In the midst of fierce competition during the college football playoffs, a number of team leaders have made it clear that the glory of a national championship comes only second to their relationship with Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost I\u2019ve got to thank my lord and savior Jesus Christ for giving me this opportunity to be on this stage, here in the Rose Bowl,\u201d Ohio State University quarterback Will Howard told the media after the team\u2019s stunning upset win against No. 1 University of Oregon on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cA younger me would be in awe right now,\u201d the graduate student said. \u201cAnd I just got to take it all in and enjoy this with my boys and we got two more so we\u2019re not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The playoffs, which changed from a four-team to a 12-team bracket this year, run from Dec. 20 to Jan. 20.<\/p>\n
Two semifinal games will be played on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10. The University of Notre Dame will face off against Pennsylvania State University on Thursday. The University of Texas at Austin will play Ohio State University on Friday.<\/p>\n
After defeating the University of Georgia on Jan. 2, Notre Dame\u2019s quarterback Riley Leonard said: \u201cFirst and foremost I want to thank my lord and\u00a0savior\u00a0Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout him, I wouldn\u2019t be here, and we wouldn\u2019t be here as a whole group,\u201d the senior told the media after the quarterfinal game.<\/p>\n
Leonard called the fans \u201cincredible,\u201d adding that the team has more work\u00a0to do\u00a0to prepare for its semifinal matchup against Pennsylvania State University.<\/p>\n
Leonard was asked about his team\u2019s tough loss to unranked Northern Illinois University earlier in the season and Notre Dame\u2019s subsequent undefeated run. At the time of the loss to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame was ranked No. 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you trust in the Lord, anything can happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThis team fought every single week. That was the lowest of the low. But we had to trust beyond knowing. And we trusted this group and trusted our fans. Week in and week out we fought and it\u2019s finally paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus\u00a0bless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018God the creator\u2019<\/p>\n
In a Jan. 1 postgame press conference, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers was asked about his \u201cclutch\u201d performance that led to the team\u2019s 39-31 double-overtime win against Arizona State University. Ewers threw two touchdown passes in overtime that ended in two 25-plus-yard touchdowns, which sealed the quarterfinal win for Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you stay so calm?\u201d a reporter asked the junior quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we all stay calm,\u201d he continued.\u00a0\u201cAnd for all of us to stay calm it\u00a0kind of\u00a0starts with me.\u00a0And I\u00a0just\u00a0try to be that calm within the storm for all the guys.\u00a0And I think that my relationship with Jesus has helped me in that specific way of knowing that no matter what happens,\u00a0that he\u2019s\u00a0going to\u00a0be there for me. He\u2019s still going to love me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior\u00a0defensive back Jahdae Barron\u00a0was asked by a reporter\u00a0about his thoughts on Ewers\u2019 performance.<\/p>\n
Barron spoke of a culture-building activity that the team did prior to the game where they wrote on cards.<\/p>\n
Barron said he wrote that \u201cQuinn is going to play fast and the reason he\u2019s going to play fast is because of God the creator. He\u2019s going to give all his worries, everything he has and doubt, and he\u2019s just going to give it to [God], and it\u2019s just going to allow him to play free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what Quinn did,\u201d Barron said. \u201cWhen our backs were against the wall, he just kept fighting. He made some big-time plays in those three throws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach introduced him to\u00a0Jesus<\/p>\n
Following Boise State University\u2019s 31-14 quarterfinal loss to Penn State on Dec. 31, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said: \u201cNo matter what, win, lose, or draw, I\u2019m going\u00a0to always give Jesus\u00a0the glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so blessed to be the head coach here. And we do serve a champion. And I do know God never says \u2018oops,\u2019\u201d he added at a postgame press conference with some\u00a0of the\u00a0players and media.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs hard as tonight is as a competitor and as a coach, I do believe we learn and grow from everything. And the best is still to come for our team, for these players, our seniors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told every single one of them in the locker room that. God has an amazing plan for your life. Never settle for less than that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Senior defensive end Ahmed Hassanein from Cairo, Egypt, said at the press conference: \u201cFirst I want to start\u00a0off\u00a0and say all glory to Jesus Christ. He is the true champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning to his coach, Hassanein said: \u201cCoach D., you changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou changed my life. I did not know God until I got to Boise State. And I serve\u00a0a\u00a0true champion. Jesus Christ is the only true God. He died and rose from the dead three days later. That\u2019s the champion that I serve. Thank you Coach D. Like seriously, you changed my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Junior running back Ashton Jeanty, who fell just 27 yards short of breaking the NCAA all-time single-season rushing record, said: \u201cFirst of all, all glory to God for bringing us this far, for helping us restore the order this year. We couldn\u2019t have done it without him. Keeping God first is what got us here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this season has been a blessing,\u201d he added. \u201cGod\u2019s favor has been upon me and all my teammates all year. And I\u2019m just thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the midst of fierce competition during the college football playoffs, a number of team leaders have made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-3508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}