Kent St players already showing up in Tuscaloosa

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UA football coach Nick Saban offers a Tide shirt to Kent State player Terry Jacques. Students from several colleges are joining forces to work on Habitat for Humanity’s House United building project to help a Holt family who lost their home in the April 27 tornado. The project is funded by the Nick’s Kids foundation

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It may be the only day of the year that students from Kent State University, the University of Alabama, Auburn University and Auburn University Montgomery all play on the same team.

But on Friday, students from the four schools worked hand in hand in the Holt community building two Habitat for Humanity houses funded by Nick and Terry Saban’s foundation, Nick’s Kids.

Alan Ashby, assistant athletic director at Kent State, said he and the four football players who made the trip felt a calling to help Tuscaloosa.

“Coach Saban and his wife were graduates of Kent State,” he said. “It felt natural for us. It was obvious that Tuscaloosa needed help, but until you are here and see the devastation, it is hard to believe.”

Ashby said the interaction between members of the Kent State team and Alabama won’t have any effect on the Sept. 3 matchup in Bryant Denny Stadium.

“(The football team) is too good of a team for that,” he said.

Senior KSU running back Jacquise Terry, 21, a Phenix City native, said he is putting on-the-field tensions aside to help off the field.

“On a collegiate level, I do feel tension,” he said. “But we came for a good cause, and we are here to help with the house.”

Wahnee Sherman, director of UA’s Community Service Center, said about 75 students from the four schools volunteered Friday.

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