JACKSON – In August at Millsaps College, Marques Colston was a little-known rookie trying to land a spot on the New Orleans Saints roster.

Ray Kline, a Millsaps football player from Vicksburg, challenged the rookie to a game of Madden 2006 for the PlayStation II video game system.

Kline picked the Broncos as his team.

And Colston?

&#8220I played Colston, one of the trainers, their backup fullback and Jamal Branch. None of them played the Saints,” Kline said.

The team from New Orleans, the one that went 3-13 the year before and struggled through this preseason, was far from the darlings that have grabbed the Gulf Coast by storm as the team renowned for losing is on the precipice of the first Super Bowl appearance in the 40-year history of the franchise.

&#8220I guess that’ll be different next summer. It’s pretty good that they are in the NFC Championship game,” Kline said.

The ex-VHS standout, along with teammates Marcus Stokes, Marcus Harris and Casey Younger became familiar with this year’s story of the NFL during the team’s first go-round in Jackson. The Saints will return to Millsaps again next season for the August training camp.

&#8220Me and (Marcus) Stokes got to work security for the Saints during the early weeks of camp,” Kline said. &#8220It was pretty cool. We played a lot of PS II. Colston beat me by one point when we played Madden. His team was pretty sorry, just a lot of random guys. I had the Broncos.

The Saints suffered through a 1-3 preseason and most figured it would be another year of the same.

They finished 3-13 and played &#8220home” games in New York, San Antonio and Baton Rouge. New coach Sean Payton, a former Dallas Cowboys assistant under Bill Parcels, wanted to change the team’s culture as an underperforming team. The heat and humidity Millsaps’ setting could deliver was just what Payton needed in reshaping the team’s roster.

Millsaps coach Mike Dubose, who spent four years as the head coach at Alabama, noticed something early on that was going to help the Saints.

&#8220Having not been around an NFL team in a long time, I had nothing to compare them to, but I would say I was impressed with coach Payton’s organization and his staff’s attention to detail,” Dubose said.

Dubose and his staff were on hand when the Saints rolled into Millsaps in late July, but pretty much left them alone.

&#8220We watched them from a distance,” Dubose said.

When the Millsaps players reported in early August, the teams worked around each other. The Saints, generally practiced on the newly rebuilt upper fields while Millsaps practiced on its game field.

Younger, though, said he heard some comments from the Saints players about the Harper Davis Field’s artificial surface.

&#8220The guys talked about the turf, about how hot it was. They called it, ‘the monster of Millsaps.’”

Kline said it was easier to talk to the rookies because they were closer to their age. He became friends with Colston.

&#8220The guy was like the next-to-last guy picked in the draft,” Younger said.

&#8220Yeah, I’d never even heard of Hofstra,” Harris said.

&#8220Marques was hearing from his teammates about how much they liked how he was catching the ball,” Kline said. &#8220But he would just tell me, ‘Man, I’m just trying to make the team.’”

After a regular season that saw him eclipse the 1,000 yard mark, Coltson has earned his spot.

&#8220He didn’t think he was doing that good. But I kept hearing how they liked his size,” Kline said of the 6-foot, 4-inch receiver.

&#8220He was a tight end in college,” Harris added.

Colston used his size and good hands to emerge as quarterback Drew Brees’ favorite target.

Another player who the Millsaps Gators regulary engaged was long-time veteran Fred McAfee.

&#8220He talked about being like us, coming from a Division III school like Mississippi College, but not to give up because you can be spotted anywhere as a good player,” Younger said.

Dubose said he’s heard nothing but good comments from the Saints organization about Millsaps’ facility. The team has a four-year deal will the school but has not announced its plans for next summer.

Kline and Stokes want them back.

&#8220We needs jobs,” Stokes said.

Kline, on the other hand, just wants a Madden rematch with Colston.