Note: This story originally ran in the Nov. 28, 2015 Louisiana Tech Football Game Program as the Bulldogs hosted Southern Miss. It is reprinted here in advance of the NFL Draft.

RUSTON, La. - The weather forecast was foggy and unseasonably warm on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. At 8:31 a.m., Kenneth Dixon's National Letter of Intent arrived on the fax machine at the football offices in the Charles Wyly Athletic Center.

Although no one could have foreseen what that meant for the next four years, it was the exact time the Louisiana Tech record books should have been wiped clean.

Coming from a town of just over 600 people, Dixon, who arrived on campus later that year as a self-described "overweight" freshman out of Strong High School in Arkansas, was nervous about being redshirted throughout his first fall camp with the Bulldogs.

"When I first came in, I was asking all the seniors, `Do you think I am going to play this year? Do you think they are going to redshirt me?' I never thought I could do some of those things. It was kind of surprising to me and to all of us, I guess," Dixon said.

Fast forward to 2015 and his nerves have been calmed in a big way.

It's a sight that most Tech fans are going to miss more than we even realize when it is gone. And it began with the soft-spoken Dixon taking a backseat to a handful of running backs at the start of the 2012 season. He quickly became the go-to guy due to injuries and his rookie season ended with him breaking Marshall Faulk's NCAA record for most rushing touchdowns by a freshman with 27.

"I felt like I was a big surprise to everyone," he said. "They didn't think I could do much, but once they put the ball in my hands, I was able to show people some of my athleticism, so I think they started to believe. Coming from a small 2A school where everybody doubted you and being able to come up here and play, it was so surreal."

In his first career game, he carried the ball 18 times for 90 yards and a score to help lead the Bulldogs to a road win over Houston. On that day, his performance on the ground hardly made headlines due to the three-touchdown game fellow freshman back Tevin King put together.

What we didn't know at the time was 90 yards rushing and a touchdown was a tame day for Kenneth Dixon in the grand scheme of things. He had plenty left in the tank and then some.

Since then, the numbers are staggering. He has shattered almost too many Louisiana Tech records to count, including:

• Career rushing yards (he became Tech's all-time leading rusher ... as a junior)
• Career overall touchdowns ("I don't think I can even remember half of them.")
• Career rushing touchdowns
• Career scoring (he has put nearly 500 points on the scoreboard)
• Rushing touchdowns in a season (27 as a freshman)
• Overall touchdowns in a season (28, twice)
• Most touchdowns in a single game (6, twice)
• Most games rushing for 100-plus yards (21)

Now a senior, Dixon is second in the nation in career rushing yards with more than 4,400 yards picked up on the ground with one game left in his illustrious college career.

But what is even more astounding to wrap your head around is for all the numbers he has accumulated and records broken in the 46 games he has played over the years, it is Dixon's humble nature and mega-watt smile that etched his name permanently in the hearts of the Tech faithful.

For every Tech fan that loves Kenneth Dixon, he loves them back. Despite talk of entering the NFL Draft last season, Dixon stayed faithful to those who have been there for him from the beginning.

"As I sat down and thought about it, I came in with a group of guys and from Day 1 we said we were going to be brothers and do something at Tech that no one has ever done," he said. "That goal is attainable. I came back because it's a family and you can never forget family. I just wanted to keep building the legacy of this team."

He's not big on tracking records. When asked about breaking the NCAA record for touchdowns in a career, he can't recall how many he needs to surpass Montee Ball and Keenan Reynolds. When he scored a touchdown against Illinois in Tech's 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl victory, he wasn't aware of the fact that he became LA Tech's all-time leading rusher at the same time. In fact, he didn't know of his record-setting performance until he received the game ball from Skip Holtz in the postgame locker room celebration.

"He has an unselfish attitude," Holtz said of Dixon's character. "It is not about how many carries he gets. It is all about what we have to do to win. Deep down inside, do I think he would like to have the record? I do. I also believe it is from his heart when he says, `Coach, give that touchdown to the other senior. He has been hurt all year.' Those are things that do not happen everywhere. In a fast-paced world that we are in that is all about me, it is refreshing to deal with people like Kenneth Dixon on a daily basis. His story should be told."

Over the years, Dixon has helped guide the Bulldogs to nearly 30 wins (not counting the games he was injured and cheering on his teammates from the sidelines), a Conference USA West Division title, a bowl victory ("I want another bowl win before I leave.") and countless memories.

In his own words, he summed up his career at Louisiana Tech with one word: thankful.

"I just want to thank Tech for my time here," he said. "I just want to tell everybody how thankful I am for them. If you are good to people, they will be good back to you. I always try to carry myself in that manner of being respectable and putting people before myself and just trying to be unselfish and help everybody feel good about themselves."

On Feb. 1, 2012 at exactly 8:31 a.m., Kenneth Dixon was anything but just another signee among a long list of future Bulldogs. Unbeknownst to us all, it was history in the making.

"No one ever wants to come in and be average," he said. "To be able to set yourself apart from some of the best running backs that came through here, it is great to be remembered like that. It feels good to know you're up there with some of the great backs that ever played the game, period.

"You grow up and football is all you ever dream of every night and it is all you ever want to do. To be able to fast forward and see that you are chasing greatness, it's good to see that and I am thankful for it. I always dreamed about it and told people I was going to be successful, but I just never knew it would come true."

In four seasons, Kenneth Dixon rewrote the LA Tech and NCAA record books with earth-shattering numbers that may never be matched by another Bulldog, and it all began with a fax from Strong, Arkansas, on a foggy day in February.

For complete coverage of Bulldog Football, please follow Louisiana Tech on social media at @LATechFB (Twitter), /LATechFootball (Facebook) and @LATechFB (Instagram) or visit the official home of Louisiana Tech Athletics at LATechSports.com.