RUSTON, La. - Tre Carter grew up in the small town of Buena Vista, Georgia, a simple place with just one red light and one high school for the population of 2,500.

Up until a few years ago, Carter had to do all the growing up without a father, who had succumbed to living a bad life on the streets. His mother, Tonya Andrews, had to be the mom and the dad.

"It was kind of hard," Carter said. "I wanted my dad to be around so bad, but I knew that it was not going to happen. I saw all the other kids with their dads on Friday nights and I did not have that. I still love him and he started trying to come back into my life when I was doing better with it.

"But my mom would do anything she could to give me what I wanted. I remember me and her sitting down and talking and she said anything that I can get you I will, and she did just that. My mom just takes care of me and I am for sure a momma's boy."

With no father figure to lean on, a coaching change at Marion County High School his sophomore year fixed that.

Mike Swaney was introduced as the new head coach of the football team, a team that Swaney and Carter helped change into a winner together.

"[Swaney] molded me into the man I am today," Carter said. "He pushed me until I absolutely could not go anymore. He really gave me the mindset that you have to work hard to get what you want. I looked up to him."

The relationship grew far beyond the football field. It turned into dinners together. It even turned into the outdoors life of hunting and fishing together, something Carter was not a big fan of until he met Swaney.

"I did not like to do yard work or anything like that," Carter said. "He taught me all of that. One day, one of the pipes under our house broke and I got under there and started fixing it. It surprised my mom because she did not believe that I could do anything like and I could because of him."

Nowadays, coaches are much more than just coaches. They are role models, mentors and leaders. In some cases, they are a father to kids who come from broken backgrounds, much like Carter.

"A lot of kids these days come from broken homes and are looking for outlets," Swaney said. "We are a lot more than just a coach to a lot of these kids.

"I knew that Tre was going to be a kid that flourished in anything that he put his mind to. As far as Tre goes, he is a very hard working and dedicated young man and I knew that he was going to succeed in whatever he chose to do."

That hard work and dedication paid dividends for Carter on the gridiron. He was a monster on the offensive line for the Eagles, an aggression that Swaney had never seen in a player in his 30 years of coaching.

"When he is on the football field, he is going to be the most aggressive one out there," Swaney said. "I knew when I saw the way Carter played that he could be a college player. If you get one like [Carter], you know that you have got something special."

After graduating high school, Carter went to Georgia Military College where he starred as an offensive lineman and helped pave the way for a ruthless rushing attack.

Then in 2013, he did exactly what Swaney had predicted in making it to a Division I college in Louisiana Tech University.

But just because Carter is now in another state, does not mean the bond between the two has changed. Swaney still watches all of Carter's games as a Bulldog and calls him up to let him know what he did wrong and what he can improve on.

"We talk once a week so Swaney can check on me and see how I am doing in school and on the football field," Carter said. "One game, I gave up a sack and he called me and told me I was better than that and that I have great technique out there on the field."

Meanwhile, Carter has recently gotten news that he will soon be a father himself.

"I am expecting to be a great dad," Carter said. "It is definitely going to be a new thing for me, but I am going to do what I have to do for my kid."

Carter's girlfriend and the mother of his child lives 13 hours away in North Carolina and the two have talked about their future at length once the baby is born.

"My girlfriend and I have talked about it and cried over the phone together, and she is willing to move here if need be so I can be with my kid," Carter said. "If I do not get a chance to play in the NFL, I plan to join a SWAT team either in North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia so I can be closer to her."

"I want to be the supporter for her and the baby. I am going to take the things Coach Swaney and my mom have taught me and I am going to be there. It is going to be new and a challenge, but I am going to be there."

Carter could have easily been another fatherless teen who strayed down the wrong path, uneducated and unmotivated, but that was not the case.

He has been determined to succeed and is determined to be there for his own child forever.

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