Athens offensive lineman Kannon Biggs signed a scholarship Wednesday morning to play football at Troy University. With Biggs are, seated from left, mother Cheryl Biggs and father Chuck Biggs. Standing, from left, are siblings Kari, Kasey and Kyra Biggs.

Athens football coach Cody Gross has seen a lot of players come through the Golden Eagles program, but Kannon Biggs might just be one of the biggest success stories.

The offensive lineman went from a player on only a few school’s recruiting radars to signing a scholarship Wednesday morning to play for Troy University. And all of that was made possible through hard work, Gross said.

“We are extremely proud of Kannon,” Gross said. “It took a lot of hard work for him to get to this point. It is satisfying to see a young man who set the goal and then worked to achieve it. He’s worked as hard to get to this point as anybody I’ve ever seen.”

Biggs met with Gross after his junior season and asked the coach what he needed to do in order to play college football. The answer was to change his diet, get stronger and build muscle.

Biggs did that and went on to have a great senior year, which was capped off by him not only signing with Troy but also playing in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star football game earlier this week.

“Everybody will say ‘I want to play college football,’” Gross said. “But you don’t just get to play college football. There are things you’ve got to do. The discipline and toughness it took for him to do that is really hard to measure. It’s a great example to the rest of our team.”

Biggs said accomplishing his goal of playing college football was one of the most rewarding things he’s ever done.

“It’s a feeling you can’t really get with anything else,” Biggs said. “To know that the work you put in day in and day out gets paid off is amazing. It’s something I’ve tried to tell my teammates, especially the kids I see struggle. I try to encourage them and tell them it’s going to pay off. No matter what it is, all the hard work in the weight room and on the field will pay off.”

Gross said Biggs’ legacy will remain with the Golden Eagles program long after he is gone and playing on Saturdays at Troy.

“I will talk about Kannon probably the rest of my career,” Gross said. “He’ll be an example we can use to encourage others.”