By T. Scott Boatright

RUSTON -- Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said that "Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority."

That describes many of Lombardi's great Green Bay Packers football teams and players.

It also describes Louisiana Tech redshirt senior quarterback Ryan Higgins, who'll lead the Bulldogs into the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against Navy at 3:30 p.m. Friday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Perseverance is probably the best way to describe Higgins' football career at Tech.

After redshirting his first year, Higgins was thrown into the fire in Skip Holtz' inaugural season as head coach of the Bulldogs.

The results were mixed, at best.

Playing in nine games in 2013, Higgins completed 166-of-281 passes for 1,715 yards and six touchdowns with 13 interceptions.

This season as a senior redshirt, Higgins earned Conference USA MVP honors, connecting on 300-of-456 passes for 4,208 yards and 37 touchdowns with eight interceptions.

Everything in-between proves the kind of perseverance the native of Hutto, Texas, possesses. Higgins said this season has been many things for him.

"It's been a little bit of everything," Higgins said. "Frustrating, exciting … the highs are hard to describe. The lows - I'm probably tougher on myself than anyone - have been really hard at times. But overall it's been a really fun, amazing season."

Looking back at his redshirt freshman year in which the Bulldogs finished at 4-8, Higgins admits it wasn't the way he would have liked to have started.

"That was not a fun year," Higgins said. "Some of those games are burned into my brain forever. It was a tough time - a new coach, new system. We weren't as talented as we are now, and so many players were playing with injuries. It was just a really rough time."

Higgins returned for his sophomore season looking like he had beat out Scotty Young in the spring to earn the full-time starting quarterback role.

That was before graduate student Cody Sokol transferred to Tech from the University of Iowa and became the Bulldogs' starter at quarterback, leading the team to an appearance in the Conference USA title game against Marshall and a Heart of Dallas Bowl win over Illinois.

Higgins ended up appearing in five games as a sophomore, completing 6 of 10 pass attempts for 69 yards.

"I felt I got a lot of flak on my play heading into that sophomore season," Higgins said. "Of course, I was immature. I wasn't playing clean football and I was trying to do too much. Because I didn't play well my freshman season and the team didn't do good, I was trying too hard to prove myself. I was recruited here and wanted to be a Bulldog. There were other places I could have gone, but I wanted to prove myself. Nothing against Cody, but I felt I was better than him. But in my head I'm better than anybody. I think that's the way you have to be. That sophomore season, I just kept pressing too much."

So after riding the bench as a redshirt sophomore, Higgins was set to take over as Tech's starting quarterback.

But then it happened - again - as graduate student quarterback Jeff Driskel from the University of Florida joined the Bulldogs' football program.

"Some people might think it would be easier going through that a second time, but it many ways it made it harder," Higgins said. "I sat, did my time of the bench and learned a lot from Cody. But I wasn't watching enough film and doing some of the little things I needed to be doing. I thought I was physically a better athlete than Cody, but mentally, he helped improve my football IQ and I felt I was ready to take that next step and prove I was QB number one. But then (the Tech coaching staff) called me and told me they were bringing Jeff in.

"I was upset, but at the same I was like … 'I'm going to be the quarterback. Do whatever you want, I'll earn the job.' I felt great. I was in great shape. Until that spring I hadn't been totally healthy. Even that year with Cody I wasn't completely healthy because of the beating I took in that 2013 redshirt freshman season. But now I felt great and felt I was beating out Jeff in fall camp. I had better knowledge of our system and felt I could beat him in every aspect. And then my arm kind of quit on me …"

Higgins first developed tendonitis in his throwing arm before developing mononucleosis, knocking him out of the first half of the season. He ended up playing in seven games backing up Driskel, completing 15-of-25 passes for 138 yards and a touchdown with three interceptions.

"The arm problem was quite frustrating. We really couldn't figure it out," Higgins said of the fall camp leading up to that season. "I had no power in my arm so the coaches shut me down for a couple of weeks. The I got hit with (mononucleosis). I'm not even sure how. So then I had to sit out more and that opened the door for Jeff to take over.

"We ended up having a great season, so I can't complain. It would have been different if we would have been struggling. You can't argue with the kind of season he had."

Bulldogs head coach Skip Holtz admits things probably would have turned out much different if Higgins hadn't suffered the setback he did in 2015.

"It's been great to watch. I'm proud of what he has accomplished on the field," Holtz said. "Watching him compete on the field a year ago with Jeff Driskel, that was a great competition. I think Ryan was probably ready to be the quarterback a year ago. He was thrown into the fire as a freshman and watched Cody as a sophomore. I think he really grew with that year off the field watching Cody. But then his arm gets hurt in preseason camp. Then he gets mono and is down for four more weeks. But I knew Ryan had a chance to be a successful quarterback. We had a number of quarterbacks who wanted to transfer in here last spring after seeing what Cody and Jeff had done. But I was like, 'Nope, we don't need them. We already have our quarterback."

Higgins said his frustrations over those two seasons were about himself and his situation and not centered around Sokol or Driskel.

"Cody and Jeff are both buddies of mine," Higgins said. "Everything they had both been through themselves, and being a year or two older than me - their knowledge and experience really helped me in a lot of ways, even off the field. Especially in the meeting rooms watching film and things like that. Everything Jeff went through - starting at Florida and losing his job to injury. It wasn't exactly the same thing I went through, but similar to what I went through after the 2013 season, and all the flak he caught, which was on a much bigger scale at a school like Florida … we talked about that a few times and that really helped me. I have great respect for both of them and they're both good buddies. Cody's actually coming to the Armed Forces Bowl game. As much as I would have liked things to go differently, the experiences I've had with those two has made me a much better player."

Then came this season, Higgins' senior year. And once again, his perseverance would be tested. Only this time he had no one but himself to blame.

Three days before the Bulldogs were to report for fall camp, Higgins was arrested and charged for driving while intoxicated after a late night traffic stop. He ended up being suspended for Tech's season opener at Arkansas, a close game that the Razorbacks pulled out late, 21-20.

"It was a selfish, stupid decision," Higgins said of the arrest. "The worst part was knowing I had let down my teammates, and not knowing if I was going to get to play at all. The frustration and anger I had toward myself is indescribable for putting myself in that situation. I already had a lot of doubters heading into the season and still remembered my freshman season and thought that was how I still played. I just wanted to show people nothing like this has ever happened before and it won't happen again. I just wanted to prove I was the starter for a reason."

Higgins started for Tech the next week in Tech's home opener, a 53-24 win over South Carolina State and never looked back, taking firm hold of the opportunity he had patiently waited so long for.

"He made a mistake, but he didn't let it define him," Holtz said. "He runs the ball well. He's a very accurate passer and has a great understanding of this offense. I think we're going to realize how good Ryan Higgins was when we don't have him anymore."

Higgins said his favorite memory of the season is the Bulldogs holding on for a 55-52 home win over Western Kentucky.

"We each get to choose our senior, commemorative ball and I chose the one from the Western Kentucky (regular season) game," Higgins said. "That was such an exciting game. A little too scary for me, but we won it."

There was one play in that win over Western Kentucky that many Tech fans will long remember.

The Bulldogs were in scoring position deep in WKU territory as Higgins dropped back to pass. He said he didn't see a flag thrown, but believing one of the Hilltoppers had jumped offsides and hoping he had a free play, Higgins lofted up a pass that was intercepted by a WKU defender who took off down the left sideline, appearing to have nothing but paydirt in front of him.

But Higgins took a good angle and showed off his impressive speed, taking down the WKY interceptor around the Tech 20 yard line. He didn't need. The officials had thrown the flag for offsides and Higgins and the Bulldogs got another chance to score and did so.

"I didn't see the flag," Higgins said of the play. "I thought they jumped and if I was a ref I would have called it, but I didn't know for sure. It wouldn't have been the first time the refs wouldn't have made a call I thought they should have. And I was just frustrated and didn't want to give him the satisfaction of a pick six. A lot of people don't realize I can run, but I was pretty gassed by the end of that play. And it was good to know that as a quarterback running down a defensive back, that was pretty deflating for their sideline."

Holtz said that one play pretty much personifies who Higgins is.

"I think he was mad at himself," Holtz said. "It was like the whole game just stopped and everybody just watched this footrace to the end zone. I think that one play showed the kind of grit, determination and competitiveness Ryan has."

Higgins gets one last chance to show that perseverance on the college level as the Bulldogs take on Navy.

"It's a big moment especially the way the last two games played out," Higgins said. "We have the opportunity to go out on a high note. And to play it in the area I grew up in makes it even better. I couldn't ask for more."

Higgins said it's a great way to cap off his career, even if he does admit to sometimes wondering about how things could have been.

"It's bittersweet," Higgins said. "It's been a fun season and we've done a lot of great things. But it's also frustrating wondering what could have been after riding that bench for the past couple of years. What could I have done if I would have started those two seasons? The whole thing has made me a stronger person, mentally. I really feel now I can get through anything."

That's an attitude understood and appreciated by his head coach.

"The way Ryan has been patient and loyal to this program says so much when so many players run out the door saying 'if I don't play, I'm leaving," Holtz said. "You don't see that very much and I think it says it all about Ryan and his humility and strength."

It's been the kind of effort - and perseverance - that would make even someone who has coached the best, like Lombardi, proud.