Ohio State’s season of purpose

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, January 20th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the college football national championship.

Twenty-five million people are expected to be watching when the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish battle for the top prize.

In years past, the championship game falls earlier in January. But this year, the NC-doubleA allowed 12 teams to qualify for the playoffs … rather than the usual four.

If not for that change, the Buckeyes might’ve been watching tonight instead of playing.

REICHARD: But the new format isn’t the only unique thing about Ohio State’s season. Several players have made national headlines for their outspokenness about their Christian faith and their on-campus evangelism.

Last week while the team geared up for one of its last practices before the big game, WORLD’s Maria Baer talked with several of these players.

COMMENTATOR: It’s intercepted! Caleb Downs has got it… and Ohio State can start… celebrating a third consecutive playoff victory!

MARIA BAER: When Ohio State clinched their spot in the national championship, star running back TreVeyon Henderson gave an on-the-field interview right after the game.

HENDERSON: It feels good man. I truly gotta thank Him…

But he wasn’t looking into the camera. He was looking up.

HENDERSON: for what he’s done on this team, for what he’s done in my life, like. He laid down his life for every single one of us so we can have life, so we can know the Lord…

This OSU team had a roller-coaster season … but routinely made headlines for sharing their love of Jesus on and off the field. It started last August, when a handful of players led a worship service in the middle of campus.

SPEAKER: Whatever you’re going through in your life, whatever you been through, I’m telling you God desires you…

The event turned into a mini revival.

REPORTER: Stars like Emeka Ebuka, Gee Scott Jr., and Trey Henderson led thousands of people at an Invitation to Jesus event on campus, where more than 50 people were baptized.

Football players have been pointing skyward after touchdowns and thanking God for wins since the sport began.

But the faith of this year’s Ohio State football team seems deeper than gestures, or a sports-themed prosperity gospel. The team weathered some big setbacks, including a devastating loss to their arch-rivals the weekend after Thanksgiving. In Ohio it’s the “team up north.” A loss to the University of Michigan is almost worse than losing a championship. Rumors swirled that OSU’s head coach might be fired.

Between the ups and downs, Christian believers on the team kept holding Bible studies and praying together.

Last week they prepped for practice at their indoor fieldhouse on a bitterly cold day in Columbus. Star tight-end Gee Scott Jr. said he and his teammates prayed more for wisdom than for victory.

SCOTT: I think truly being surrendered to Christ is the ability to sit in some of the things that he has you going through and say Lord, what do you want me to learn from all of this? Some of the losses that we’ve had this year. So that’s why we don’t place our whole priority and our whole entire life in this game. He has a steadfast love that never changes.

For Christian college athletes, the pressure goes beyond the competition. There’s the normal social pressure — the college years are notoriously tough for Christian kids, especially at a secular school like Ohio State. For these football players, there’s the added pressures of fame and money.

Since 2021, college athletes have had the legal right to earn money off their name, image, or likeness. That means players get a check every time their jersey is sold, or their face and name is used in a video game. Many OSU players have signed endorsement deals and it’s rumored that some have made nearly 5 million dollars. .

Cornerback Lorenzo Styles, Jr. is a celebrity in his own right. By all accounts, he’s headed for a promising career in the national football league right after college. His father played in the NFL before him. Styles knows it can be a tumultuous job.

STYLES: In our sport, you have to have a reference point. If your reference point is measured in your success on the field, how much NIL money you’re getting, things of that nature, it’s easy to go up and down, so to find that support within the Lord has kept this team steady.

And then there’s the pressure of the game itself. Football is aggressive and physical, sometimes even between plays. Offensive Lineman Luke Montgomery knows that tension well. His job is literally to protect his Quarterback with his body.

MONTGOMERY: Football, at the end of the day it’s a big time hitting sport, and a lot of trash talking and stuff like that, I would be lying to you if I told you I don’t do that sometimes still, I still got some of that inside of me but that’s where I’ve got brothers beside me that can go hey knock it off.

During the Cotton Bowl, Montgomery was that brother beside his teammate Treveyon Henderson, the star running back who preached the gospel in his post-game interview. Henderson was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct in the first quarter. He threw a punch at a Texas player in anger after the whistle.

COMMENTATOR: He gets picked up, gives a little head butt, a little left hand into the face, I’m sure maybe a few things were said…

Montgomery stepped in.

MONTGOMERY: I was right there in his face telling him, calm down, you’re good, that’s not you, get back in the game, play the next play, worry about us not about them.

Montgomery and others said their relationship with Jesus influences not just how they play, but why.

MONTGOMERY: One of my favorite verses is do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will bring worry upon itself, I think especially when I say like the unknown… you just gotta be in the moment and continue to press on.

But don’t misunderstand. They still want to win. Here’s tight-end Gee Scott again:

SCOTT: I’m praying that He may receive the glory that He deserves, that’s my first prayer. And then the last thing is to be victorious. I’m not afraid to pray for victory.

BAER: You guys gonna win?

SCOTT: Yes!

You heard it here first.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Maria Baer in Columbus, O H-I O.

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