JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Inspiration struck Gabe Myles while he was sitting in an empty locker room in early July.
The offseason was about to come to an end for the Starkville native. After a struggle of a junior season with just eight catches and no touchdowns, he was about to take on what could be the final season of football he ever plays.
In that moment, Myles grabbed his phone, recorded a video and put it on Twitter. In the video he outlined a new outlook on football — one that didn’t make the sport the only priority of his life and where he admits he’s been guilty of that. His former philosophy, he said, caused an “identity crisis.”
“I lost myself to football,” Myles said in the video. “I wanted to make plays because I wanted the glory. I wanted football to be my way of rising up in that sense. I suffered for that.”
He used that video to accomplish two goals: serve as a testimonial for any athletes struggling with the same balance, and to set for himself a new approach to football for his senior season. That season ends Saturday when the Bulldogs (8-4) take on Louisville (8-4) in the TaxSlayer Bowl at EverBank Field.
The newfound balance of football and other priorities in life is what’s gotten him through a tumultuous fall.
“I’d say I capitalized on every moment. I didn’t want to take anything for granted — practice, weight room, all of that,” Myles told The Dispatch. “It made me want to lock in on the task at hand. All through conditioning, all through camp, it was my shot to fix every little thing and every little detail so when the season came, I could explode and have some fun.”
A second injury
All early indications pointed to just that. Three catches in the season opener and a 21-yard touchdown catch against Louisiana Tech, plus a few productive punt returns, had Myles off and running toward the senior season he dreamed of.
Then the script changed with a foot injury and a subsequent surgery from which he missed three games. But knowing the second half of the season was there for the taking helped him maintain a positive outlook, Myles said.
His return came after a bye week with one catch against BYU, but the statement came in the next week against Kentucky. Myles was in the midst of his best game in almost two years with four catches.
Then it all unraveled — it was the same foot again, and this time the horizon wasn’t as bright.
It was a fracture.
“Man it hurt,” Myles said. “I cried all that night. I won’t say it’s a dark place, but it was a time where I didn’t know when I would be back.
“I had to find something else … something to keep my mind off it,” he added. “I had so much free time.”
Myles tried music and painting to kill the time, but he ultimately defaulted to as much rehab and treatment as possible. Being around the complex as much as he was thrust him into the role of an educator for his successor, Jesse Jackson. Clearly, Myles was pretty good at it. Jackson enters the bowl game as MSU’s leading receiver this season with 24 catches for 238 yards.
“Gabe was more of a motivational speaker for me. He helped keep my head straight,” Jackson said.
A second comeback
Through it all, Myles kept aiming to get back on the field for the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss.
“If they said, ‘Gabe, you’re going to have to go out there with a boot on,’ well guess what? We’re going out there with a boot on,” Myles said. “That was the main focus.”
The boot wasn’t required. Myles returned once again, fielding punts and getting a few reps at wide receiver in his final game at Davis Wade Stadium.
Myles ended his final regular season with nine catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns. It was far from the season he was hoping for when he realigned his life accordingly with that Twitter video in July, but he knows it’s made him better-suited for the teaching and coaching career he hopes lie ahead.
“I learned a lot. I learned a whole lot,” Myles said. “You can’t lose all your joy because of a sport.”
Looking ahead
Myles said he knows now better than ever the duality of the senior football player — the hope for decades of so-called life after football, but with no context on what that entails given most of life to this point has revolved around football. He knows what the tag of injury-prone does to players psychologically and how to help them through it.
It’s that adversity he faced, and the prospect of helping others through it, that’s inspired him to coach.
Getting there starts soon. After the bowl game, Myles will go off to West Point Middle School to begin his student teaching, and he’s likely to get involved with a football staff along the way, all while preparing for pro day and any possible shot at the NFL.
Not before he has a little fun for himself.
In the early bowl practices in Starkville, Myles was seen taking some reps with the quarterbacks. MSU interim coach Greg Knox has made it clear he will not shy away from any trick plays in the bowl game.
“We’re about to go off, I’ll tell you that,” Myles said.
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