For another, Rio Grande will be playing only their second season this fall after a 75-year absence from the gridiron.

“I believe it’s just a challenge in life,” Bartrum said. “And it’s not because I know by God’s grace and mercy, He allowed me to have this opportunity, and He allowed me to have the opportunity to play in the NFL. I looked at that as a challenge, and I blew my knee out in college. But people go through these things, deaths in the family, things that happen. That’s a challenge, man. Just embrace that challenge and let’s go.

“There’s nothing about last year’s team – whether they won the National Championship or they didn’t win a game – it doesn’t matter. It’s like, ‘OK, we’re going to use that for the rest of our lives as a challenge.'”

Bartrum is also challenging his players to be living for, breathing for, and playing for something bigger than themselves. And even in these early days of the program, whether they’re working out in the weight room or practicing yoga in the auditorium, he’s seeing that they’re doing so.

“They’re checking each other. And when you see these players start holding each other responsible, and they respect each other, then that’s pretty cool,” Bartrum said. “I feel like when they’re doing that, when they’re checking each other, it’s like Proverbs 27:17 says, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.’ So if we’re not sharpening each other, what are we doing? We’re getting dull, and I don’t like dull. We’re trying to strive for perfection.

Bartrum loved the motto that former Indiana University football coach Tom Allen utilized in the program – L.E.O. which stood for Love Each Other – so much that he crafted one for the RedStorm.

“We have the F.A.M.I.L.Y. – Forget About Me, I Love You. And I think that’s exactly what you’re saying when you say if you’re living for, breathing for, playing for something bigger than yourself.

“So it’s not about you. It can’t be about you. It’s about us. It’s about the team. It’s about working together for a common goal. And if we win football games, great. If we lose, hopefully we’ll learn something from it and we’ll move on to the next one and be better the next time.”

Moving on to the next one is not a new experience for Bartrum. After playing for six years with Kansas City, Green Bay, and New England, he signed as a free agent with Philadelphia in 2000. And during his first five of seven seasons as an Eagle, they played in four consecutive NFC Championship Games and Super Bowl XXXIX.

“The whole seven years I was there, it was about family. Once you build that bond with each other, you trust each other and you know that you’ve got each other’s back,” Bartrum said. “(Andy Reid) brought in some guys from T.O. (Terrell Owens) to Jevon Kearse. Donovan (McNabb) was already there. I was very minuscule in that part, but those guys, the high-profile guys, were really, really good football players.

“I wish we could have made it to the Super Bowl those other years, but it’s all God’s time and I feel that he put us there for a reason. It was really, really cool that we were all able to stay together that long and be able to try to make a good run. I feel it was a blessing every day that I was fortunate enough to be on those teams.”