Extra Motivation

POSTED BY PETER B. GARDNER (BA '98), SENIOR EDITOR

Even though Terrance was invited to participate in the 6 a.m. lifting class with hopes of walking on to the football team as an offensive lineman, he still found himself mired in relative anonymity.

Here and there, though, he'd get a chance to make an impression. "Every now and then, the coaches would stop by and watch us lift," he says. "A couple of times I'd be lifting and Coach Mendenhall would be up on a treadmill, . . . right in front of my station. I'd be like, 'Well, time to push myself harder.' "

Terrance's most memorable encounter came one morning while tying on his shoes in the weight room. The first one there, he was startled when Coach Mendenhall walked in and looked at him. The coach gave a brief greeting and walked past, only to stop, turn around, and say, "You went to Cibola High School, didn't you?" Terrance verified this, and Mendenhall said, "I remembered," before continuing on his way.

"It was really cool that he remembered me," says Terrance.

Judgment Day

Posted by Peter B. Gardner (BA '98), Senior Editor

On Aug. 26 Terrance updated his Facebook status message: “Terrance Motley only has ONE WEEK to prepare.” The countdown continued through the week: “Terrance Motley is 5 days away.” “Terrance Motley is 3 days away from destiny.” “Terrance Motley has 2 days. Judgment day cometh.” “Terrance Motley [has] one more day.” “Terrance Motley: TODAY IS THE DAY.”

The day in question was Sept. 2, the first day of school. But the countdown was for something that loomed much larger in Terrance’s mind: BYU football walk-on tryouts. Amidst his navigations of campus and class syllabi, Terrance found himself lined up in BYU’s Indoor Practice Facility with dozens of other former high school football players who had not been recruited to play for BYU but wanted to take a shot.

After a series of drills, coaches made their evaluations and soon posted the results. As Terrance walked up to the sheet, he was repeating in his mind, “I probably didn’t make it. I didn’t make it.” As he scanned the list of players who had made the team, his name was not there. But then he looked below at the list of people who had been invited to participate in the lifting class, and he saw the words Terrance Motley. Even though he had not made the team, he knew the coaches were interested.

“The coaches liked what they saw,” he says, “but they didn’t have any offensive line spots open.” So they invited Terrance to work out with BYU’s strength and conditioning staff three days a week at 6 a.m. to add to his 280 lbs. frame and prepare himself to possibly join the team later that year or after his mission. And that was enough to make Terrance’s day.

Meet Terrance Motley ('14)

Posted by Peter B. Gardner (BA ’98), Senior Editor

Hometown and High School: Albuquerque, N.M.; Cibola High School

Applied To: Arizona State, Oregon, Utah, and BYU

Major Plans: Broadcast journalism

Interests and Achievements: Terrance has always been a BYU fan; played high school football and was selected to a New Mexico all-star team as an offensive lineman.

Home School: For Terrance Motley ('14), trips to BYU's campus—for football camp and Especially for Youth—always felt like coming home. And why not? Terrance was born in Provo and lived there until he was 18 months before his family moved away and eventually landed in Albuquerque, N.M. But the draw to Provo as he approached graduation was more than just a desire to return to his old toddling grounds. "It's always been a dream of mine to be [at BYU] because of the atmosphere," he says. "It was just really cool to be in a place where you could learn and feel the Spirit at the same time."

And it didn't hurt that offensive lineman Terrance grew up a Cougar football fanatic. "At first it was the 'outcasted-ness' of liking BYU that interested me," he says. With his dad and just about everyone around him being die-hard University of New Mexico fans, Terrance's stance constituted a mild form of rebellion. And, though he wasn't recruited to play football for BYU, Terrance was eager to take a shot at walking on to Bronco Mendenhall's squad. "Football," he says, "is my passion."

Do Your Homework! "I was a decent student," says Terrance of his high school career. "But I kind of struggled my freshman and sophomore year. Then I started getting it together." He worried that a slow start would keep him from getting into BYU, so his acceptance letter was especially gratifying.

But as he prepared to go on his own at BYU, Terrance worried that he'd have similar struggles: "At home, I always have someone breathing down my neck: 'Do your homework! Do your homework! Do your homework!'" He says that, most of the time, this was motivation enough to be serious about his studies. He knows at BYU it'll be up to him to choose between homework and play. "There [will be] a lot of opportunities to play," he says, "but sometimes you've got to get your studies done."