Scorecard

Getting Back(s) Together

When he arrived at his first practice with Troy (Ala.) State last month, fullback Steven Kelley couldn't help noticing tailback Joe Jackson. "We kind of look alike, we're built alike, and we have the same hands," says Kelley, a freshman transfer from Tennessee. "The guys even teased us, saying things like, 'There goes your double.' "

Eventually Jackson, 22, and Kelley, 19, began hanging out together. On April 30, as they were walking together to class, Kelley stopped and asked Jackson a question that he says came from God: "What's your full name?"

"Joseph Frank Jackson," he replied.

"My heart fluttered," Kelley recalls.

"Actually it's Joseph Frank Kelley," Jackson went on. "I was adopted."

"When I told him that, he got this strange look in his eyes," says Jackson. "He said we should finish the conversation later. I called him as soon as I got back from class."

"When's your birthday?" Kelley asked over the phone.

"March 18...."

"Nineteen seventy-four," they said in unison.