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\n Two years ago, Trinidad Chambliss played his first college football game.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe was horrible,\u2019\u2019 said Tony Annese, his coach at Ferris State University, with a chuckle. \u201cIf you would have watched his first game, you would have said that kid would never play at any level.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But the seeds of who Chambliss is now were sown at the 6,200-seat Top Taggart Field, under the guidance of a man who has won more four-year college games (153) than three of the four semifinal coaches combined.\n <\/p>\n
\n Chambliss was much like the high school kids Annese had coached: Not necessarily prototypical but more than good enough. Athletically gifted, he was the all-everything kid at Forest Hills Northern in nearby Grand Rapids \u2013 the quarterback in the fall, point guard in the winter and shortstop in the spring.\n <\/p>\n
\n But at 6-foot-1-inch and 170 pounds, he was small for a quarterback, and \u2013 burdened with the additional year of the Covid-19 pandemic recruiting blanket \u2013 no one was terribly interested.\n <\/p>\n
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\n But Annese, who also coached high school basketball, liked the way the point guard saw the court and directed his teammates. He saw in his play the sort of leadership he believed a quarterback ought to possess.\n <\/p>\n
\n In his first game, Chambliss threw a pick on his fourth play from scrimmage and another before halftime. He got sacked twice, rushing for all of -4 yards and Ferris State lost its opener.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was the pressure,\u2019\u2019 Annese said. \u201cHe was feeling the pressure. I just told him, \u2018Son, relax. You\u2019re going to be great.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n