But just like Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, Jones isn't letting his height stop him from playing. He's the Gophers' best practice squad player and even got into the game last week against Temple.

I'm closer to 5-5 than the 5-7 I give as an answer when asked the same question, but I felt like Yao Ming when I stood up to shake his hand before a recent interview.

Jones has energized the Gopher program with his constant effort. He helps prepare the defense each week in practice, routinely playing the role of the opposing team's best offensive player.

"Talk about a great kid," Mason said. "He goes out there and gives you a full day's work every day. The defensive coaches love him. If you can't respect a kid like that there's something wrong. Toughness does not come in size, and he's a tough kid."

Jones thought he was done playing football when he graduated from Brookhaven High School in Columbus, Ohio, last spring. He started at receiver for two seasons there, but didn't get any offers to play in college, most likely because of his height, or lack thereof.

"The main thing I wanted to do was talk him into getting away from home, regardless if he played football or not," Dominic said. "When I left home and came here, I had to grow up kind of quick. It helps you become a man."

Marvin arrived on campus this summer and enrolled in classes. Just like the old days back home, he followed his older cousin around like a little brother. A very little brother.

"He was always looked at like a mini-me," said Dominic, who is very generously listed at 5-8 in the team media guide. "People always looked over him. He was so small that people would just look past him and say, 'He can't do this, he can't do that.'"

After hanging out in the Twin Cities all summer, the football bug started to bite Marvin as the school year approached. He asked the coaches for a chance to walk on, never dreaming about playing this season.

"It was funny just seeing everybody's reaction that first day," he said. "Some people looked and said, 'Is this for real? Is this fake?' People slowly started to see he's got a little bit of skills on him."

Marvin has become a team favorite for his hustle, his intensity and his refusal to back down against some of the monsters who play on defense. Some linebackers are a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier, defensive linemen even bigger.

That's his time to shine. Practice squad players, for the most part, do not get to play in games. All they do is come to practice every day, get beat up by the starters and then go home and get ready to come back and do it again.

The lifestyle was expertly depicted in the 1993 film "Rudy," a tear-jerking story of the determination and relentlessness of an undersized defensive end with a dream to play for the Irish.

The Gophers have been lampooned for scheduling woeful Temple, and rightfully so. Watching them pound the inept Owls 62-0 was like watching the scene in "Swingers" where, after getting a woman's phone number at a bar, Mike calls her at 2 a.m. He keeps getting cut off by the answering machine, so he dials over and over again to leave a full message, before she finally picks up the phone and tells him never to call again.

But there was a flip side to the game. Marvin got in for one snap at the end of the game, and his face lit up four days later when he spoke about it.

"I'm not Rudy. That ain't me. Mediocrity," he said. "I want to get a spot. I just want to get my time, get my freshman year together, learn the plays, get the offense before I get in there."

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