Ann Colquitt’s oldest son was on the phone. He was frustrated and angry. Dustin Colquitt needed to hear from his Mom.

It was November during the woeful 2008 season and Colquitt was struggling as much as the team. A trio of injuries combined to leave the Chiefs punter a physical wreck, his leg strength weakened by a pulled groin muscle that eventually pulled away from the bone. It was a struggle to get through each week. It was a struggle to get through each punt.

Colquitt started hearing criticism of his kicking. After three strong seasons since being drafted in 2005, it was the first time anybody called into question his performance. Because football teams are always so closed mouth about injuries, nobody outside of the team knew how badly Colquitt’s injuries were affecting his ability to punt.

Physically hurting, emotionally battered, tired of losing and not happy with the critics, it all combined to press hard on Colquitt.

“I called my Mom and kind of poured everything out and she told me what you need to do is get your Bible, get down on your knees and just pray about these things, ask God to help you get through the rest of the season,” said Colquitt. “I did that. It helped. It changed my whole perspective about it. From that point on it didn’t get any worse. I was able to get through the rest of the season.”

As he recalls this time, the emotions show themselves again. Colquitt pauses and his voice cracks.

“It was tough,” Colquitt said. “We were losing, I was hurting. It was very painful.”

Yes, they are professional football players, highly trained and highly paid athletes who perform in front of millions every weekend in the fall. But lurking inside every guy wearing a helmet is a little boy that sometimes needs to talk to his Mom.

That’s the kind of season 2008 was for Colquitt and probably a few other Chiefs as well. When it was all over, Colquitt knew he faced surgery and rehab. Then, the sweeping changes that rolled through the building, with a new GM, new head coach and new coaching staff.

Colquitt has been working out in the building since late January and he’s seen the landscape change before his eyes.

“Things are different, in some cases very different,” Colquitt said. “There’s different emphasis, different directions, different things are stressed. We’ve had quite a change.”

Today, Colquitt is healthy. In fact, after taking part in the team’s off-season conditioning program, he’s probably in the best shape of his life. He’s dropped 10 pounds, not because he wanted to lose weight; it just flew off with all the running the team has done.

“We are going to be in shape,” Colquitt said. “Come the fourth quarter, we are still going to have something in our tank. I actually feel too low. I’ll add those 10 pounds back on before the season starts.

”It’s probably more mental than anything with me, but I feel better with a little more weight behind the ball.”

The team’s new approach to strength training is completely different than what Colquitt has done in previous years. “In the past, I would work heavy on my lower body, on my legs,” he said. “With this new approach, everything is based on the (body’s) core and how long can you go. That doesn’t make me in shape per say for punting, but core wise and leg wise it’s going to make me mentally and physically stronger for the games.”

Even with the injuries, Colquitt did not have a bad 2008 season. He missed two games because of the injuries, but in 14 games he had 70 punts and averaged 44.4 yards per kick. That was one-yard less than the season before and more than his career average. His net average of 39.2 yards was a tick better than the previous season’s number. Not bad for a guy with an injured kicking leg.

Just a few weeks after he was hired as head coach, Todd Haley was asked for an evaluation of his team. At that time, Haley had not seen all the game tape from the 2008 season. He said “we have a good punter.”

“Yeah, I got a hard time for that,” Colquitt said with a smile. “It was a compliment and coming after a season where I struggled so bad to get over the injury, it was nice to hear.”

But not as nice as hearing Mom’s voice on the phone when times are tough.