College of the Canyon football player Seth Mannon is known for two things.

The limb he has and the limb he doesn’t have.

The one he has, his left leg, makes a connection with a football that’s so violently strong Cougars head coach Garret Tujague says it sounds like a cannon is being shot off.

The one he doesn’t have, his left arm above where his elbow would be, is what people notice first, though.

Mannon was born without the left arm, and for that reason he is unique.

Especially since he is a football player — a kicker so good that he was a preferred walk-on at LSU just last season.

Handicapped?

Hardly.

“Just because you’re different doesn’t mean you can’t do something,” Mannon says. “My motto is: ‘I never take no for an answer.’”

Mannon is Houston-born, Houston-bred.

The son of an oil man, Mannon was born without the limb.

He says he can only imagine what his mother thought when he was born and the doctor told her something was wrong.

But it never held him back.

Mannon played soccer as a youth.

That’s where he says he developed the big leg.

In sixth grade, his soccer team disbanded.

Jealous of his older brother playing football, he decided to suit up and put on the pads.

One arm didn’t stop him from being a contact-thirsty linebacker in middle school and a defensive end at Episcopal High in Bellaire, Tex.

Mannon also wrestled and played lacrosse in high school, but he earned the most attention as a kicker on the Knights football team.

His missing arm was a popular topic — in school and in the media.

ESPN wanted to do a story on him, he says.

His friend Alex Dugan made a short film of Mannon when the two were seniors at Episcopal.

The pair grew up two blocks from each other in Houston and Dugan got the idea from all the times Mannon would come over for dinner and talk to his family about his adversity.

“I hear his voice, I’m thinking, ‘I want other people to hear his voice and hear the stories he’s telling me and my mom,’” says Dugan, now a screenwriting major at Loyola Marymount University. “He never gave up. The cliché — whatever. But he never gave up when people said he couldn’t, and he’s still that way. He keeps getting up.”

Dugan says the film was shown to the school and he could see people getting emotional watching it.

Upon Mannon’s graduation, Jim Abbott, the former Major League pitcher who was born without a right hand, wrote him a letter saying he was following his success.

Being in the spotlight of athletics, it’s no surprise that Mannon gets asked about the left arm frequently.

“I try and have fun with it,” he says. “If someone asks, ‘How’d you lose your arm?’ I say, ‘Shark bite or deep-sea fishing accident.’ ... It works pretty well with the girls.”

Another thing that stands out about Mannon is his size — he is 6 feet 6 inches tall and 260 pounds.

LSU head coach Les Miles told Mannon if he had two arms he’d be recruiting him as a linebacker.

But it didn’t work out for Mannon at LSU.

After a season with the Tigers, Mannon originally wanted to transfer to Blinn (community) College in Brenham, Tex., the school of his kicking coach Nick Gatto, who ironically was also born with only one arm.

But the school wasn’t looking to take on a transfer kicker, Mannon says.

Gatto told him of an alternative — College of the Canyons.

Tujague admits, though, he was a little hesitant about taking on a kicker with one arm.

The program just doesn’t have room for extra kickers, so he had to be sure Mannon could kick.

He saw tape.

Then he saw Mannon in person and was won over.

Since he arrived earlier in the summer, Mannon’s been on a mission to show that a 20-year-old with one arm can still do what others can.

He’s also been on a mission to show that special teamers are still part of the team.

“He’s doing up downs and I’m thinking, ‘What’s Seth doing?’” Tujague says. “He’s hitting the ground — chest, legs, everything. Bouncing up and doing it again.”

Tujague says Mannon’s even in the weight room doing modified squats with the rest of his teammates.

He’s always been a worker, though.

Dugan says because he was born with one arm, football people told him he’d have a difficult time being a successful kicker because his weight distribution favors his right side.

But he has worked to create a balance to where weight distribution isn’t an issue.

As for his kicking ...

“In a little bit of time, once we work on fundamentals, he should have one of the biggest kicking legs in college football,” says COC special teams coach Sean Cheevers. “I need a little more time, but once we get things squared away, I’d be willing to put him up against everyone in the country.”

Tujague says because of the way Mannon works and his sense of humor, he has become a popular figure on the Cougars football team.

On top of that, he has another quality — tenacity.

He knew the question was coming: What happens if he needs to tackle someone on special teams?

His answer: “I’m going to tackle them. I’m going to knock some heads.”

In the future, Mannon says he wants to become a motivational speaker.

He wants to tell others that no matter what their adversity is, triumph is still possible.

Triumph is his intent at College of the Canyons and beyond. And it’s always been his intent.

“I have a story,” he says. “It’s not finished yet. I have to prove to people that just because you’re different doesn’t mean you should accept a ‘no.’”