TROY — Tanner Blatt was in his apartment, getting ready to go to work when the phone unexpectedly rang.

Blatt was used to being summoned — that’s how DoorDash and other delivery services work. Someone orders food from a restaurant or a fast-food joint, or orders groceries, or orders whatever.

Blatt picks it all up and delivers it.

But this phone call came from an unexpected place and had a most-unexpected request.

Can you deliver the ball?

Blatt, a former walk-on at Troy who gave up football more than a year ago, was listening to Troy running backs coach Brian Blackmon, who is also his former high school coach at Opelika.

The Trojans, due to injuries, were digging deeper than ever in search of running backs.

Might Blatt, instead of running deliveries all over town, run the ball instead?

“He said, ‘I have the craziest proposition of your life. I need you to come back and play running back for us,’” Blatt remembered Tuesday over how he skipped his Door Dash shift and soon rejoined the Trojans.

“I said, ‘I can be up there this afternoon,’” Blatt said. “I took a shower, got a little bit of food and took off to practice.”

Thus began an unusual week that Blatt ended with 11 carries for 44 yards in Troy’s 35-7 win at Akron last weekend.

With the Trojans missing three running backs, including one to a season-ending knee injury, they turned to Blatt rather than risk another scholarship player.

“They may make a ‘30 for 30’ on that one day,” Troy coach Chip Lindsey said. “I think you have to be impressed with a guy who gets a few days of work and goes into a game trying to help us put it away.”

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Blatt’s decision took less time than he needed to convince his family that the news was real.

Older brother Zach openly scoffed. His parents weren’t as incredulous, but they still didn’t believe.

“The first person I called was my brother,” Tanner Blatt said. “He did not believe me. At all.

“He didn’t believe me for about four days. He thought I was just messing with him.”

Tanner had to resort to 21st-century tactics to sway his family. He showed them practice film.

“It’s ‘The Waterboy’ all over again,” defensive coordinator Brandon Hall said.

Hall remembered how he “hated” when Blatt left the Trojans more than a year ago and how Blatt’s work ethic and enthusiasm were “infectious” to the other players.

Hall also said Blatt’s quick reaction to Blackmon was no surprise.

“Of course, his head coach told him he had to play,” Hall said. “He never wavered one bit. He was like, ‘Hey, I need you out here tomorrow,’ and he’s like, ‘OK.’”

Blatt had decided to give up football more than a year ago for financial reasons.

Without much promise of playing time, he decided he needed to work to help pay for school. He worked for DoorDash several nights a week in Troy and went home on the weekends to work in lawn care.

Blatt also helps in Troy’s strength and conditioning department as part of a class internship. “Baseball and softball in the mornings,” he said.

He has 19 class hours this semester, including the three-hour internship, plus the two jobs. And now football.

“It’s crazy how it worked out,” Blatt said. “Over the past semesters, my classes had been in the afternoons. It just so happens that all my classes now are done right before practice.

“It’s 19 hours, the most I’ve ever had, and it just so happens that it’s done right before we have practice.”

Blatt, the week before fielding the football call, did field a food delivery to Troy’s football complex.

Offensive graduate assistant Nick Anderson stood out, Blatt said, because he tipped well.

“Coach Nick has been the best, by far,” Blatt said, reviewing his tipping memory. “Students typically don’t tip so much, obviously. I don’t blame them. It’s college.”

Blatt skipped another DoorDash shift Sunday — “You pick when you want to work,” he said — due to bodily conditions.

“I hadn’t been that sore in a while,” Blatt said. “I wasn’t tired, but my body felt like I had been hit by a train.”

He plans to continue working at DoorDash a few nights a week, though he’ll go on a sabbatical from his weekend job at home in Opelika. Hey, Troy (2-1) has more games, starting with Saturday’s home game against Arkansas State (2-2).

As far as DoorDash, Blatt said he’ll likely work Monday nights, when Troy has an off day, and Sunday nights. Potentially Thursday, too.

“I don’t want to overdo it, but it’s still a possibility,” he said. “It’s easy work, depending on the night, and it pays pretty good.

“If you’re busy, it’s good. If you’re not, I can just sit in my car, do homework and study.”

Lindsey said he was unaware of Blatt’s employment status and admitted it, during the game, “might have scared me even more.”

But Blatt’s football deliveries garnered his rave review.

“That’s amazing, isn’t it?” Lindsey said. “I didn’t even know what that was. DoorDash, is that what they call it?”

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter A. Stacy Long at slong1@gannett.com