TUSCALOOSA | Aunt Dorothy hung in for more than three quarters to say a final goodbye to Trent Richardson.

Then she was gone.

It was the night of the University of Alabama's 24-7 victory over Mississippi State, and Richardson had just punched in a late touchdown from 2 yards out that clinched the victory. His Aunt Dorothy was watching the game, lying on the couch, riddled with cancer. She raised her hand in the air, said a few words about the nephew she treated like a son, then ...

"Then she was just gone," said Katrina Richardson, Trent's mother. "She couldn't hardly move. She was watching him play, saw him score that touchdown, then she just drifted off."

Six days later, Trent was in Atlanta for the funeral, and said his own goodbye as his family was, once again, reduced by one.

They call the fraternity of Heisman Trophy winners a family, and no doubt it's a family Richardson would love to join. On Saturday, he will learn if he is the next Heisman winner among a group that includes Wisconsin running back Montee Ball, LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck and Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. But the family he has known all his life is really all he needs.

Cancer can't beat that.

"We didn't know Dorothy was as sick as she was. It happened all the sudden," said Richardson's uncle, Willie, who has been a father figure to the Crimson Tide's star running back. "It's been kind of rough for him. We have lost several close people - key people - that have been in his life."

Roughly a year earlier, Richardson lost his Aunt Vivian to cancer as well. She died about an hour before UA kicked off a win over Ole Miss.

Vivian used to send care packages to Trent to help settle a homesickness that compelled him to drive home to Pensacola, Fla., on weekends during his first summer as a freshman in Tuscaloosa. Dorothy was handy with a needle, and knitted blankets for Trent.

He still has the blankets.

And, in those inner places from which his motivation springs, he still has his aunts.

Richardson had dealt with cancer before. It took his father during his senior year at Pensacola (Fla.) Escambia High. It's a disease that has taken and taken again from this family, never giving anything back but heartache. And although his father hadn't played a big role in Richardson's life to that point, the loss still made its mark.

"His father had not been able to play a part. When he passed, I became a little more of a father figure to him, and I've been with him in good times and bad times," said Uncle Willie. "Our relationship is more or less like father and son."

Willie remembers when a young Trent Richardson first got his hands on a football, 6 years old, at Myrtle Grove Park in Pensacola. He always played, Willie said, a level above.

"In youth ball, he looked like a high school player. In high school, he looked like a college player," Willie said.

And today, the college player most definitely looks like a pro.

National Football League scouts project him as a first-round draft pick, though he is only a junior. The notoriety that comes with being a Heisman candidate isn't always easy to deal with. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Richardson was in Huntsville to carve turkey with another uncle - Jeremiah - and made the mistake of walking into the local Wal-Mart. He was accosted by so many shoppers there, store security had to be called to control the scene.

Richardson is just 76 yards away from breaking Alabama's single-season record for rushing yardage, a mark held by former teammate and Heisman winner Mark Ingram (1,658 yards).

He's a bit further away, it would appear, from hoisting the Heisman.

The latest results from Stiffarmtrophy.com, which projects Heisman balloting by polling a limited number of Heisman voters, suggests the honor is a long shot for Richardson. Respondents to the website's most recent poll placed Griffin in a comfortable lead over Luck, with Richardson placing third.

No matter.

"If he gets it, it's OK, if he doesn't, that's OK, too," said Katrina, the player's mother. "I'm just glad he's made it to that level."

Richardson has family spread from California to New Jersey, from Atlanta to Pensacola, from Huntsville to Birmingham, but they find ways to prevent the miles from separating them. Richardson's two daughters - Taliyah, 5, and Elevera, 3 - are as much a priority to him as he is to the elders of the family. They live in Birmingham, and Richardson makes the one-hour trip from Tuscaloosa to see them as often as possible. They like to sing to him on the phone.

It shortens the miles.

Before every Alabama football game, Richardson takes a call from Willie, and the two share a quick prayer.

It shortens the miles.

By Richardson's best estimate, as many as 26 family members have come to Bryant-Denny Stadium to watch him run for the Crimson Tide.

And that's not a cumulative number - that's 26 for the same game.

His brother Terrell knows first-hand about the challenges of playing college football. Terrell played for Louisiana-Lafayette, and was an inspiration for Richardson growing up. Around the time Taliyah was born, Richardson was dealing with the second of two serious ankle injuries that had prevented him from playing for most of his first two years in high school. At the time, Richardson didn't know if he'd ever be healthy enough to play again, and with a newborn daughter, it would have been easy to give that dream up.

"We just stayed with him, told him to keep his mind straight through all that," Terrell said. "And he ended up stronger than he was before."

The family had seen that kind of determination before in Richardson. As a young boy, he used to shake Uncle Willie's hand and try to squeeze hard enough to force a submission. Willie would squeeze back and get his nephew, instead, to submit.

"He always thought he was stronger than me, but I would make him say uncle and he would holler," Willie said. "But he would always say, 'I'm coming back for some more.'"

The two would often wrestle as well, and Richardson's strength grew without so much as a minute in the weight room.

"By the time he got into high school, I retired, brother," Willie said. "No more handshakes, no more wrestling, none of that. Because I knew what was about to happen."

Katrina, for her part, was big on two things in raising Richardson - discipline and prayer. Trent sang in the church choir as a boy, and steered clear of trouble for the most part. He didn't often cross the line, but when it did he knew consequences were forthcoming.

And that's one reason Katrina felt comfortable putting her son in UA head coach Nick Saban's hands.

"I like the way they manage them, keep them on their books," she said. "They're real strict with them. Not strict strict, but strict enough. I don't believe in them going out and partying and doing whatever they want to do. The coaches there don't let them do that."

Richardson calls winning a Heisman Trophy "any kid's dream," and doesn't deny what winning the award would mean.

But to not win it? As disappointments go, he's seen plenty worse.

This weekend, Richardson will be surrounded by four guys he barely knows, competing for a bronze prize. But four others - Katrina, Willie, brother Terrell and grandmother Gloria - will be there for him, not the Heisman.

And that prize is worth a lot more than bronze.