Mississippi State, “and I tell everybody the same thing. I say, ‘I’m not surprised in the least.’ But It is surreal, it really is like a pinch-yourself kind of thing. There’s no denying that it’s crazy that he’s playing against Patrick Mahomes and JJ Watt and Deshaun Watson. But to me, he was destined to be here. He is one of those guys now.”

He is one of those guys who will stretch in the pregame locker room clad only in a jock. One of those guys who will wear shades to the postgame interview.

“We went to the football field to take pictures for prom,” Smith recalled. “So he takes his date out to the football field, and they posed in front of his like senior banner — got a football in his hands and it’s Gardner Minshew No. 9 — he posted the picture and the caption was like: Homecoming or Prom with my two favorite people. So it was a picture of him and a picture of his date. It’s not an act. Everything that people see on TV, he’s just a goofy guy, he’s not arrogant about it. That’s just him, that’s just his sense of humor, that’s just him being Gardner.”

One of those guys who unsuccessfully attempted to break his hand with a hammer with a bottle of Jack Daniels to assist him so he could redshirt at East Carolina, and yet scored a 42 out of 50 on the Wonderlic test and mastered the Air Raid offense. One of those guys who was raised to make his own decisions in life.

“When people watch him play, I think they can genuinely see this kid loves playing football,” DeFilippo said. “Even before he became our quarterback, the guys genuinely liked him because they saw how serious he takes his craft, his job. They see the time he puts in. They see the toughness in terms of the preseason when he was getting knocked up and then getting back up. So I think he had earned some street cred from the fellas.”

One of those guys who way back when convinced the pastor of a local church to give him the key to the gym so he and his friends could play basketball. One of those guys who wrote a letter to his second grade teacher stating that he wanted to be a football player when he grew up. One of those guys who so hated to lose a baseball game as a youth that …

“He’d want me to beat up another kid’s dad ’cause [his] dad didn’t bring him to practice. He definitely had a competitive edge to him at an early age,” Flint Minshew said.

Flint and wife Kim are among the legions who do not necessarily want the mustache to be hair today and gone tomorrow.

“She’s kind of like me. She’s just glad he’s out there having fun, and if that’s part of him having fun, nothing against people with tattoos, but it’s not like he’s got a big bald eagle tattooed across his chest that he can never get rid of. It’s nothing line that,” Flint said. “What’s the harm in a dang mustache? It’s not like it’s permanent.”

His son is not permanent either, not even after beating the Titans for his first NFL victory. Foles is the $88 million man. Minshew was the sixth-round draft choice. Foles (collarbone) is expected back around Week 11. Minshew Mania in the meantime.

“I don’t really pay attention to it,” Gardner said this week. “I try to stay off of social media, just keep life simple. Just stay in the book, study up and get ready for each game as it comes.”

Each game provides another proving ground.

“He’s really more about proving that he was right all along, and the people who believed in him were right,” Flint said.

There weren’t many. The most important person who believed in Gardner Minshew was Gardner Minshew.