Think replacing a Heisman winner's tough? That's nothing compared to what Nebraska's Jammal Lord has been through. Still folks are already writing about how the Cornhuskers are headed for a big slide this fall, how the new QB won't be able to handle his role or lead the team.

All summer, Lord has heard about how Eric Crouch scored 59 touchdowns, including one as a receiver to knock off Oklahoma and how he drove the Cornhuskers to the national title game. He's heard all about how hotshot freshman Curt Dukes graduated high school early in North Carolina just so he could get a jump start on the NU system during spring ball. Heard the talk about Dukes being the next Crouch. Heck, the dude even is wearing Crouch's sainted No. 7.

	Husker QB Jammal Lord has the tough task of replacing Heisman winner Eric Crouch.

But all the people gossiping on the talk radio shows and babbling in the Big Red chat rooms, probably don't know 21-year Jammal Lord or where he comes from or how he learned about leadership and responsibility at an age when most kids are still watching cartoons and afraid to talk to girls.

On March 5, 1995, when Jammal was 14, his dad Juan was on vacation in his native Panama. Juan went out to get a haircut and four men jumped him on a Panama City street. They snatched the watch off his wrist and the chain from his neck. Then, they pulled out a gun and shot him in the head.

Claudia Lord, who was vacationing with Juan, was left to raise her three boys (Juan Jr., Jammal and Jerel) alone when she returned to their Bayonne, N.J. home. Ironically, she had moved the family there to find a safer place for raise them. The family had moved to Bayonne in 1990 out of the roughneck Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, a place the locals nicknamed 'Do-or-Die Bed-Stuy,' a place where Claudia's kids heard gunfire almost routinely from their apartment windows.

Football became Jammal's refuge and coach John Rickard became his father figure. Rickard had first met Lord when Jammal was a wide receiver/DB on the freshman squad Rickard coach. The next season, Rickard took over the varsity and Lord emerged as one of his stars after the coach switched him to QB to run the option. "I knew he was very talented," says Rickard. "I just didn't know how much bigger he would get."

In the summer before Lord's senior year, he bulked up 20 pounds (to 202) and some local D-I schools (Temple, Syracuse) showed interest. But Rickard thought Lord could go to a bigger program and had Jammal's tape sent to Nebraska. Other recruiters told Lord to back off Nebraska since highly regarded QB prospect Carl Crawford was going there. Lord didn't care that Crawford -- now an outfielder with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays -- might go play baseball, he just figured he'd have to compete wherever he went, so why not Nebraska?

Rickard didn't know much about Lord's father's death when Jammal first started playing for him. "I think it was an open wound," he says. "Jammal didn't talk about it much." Still doesn't. But Rickard saw how Lord took care of his baby brother Jerel, seven years his junior. He saw how it was Jammal who played disciplinarian whenever the tyke screwed up and how much Jerel looked up to his brother, the star quarterback.

	“	He's not a 'rah-rah' guy, but he is a real leader. He showed that to his family and he is the kind of guy who is at his best in big games ”
		— John Rickard, Jammal Lord's former coach

Lord picked Nebraska knowing he would probably have to sit behind Crouch for three years. He is now a fourth-year junior who has mopped up in 12 games. "I have been waiting a long time for this, and now my chance has come," Lord says. "I have to make the most of it." He knows all eyes are on him.

Last summer, Jerel went to visit Jammal in Lincoln. A few days into the visit Jerel called his mama and said he didn't want to come home. Claudia, who was struggling to keep the kid in line without Jammal's presence around the house, agreed. But the deal didn't last long since Jammal was seldom home because of football or schoolwork. A local family in Lincoln has taken Jerel in and serve as his guardians. On weekends, Jerel usually stays with Jammal.

These days, Jammal truly is The Man, at least around Lincoln. To not only his family but the entire Big Red nation. "I feel very good about Jammal," says coach Frank Solich. "He has excellent running ability, size and toughness. He will be a very good runner for us this year.

"The great thing about our offense is that Jammal will be surrounded by great athletes and will not have to be Eric Crouch. He just needs to take care of the ball."

Even though he doesn't have Crouch's speed, Lord is bigger at 6-foot-2, 210 and may have a more accurate arm. At fall testing, Lord clocked a 1.56 in the 10-yard dash, sixth-best on the Husker team. Solich adds that Lord can make people miss as well as any Nebraska QB he's ever seen.

Says RB Dahrran Diedrick, "Jammal is going to be a great quarterback. He's one of my best friends both on and off the field. People just haven't had the opportunity to see what he can do yet."

Rickard has, and he says he'd never doubt Lord. "He's not a 'rah-rah' guy, but he is a real leader," Rickard says. "He showed that to his family and he is the kind of guy who is at his best in big games."

One thing people shouldn't worry about, Rickard adds, is the guy's toughness. Says Lord, "I've been hit enough through my life that when the game comes, I get hit, I get hit."

Bruce Feldman covers college football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at bruce.feldman@espnmag.com.